Lando Norris was “not proud” of his Sprint victory in
Brazil, gifted to him by Oscar Piastri, but Mark Webbers says that “charity
victory” is part of the sport.
Norris went into the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend 47
points behind Max Verstappen in the race for the 2024 F1 World title, and by
the end of Saturday’s Sprint he was only 44 adrift.
‘Charity win’ for Lando Norris but it’s part of the
sport, says Mark Webber
Although Norris set the pace in Sprint qualifying’s first
two sessions, when it came down to the crunch it was his team-mate Oscar
Piastri who grabbed pole position by 0.029s.
McLaren didn’t hide the intentions for the Sprint with
Piastri giving a clear “yes” when asked if he would relinquish the win to his
team-mate if it came down to it.
“I’ve said I would from when we first had these
discussions,” he added. “It would be nice to win, but it’s one point different
and it’s not the main race, so we’ll see.”
The Australian driver led off the line and even began to
pull away from Norris before being asked to give his team-mate the DRS to help
him keep Charles Leclerc and Verstappen behind him.
But after Verstappen overtook Leclerc and the VSC was
waved for Nico Hulkenberg’s stranded Haas, McLaren made the call for the two to
swap positions. Norris raced to the win with Piastri second while Verstappen
was penalised for a VSC infringement and dropped to fourth behind Leclerc.
“Oscar drove well and he deserved to win,” Norris
admitted after the Sprint. “I’m
not proud of winning a Sprint race – or any race – like this, so I
thank Oscar and the team.”
“But that’s our objective,” he added. “It’s what we have
to work towards as a team. We get the points in the Constructors’ and I get the
points in the Drivers’ and that’s our target.”
Webber, who manages Piastri, admits it wasn’t an easy call for Piastri to receive but it was the right one for the team.
