Motor racing-Norris wins Sao Paulo sprint to cut Verstappen's F1 lead
Norris wins sprint in McLaren one-two
Piastri obeys team orders to hand over lead
Verstappen third but demoted to fourth
Championship lead cut to 44 points from 47
Adds Verstappen penalty, drops to fourth
By Gabriel Araujo
SAO PAULO, Nov 2 (Reuters) -Lando Norris cut Max Verstappen's Formula One lead to 44 points after his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri obeyed orders and gifted the Briton a sprint-race victory in Sao Paulo on Saturday.
Piastri had started on poleposition and led until handing over two laps from the end after Red Bull's Verstappen had passedFerrari's Charles Leclerc for third and became an increasing threat.
The switch came just before a virtual safety car (VSC) period left a tense final lap with Australian Piastri crossing the line 0.593 behind Norris in a one-two finish.
Verstappen finished third, 0.904 further adrift, but was handed a five-second penalty for a VSC infringement that dropped him back behind Leclerc. The triple champion was also given a penalty point.
"Oscar drove well and he deserved the win today. I’m not proud of winning a sprint race or any race like this, so I thank Oscar and the team," said Norris, who started second on the grid.
"But it’s our objective, it’s what we have to work towards as a team. We get the points in the constructors’ and I get the points in the drivers’. That’s our target."
Piastri's race engineer thanked the Australian, who is out of title contention, over the radio for his "massive support to the team".
McLaren are now 34 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' standings after a gain of five.
Verstappen and Leclerc had a lively battle for third before the Red Bull overtook on the 18th of 24 laps and Nico Hulkenberg then triggered the virtual safety car by stopping by the side of the track in a smouldering Haas on lap 21.
It was the first time this season that Verstappen has been beaten in a sprint and he will also have a five-place grid penalty for Sunday's race due to exceeding his engine allocation.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was fifth, with George Russell sixth for Mercedes and Pierre Gasly seventh for Renault-owned Alpine while Mexican Sergio Perez secured the final point in eighth for Red Bull ahead of RB's Liam Lawson.
The main Sao Paulo Grand Prix is on Sunday, with qualifying later on Saturday.
The race started with all drivers on the medium tyre and Piastri leading Norris away with Leclerc holding on to third place.
Piastri showed no sign of moving aside, despite Norris saying over the radio that he was close and then sounding impatient.
"I'm not sure what we're doing here, mate," he said after slipping out of DRS range. "I thought we spoke about this."
Piastri was told on lap 10 to give Norris, under threat from Leclerc, a drag reduction tow and McLaren then informed both drivers on lap 16 that they were happy to hold position until the last lap.
The danger of a virtual safety car putting Verstappen right on their tail changed that position.
"Ideally, you would do it earlier but the situation never materialised for this being done in a safe situation," said team boss Andrea Stella.
"Because as soon as you swap you would have the guy in the third that has the possibility to overtake a McLaren, and this wouldn’t fit our principle that the team result comes first."
Writing by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Jason Neely, Clare Fallon and Pritha Sarkar
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
