Piastri dismissive after contact with Norris: 'A difficult race'

Oscar Piastri pushed aside questions regarding hist first lap contact with teammate Lando Norris, instead choosing to focus on McLaren's Constructors' Championship success.

Celebrations were in order following the Woking-based outfit's second successive Constructors' crown, but Piastri was notably muted after 62 laps of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Starting from third on the grid, the Australian racer was passed by Norris in the opening few corners and fell to P4. Norris briefly lost rear grip from his MCL39 and barged into the side of Piastri at Turn 3, which the latter didn't take to kindly.

Despite protesting to his race engineer Tom Stallard, Piastri wasn't allowed back past Norris and remained in fourth place right to the chequered flag.

McLaren's Success Matters More

McLaren are now 325 points ahead of nearest rivals Mercedes in the Standings, and therefore cannot be caught in the Constructors' Championship with six rounds remaining in the season.

In the heat of the moment, Piastri questioned Norris' audacious maneuver and the subsequent contact.

"That wasn't very team-like, but sure..." he said over the radio, adding shortly after: "Are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way?"

But speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, the championship leader chose to focus on this achievement rather than his incident with Norris.

"Obviously a difficult race, a difficult first lap. I’ve not seen the replay. I just know from in car, so I’ll go and have a look," he said.

"It’s obviously a great night for the whole team. Obviously not the race I was looking for, but for the whole team, tonight is the culmination of a lot of hard work from not just this year, but lots of years.

"It’s a really proud moment for me to be a part of that and a proud moment for the whole team," reflected Piastri.

Piastri Reflects on a Lacklustre Race

Pushed for answers to questions regarding the contact with his teammate, Piastri offered a neutral response.

He stated: "I don’t think there was any intention of contact, but there was, and I need to look at the replay and see what exactly happened.

"I don’t know. I’ve not seen the incident from the tv camera. I need to look at that first before I say anything," Piastri added.

After crashing out on the opening lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix two weeks ago, Piastri has now endured two Grands Prix in a row with subpar success.

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When asked how he thinks he will reset his bearings before the United States Grand Prix in a fortnight's time, Piastri responded positively.

He continued: "I think just take the learnings from this weekend and see what can be improved. I think the weekend as a whole was generally very good.

"Practice went well, qualifying went well, the race I was maybe a little bit slow to get going, but I feel like the pace was pretty good," concluded the McLaren driver.

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