Norris and Piastri share their views after McLaren pair make contact on first lap in Singapore

McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have shared their initial reactions after dramatically banging wheels on the first lap of Sunday night’s Singapore Grand Prix.

While Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen maintained P1 and P2 through the opening sequence of corners, there was drama behind when a fast-starting Norris boldly attacked Piastri.

Norris went so deep at Turn 3 that he tagged the back of Verstappen’s car, before making contact with Piastri’s sister McLaren and emerging in third position – much to his team mate’s frustration.

“Yeah, I mean that wasn’t very teamlike, but sure,” Piastri commented over the radio, before adding: “So, are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way?”

After the race, which Norris and Piastri finished in third and fourth respectively, both the Briton and the Australian gave their version of events when speaking to the media.

“I mean it was slippery, it was still wet in a lot of places,” said Norris of the start and incident that followed. “It’s racing. I put it on the inside, I had a small correction, but nothing more than that. It was good racing.”

Piastri was reluctant to offer much more following his radio comments, simply saying: “I need to go and look at it. Obviously there was contact, which is never ideal, but I’ll go and have a look at the replays.”

That contact aside, it was a momentous day for McLaren thanks to Norris and Piastri’s combined points haul securing back-to-back Teams’ Championships – the first time the squad have achieved that feat since the early-1990s.

“I’m obviously very proud of the whole team,” added Piastri. “This is one of the two objectives we set out to achieve every year, so to achieve it with this many races to go is very, very impressive.”

“I gave it my all today,” added Norris, having just fallen short of overhauling Verstappen for second. “I got close, a few chances where we were side-by-side, and some good little bits of battling, but it’s just too difficult to overtake.

“It’s a shame, because the pace was very strong today, and I would have loved to try and catch George and give him a little bit more pressure.

“I’m happy with today. I got forward two positions, we won as a team the Constructors’ once again, so I’m most happy about that.”

F1 will now roll on to Austin for the United States Grand Prix, with Piastri leading Norris by a reduced margin of 22 points in the Drivers’ Championship, and Verstappen cutting his deficit to 63 points.