Lando Norris ceded victory to McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the Sprint race in Qatar, a move hailed as “brilliance” by team boss Andrea Stella.

Norris led the Sprint race from the start to the last corner but eased off the throttle past the finish line to allow Piastri through to take the win and repeat his Sprint victory from last season at the same venue.

Andrea Stella: McLaren swap was something Lando Norris wanted to do

With McLaren gunning for the Constructors’ Championship, a 1-2 finish in the Sprint race only solidified the Woking-based team’s position heading into the final two Grands Prix of the season.

It led to a Sprint race of deft control from Norris who, from pole, controlled the pace up front – instead of trying to scamper away from the pack, he held back to give his teammate DRS by staying less than a second ahead.

Piastri having use of the DRS lap after lap allowed him to hold off the attentions of George Russell – something Piastri admitted would have been very difficult without the use of the overtaking aid in defence.

To top off the successful demonstration of teamwork, Norris then released Piastri into the lead across the line, returning the favour that the Australian had extended to Norris last month in Brazil’s Sprint race as Piastri let Norris through to win as the British driver remained Max Verstappen’s closest challenger in the title race.

Radio messages revealed that McLaren, who were aware of Norris’ desire to give Piastri back a victory, told Norris to maintain the 1-2 in their original order, fearing the possibility of something going wrong and allowing Russell to capitalise. But Norris ignored this instruction to generously give up his win, with the McLaren man judging the swap perfectly to ease Piastri past him.

Asked about the radio message from race engineer Will Joseph to hold position, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella told media, including PlanetF1.com, why the team had erred on the side of caution.

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“We told Lando to finish in that order because, effectively, we wanted to take the pressure off Lando as to ‘we need to execute this swap’, which, like I say, was something that Lando wanted to do,” Stella explained.

“The translation was like, ‘Lando, don’t feel like you have to do it, OK? We can do it another time, but let’s just make sure that we don’t negate the fatigue we have done so far to keep Russell behind, and we create a bit of a situation while we swap’.

“Then, actually, when I saw from the [front-on] camera, it looked quite tight, but actually there was much more margin than we thought.

“The drivers from inside the cockpit, sometimes they judge the situation better than what we can do so and also, there’s a language, there’s a communication style – if it was an instruction, it would have come across as a proper instruction. For us, it was more like a way of taking the pressure off him.”

With Norris having put in a masterful display of racecraft from start to finish, Stella praised his driver’s efforts.

“Today, I think it was a piece of brilliance from Lando, because he effectively spent more time watching the mirrors than watching ahead,” he said.

“I would highlight that it was also quite precise and gave us a bit of nervousness when we swapped the position at the end because it seemed much closer than it actually was, but we appreciated the fact that Lando wanted to return the favour that Oscar did for Lando in Brazil.

“That was the plan before the Sprint, it is something that Lando prompted himself but then, from the pitwall, a little tricky with Russell so close to Oscar.”

With Norris ceding position to Piastri and returning the favour extended to him in a sportsmanlike fashion, Stella said the swap harkened back to when McLaren’s infamous ‘Papaya Rules’ came into effect earlier this season.

With McLaren attempting to help Norris’ title bid, the Woking squad introduced mild team orders which would see Piastri move aside for Norris when the situation allowed for it – leading to the eventual Brazil swap.

“This was part of our wider conversation, that when we said we would support Lando in his quest for the Drivers’ Championship,” Stella said, “we were clear among ourselves that, had there been the opportunity to return any kind of concession or support, then this should be done in the situation that is fundamentally equivalent in the one in which the concession happened.

“I think the Sprint is perfect from this point of view, because one of the concessions by Oscar happened in the Sprint, swapping a P1 for a P2 and today, exactly the same could be returned.”

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