McLaren Formula One driver Lando Norris has credited his teammate, Oscar Piastri’s selflessness in the 2024 Australia Grand Prix after he was let through mid-race and eventually finished in third place.
The McLarens were in reaching distance of a memorable finish at Albert Park with Piastri in third and Norris right behind in fourth before a call was made to switch the cars around in order to try and chase the Ferraris at the front of the pack.
Piastri, who had the chance to become the first Australian to ever finish on the podium in their home country, selflessly let his teammate through without a fight and fell one spot short of the alluded top-three position.
Speaking after the race, Norris admitted whilst he was confident he was always going to get past Piastri, he was very thankful for his teammate’s help in making it a smooth process.
“Well it depends how you look at it. I was a lot quicker and would’ve overtaken him anyway,” Norris said post-race.
“It’s just (that) you don’t want to delay the process of that happening and the longer I kind of spent behind him the worse it was making my chance of catching Charles (Leclerc).
“I don’t think the result changed at all, he made my life easier and I think helped us as a team and for that I thank him for a lot.”
Norris and Piastri have had a stellar combination on the track since their first appearance at the start of 2023 and the respect level between the pair seems to be continually growing.
“We have a lot of respect for each other in these kind of situations but I don’t think the result changed at all,” Norris added.
“For any driver racing in front of their home fans, you want to be on the podium, so I don’t want to take anything away from that and what Oscar has provided in helping the team.”
Norris and Piastri will be after more points in two-weeks’ time when F1 heads to Japan.