McLaren to hold clear-the-air talks after 'aggressive' move on Lando Norris
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris came close to the limit during their Italian Grand Prix battle.
Zak Brown has explained that he and team principal Andrea Stella will chat with Oscar Piastri after the young Australian made an 'aggressive' move on Lando Norris on the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix.
Norris managed to defend his pole position into the treacherous Turn One, but Piastri didn't back down, launching an ambitious move around the outside at the Della Roggia chicane.
The 23-year-old pulled off the move and left Norris scrapping to keep control of his McLaren machine. Caught off guard, the Brit's exit from the corner was compromised, and Charles Leclerc also squeezed past, relegating him to P3.
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In a post-race interview with Sky Sports F1, Brown laid out his view. "It was an aggressive move, but I've not spoken with them yet," he explained. "We'll talk about that.
"I thought the start was great and that was kind of what we'd discussed... get behind the other and fan out to make sure that nobody else could get by. But I think Lando was probably caught by surprise by that move. [He was] thinking let's just tuck into a one-two and see if we can pull a bit of a gap, so it is something that we will discuss internally."
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When quizzed about the matter, the two drivers disagreed. Norris labelled his team-mate's move as "way too close for comfort", but Piastri batted off these concerns, stating that he thought the overtake was well-executed.
An interesting team debrief awaits the pair. Stella confirmed that an internal review would take place in his Sky Sports F1 interview, but refused to come down on either side of the debate.
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He said: "In terms of expectation and the impression of the drivers, and also the overtaking itself, we will have to take a look with some calm, have a review together with them, and then we will assess the situation. And if there’s any learning to take from that, we will take it for the future."
While Norris was frustrated to only come away with a third-place finish, he did steal the fastest lap for the second race running, and in doing so cut the deficit to Max Verstappen to just 62 points heading into what promises to be an eventful two-race stretch in Baku and Singapore.
