Martin Brundle: “Ground rules have changed” in McLaren title battle

Martin Brundle believes the “ground rules have changed” between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the F1 title battle.

After a harmonious intra-team title duel so far this season, tension between Piastri and Norris ramped up after the pair clashed on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Norris finished third ahead of Piastri after pulling off a punchy overtake at Turn 3 that saw him tap the back of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, before sliding into title rival and teammate Piastri.

McLaren opted against getting involved and taking any action, which angered Piastri, who implied the team’s famous ‘Papaya Rules’ had not been followed by Norris.

"That's not fair. I'm sorry, that's not fair,” Piastri protested over team radio. "If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that's a pretty **** job of avoiding."

With Piastri’s lead over Norris cut to just 22 points with six races remaining, Sky Sports F1 co-commentator Brundle reckons the dynamic between the McLaren duo will now shift.

"I think the ground rules between the two McLarens have just changed for the rest of the season,” Brundle said.

"I thought it was punchy, opportunistic, aggressive, but this is a motor race. The ground rules have just been reset.

"I can't see how McLaren would swap that round or how they could justify [swapping] it.

"But Oscar will say, 'ok, then, that's it. That's how we're going racing.’"

Sky Sports F1 pundit Jenson Button felt Norris had done nothing wrong.

"It's racing. He’s side by side. He had the little tap into the back of the Red Bull of Max and he's got a bit of oversteer, which is quite unusual,” the 2009 world champion said.

“I think it just shows how low the grip was. He didn't purposefully try to push him in the wall.

"It's not like he drove him into the wall. It's not like he drove all the way to the wall hoping that Oscar would hit the wall or disappear. It was halfway through the corner, he had a snap of oversteer.

"If I was Oscar, I would be like, 'ah, my team-mate got the better of me there!' And that's it.”

Fellow pundit Jamie Chadwick added: "I can see that from Oscar's cockpit, he's not seen the whole sequence of events, but it's such low grip and Lando had to go for it. There was a gap there.

"He misjudged it a little bit and clipped the back of Max, which gave him a bit of front-wing damage and then sent him into Oscar."

What the McLaren drivers said

Norris rejected claims he was aggressive with Piastri and insisted any other driver would have done the same.

"I think the start was good – the right-hand side of the grid was good," he said.

"I think it was a good launch as well. So I got across and put myself in a good position to not get checked up out of Turn 1 and into Turn 2. And I just had a big gap on the inside of Oscar.

"And it was just very close. It was still slippery because it was still damp in places and drying out. And I think I just clipped the back of Max's car and that's just given me a little correction.

"But then that was it. So yeah, good in terms of I got two positions. And if I didn't get them there, I probably would never have got them.

"Just because like we saw, it was too difficult to overtake. So the aggression there and the forward-thinking was paid off. I hit Max, so it wasn't aggressive on my team-mate.”

Meanwhile, Piastri dodged giving a clear verdict on his clash with Norris.

"Obviously a difficult race, difficult first lap, but I've not seen the replay obviously," he told Sky Sports F1. ”I just know from in-car, so I'll go and have a look, but 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 a culmination of a lot of hard work over not just this year but lots of years, so it's a really proud moment for me to be a part of that and a proud moment for the whole team."

Asked if he agreed with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown’s comments that both drivers “race hard and clean”, Piastri replied: “Yes, I think we do.

“I don't think obviously there was any intention of contact, but there was and again I need to look at the replay and see what exactly happened.”