Oscar Piastri issues ‘quite clear’ verdict on Lando Norris clash

Oscar Piastri has revealed that the opening lap incident between he and Lando Norris in Singapore went against the team’s racing ethos.

Norris bumped into Piastri as they negotiated Turn 3 in Marina Bay for the first time, costing the championship leader third place.

Oscar Piastri reveals Lando Norris was deemed at fault in Singapore

McLaren refused to intervene in the incident mid-race which clearly left Piastri aggrieved, but resolved to discuss it after the flag.

As part of that process, the Australian revealed their Turn 3 clash was not how the team wants to go racing.

“We had a lot of discussions, as you would expect, and very productive,” he told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media.

“I think we’re very clear on how we want to go racing as a team, and that includes going forward, and the incident we had in Singapore isn’t how we want to go racing.

“Lando has taken responsibility for that and so have the team, so I think it’s quite clear for us as a team that how Lap 1 unfolded wasn’t how we want to go racing.”

After being bundled aside in Marina Bay, Piastri was unable to recover and ended the race fourth. It saw his championship advantage reduced by another three points with Norris third behind George Russell and Max Verstappen.

It wasn’t the first time Piastri has appeared to have received the short straw on track, having been asked to move aside for Norris after a slow stop during the Italian Grand Prix cost him a place in Monza.

In that instance, he acquiesced and ended up finishing third behind Verstappen and Norris.

Piastri insists that he does not feel there is any bias towards the other side of the garage, and understands the reasons for the lack of action from the pit wall despite acknowledgement of Norris’ overstep in Singapore.

“In a live situation, it’s very, very difficult to analyse that,” Piastri said when asked why the team did not redress the issue at the time. “Assessing whether swapping would have been the right thing to do in that scenario is very tough, so we’ve sat through it and talked through it kind of out of the heat of the moment, and discussed what happened and with a few more points of data and stuff like that.

“Ultimately, I don’t think you can really say what would have been fair to do in the race, but yeah, ultimately, the responsibility has been put on Lando after the race.”

Norris acknowledged his part in the incident when he fronted the media in Austin.

“The team held me accountable for what happened, which I think is fair, and then we made progress from there on understanding what the repercussions were for me and on avoiding something, let’s say, definitely avoiding anything worse happening than what did,” Norris said.

“This is the last thing I want, something like that to happen to cause these kind of controversial talks after a race.

“At the same time, I put just as much risk on me putting myself out of the race, as I do whoever I’m racing against, whether it’s Oscar or anyone else. So it’s clearly something I want to avoid.”

With neither car damaged in the clash, and Norris and Piastri going on to bank third and fourth respectively, it was enough to confirm McLaren as Constructors’ Championship for the second consecutive year.

However, with Verstappen second to the flag behind Russell, the Dutchman edged closer in the Drivers’ fight to remain an outside chance at stealing the title from the McLaren duo.

Piastri continues to lead the points standings, his advantage now 22 points over Norris with Verstappen 41 points further back.

Six races, and three Sprints, remain in F1 2026, including this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

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