SINGAPORE — Martin Brundle says McLaren will be "pretty upset" after an intra-team collision between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri cost the team vital Formula 1 world championship points in the Singapore Grand Prix sprint race. On the final lap of Saturday's incident-packed 20-lap sprint, reigning world champion Norris wiped out teammate Piastri with a late lunge for fourth place at Turn 5, sending Piastri spinning into the barriers and dropping Norris to eighth before he recovered to claim the final point on offer.
The incident proved costly in the constructors' championship, where Red Bull now sits just 11 points behind third-placed McLaren after Max Verstappen claimed a convincing victory in the sprint. Giving his verdict to Sky Sports F1, Brundle said the move was not worth the risk: "I think the team will be pretty upset that they ended up meeting in the middle at Turn 5 on the last lap of the sprint when they are in a big fight in the constructors' championship with Red Bull. They were outscoring Red Bull in that race," Brundle said. "It just wasn't really necessary. It doesn't really matter what the rules are, they didn't need to make contact there. It's difficult. They can't afford the parts, they can't afford the points and now they are up in the stewards' office which will destabilise their preparation. No doubt they'll be some broken bits on both cars as well. It just wasn't worth the risk. But they are racers, they are hard-wired to do that."
Norris risks losing his points-paying position after being summoned to the FIA race stewards. "In the last lap, there was a big opportunity into Turn 5, so I went for it," Norris said afterwards. "The gap closed a bit more than I would have liked, and obviously I've had to back out of it because the gap was closing, so I've had to try and avoid the incident. And obviously there still was one. But it was a big gap, so I went for it. I have the right to do that. The rest, we go review as a team." Piastri appeared unbothered, saying: "I need to look at it. I didn't see him at the apex. I looked behind into the corner and saw he was a reasonable way behind for a corner like that but I'll have a look and the team can do what it needs to do."
McLaren had been outscoring Red Bull in the sprint before the contact at Turn 5, but the collision limited its haul to a single point and left both cars with damage heading into stewards review. The setback tightens the fight for third in the standings with Red Bull closing to within 11 points, adding pressure to McLaren's preparation for the remainder of the Singapore weekend following Verstappen's victory in the Singapore sprint.