‘Clearly just hard racing’ – McLaren's Brown and Stella give verdict on Norris/Piastri contact in Singapore

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has reiterated "we’re letting them race" after an opening lap collision between drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Woking-based team claimed back-to-back Constructors' titles under the floodlights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit having taken third and fourth with Norris and Piastri respectively in Sunday's race.

It marks the first time since 1991 that McLaren has taken two Teams' titles on the bounce, but the success came amid contact between title rivals Norris and Piastri on the opening lap.

"They’ve driven brilliantly all season. You can’t win the Constructors’ without two awesome racing drivers," said Brown immediately post-race.

"As you can see, we’re letting them race. That was a bit more of a nail-biter there, but they race hard, they race clean, they race to win.

"A lot of racing to go, and hopefully some more victories for both of them."

The incident occurred as Norris put his car up the inside of Piastri into the Turn 3 left-hander on the first lap, the Briton making minor contact with Verstappen directly ahead and damaging his front wing that he would carry throughout the race.

At the same time, Norris drifted wide and made wheel-to-wheel contact with Piastri on the outside, forcing the Drivers' Championship leader to back off to avoid the wall and eventually slot in behind his team mate.

Piastri was left annoyed over the radio at the move and asked whether the positions would be reversed having given a position back to Norris during the Italian GP.

McLaren decided against this, with the stewards also taking no further action, but Brown admitted that it would be reviewed internally.

"I think like all race weekends you review everything," he told Sky Sports F1.

"First corner, looks like Max and Lando either touched or had to check up and so it was clearly an exciting Turn 3 incident. Racing, tough racing and you've got three, four cars all stacked up, that's going to happen every once in a while.

"So we'll look at it in more depth on Monday but clearly just hard racing."

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella admitted that the 'papaya rules' which have dictated how Norris and Piastri have battled so far this year for their first Drivers' title would not change, even with the Constructors' crown secured and six races left.

"First of all we have to put everything into perspective. It's comments from a driver in an F1 car, there's the heat of the moment," he told Sky Sports F1.

"The information that is available is just his point of view and this is Lando moving on to him.

"I think as usual we have good conversations, we will build from there and come back stronger.

"This has been the whole process as we said before on building together a strong team which the drivers are a great foundational part."