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Race Drama Mars Team Celebration

The controversial moment that is bound to create issues at McLaren occurred when Norris moved aggressively the inside of Piastri after making a good start from P5 on the grid.

Norris was caught out by Verstappen decelerating more than he anticipated in the middle of Turn Three.

Norris made contact with the Red Bull, damaging the McLaren's front wing endplate, and that caused him to deflect side-on into Piastri, whose momentum was checked, enabling Norris to move ahead into P3.

Driver Communications Show Increasing Friction

Piastri said over the team communication: "That wasn't very team-like, but sure."

Shortly afterwards, he added: "Is it acceptable that Lando just pushing me out of the way?"

His engineer replied that the team were "reviewing the situation", before following up to tell Piastri that they would take "no action" in the race because "Norris needed to evade Verstappen" and that they would "review it afterwards".

Title Race Impact

• Piastri's championship lead over Norris was reduced to twenty-two points with six races remaining
• Verstappen has also closed in and is sixty-three points behind of the championship lead
• McLaren secured their second consecutive constructors' title

Race Summary

George Russell dominated the race at the front on his way to a commanding victory, very much in the manner of his victory in Canada back in June.

Verstappen chose to start the race on softer compound rather than the medium compound on most other cars in the top 10, but the strategy did not pay off and Russell easily held the lead at the beginning before building a significant advantage.

"The track conditions were challenging, but it's racing. I took the inner line, had a small correction but nothing significant. It was hard but fair competition." - Lando Norris

Midfield Battle

Mercedes' rookie Kimi Antonelli secured P5, overtaking Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on lap 54 as the Ferrari lost performance, and then holding off Lewis Hamilton in the final stages.

Fernando Alonso delivered a strong performance to take eighth as the best midfield runner.

The Spaniard and Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar engaged in close combat in the opening stages, Alonso passing Hadjar into the initial turn to take P8, before the Frenchman regained the position later in the lap, only for Alonso to pass again on lap three.