The Lando Norris of Singapore should scare Oscar Piastri

When Lando Norris surged into third place on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix, he sent Oscar Piastri a message — loud and clear.

Make no mistake: the Australian remains the favourite to clinch a maiden F1 drivers' championship come the finale in Abu Dhabi and will undoubtedly take some beating. But that was a statement performance from his McLaren team-mate.

For much of the evening, Norris was the fastest driver on track, even in a slightly wounded MCL39.

Overtaking Max Verstappen was always going to be a tall order — especially in Singapore — but getting past Piastri was imperative.

The nine-time grand prix winner managed exactly that, for better or for worse, and was measured and mature after his first lap skirmish with the Red Bull (and sister McLaren) to bring home what was likely the best result he could have hoped for.

Piastri, in turn, saw his advantage over the British driver trimmed to 22 points under the lights of the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Still, Norris has serious work to do over the remaining six grands prix — and three sprints — if he's to successfully wrestle title glory away from the 24-year-old.

As evidenced in the Southeast Asian city-state, Norris needs to improve in qualifying. Fifth position on the grid was plainly not good enough, and something that was a strength last season has been warped into a relative weakness and liability this campaign — in large part due to Piastri's impressive leap forward in one-lap pace.

Norris remains marginally the quicker driver on pure speed, but that counts for little when you can't deliver when the pressure is at its apex and it matters most.

The pair have long insisted that this championship will come down to who makes the fewest mistakes, and it is nigh on impossible to argue that Norris is the less error-prone of the two.

However, the aggressive, forceful Norris, who showed up in Singapore — a driver unafraid to seize an opportunity by the scruff of its neck and not apologise in doing so — should scare Piastri.

The incident

Say what you want about the incident involving the McLaren team-mates at Turn 3, and there has been plenty of division on the subject in the wake of the race, but Norris demonstrated the very assertiveness and audacity he has long been called to display.

He grabbed the bull by the horns, and he got his elbows out, two things he has been criticised for not doing in the past. He was decisive. What more do you want from him?

It is precisely how Norris needs to be if he is to close the deficit to Piastri over the final few rounds — and also stave off Verstappen, who is undeniably a factor in the title fight. Nothing less will cut it.

In some respects, it's helpful to judge the means, not the ends, when it comes to these things. What was Norris' intention? It certainly wasn't to hit anyone, let alone Piastri.

The frustration with the outcome is understandable, especially given what happened in Canada, even if that only hurt Norris. But in the interest of fairness, Piastri has twice come precariously and perilously close to initiating contact between them, in Austria and in Hungary.

It was a polarising moment; there is no getting past that. Norris misjudged the gap to Verstappen — he admitted that himself — and that triggered the contact with Piastri as a direct consequence.

But it was simply a concertina effect, and not the deliberate banging of wheels the Australian driver believed it to be in the initial aftermath.

Plus, he would have made the move stick regardless, given Piastri was on the dirty part of the asphalt and struggling for traction.

After the race, Norris argued that any driver who wouldn’t have taken that chance "shouldn't be in Formula 1", and he's right.

Lesson learned — or not

Nonetheless, battle lines have been drawn — at least online — and the space for nuance has been reduced to less than the room between Norris' MCL39 and Verstappen's RB21.

However, that is ultimately all for nought. How McLaren handles the two drivers — and the fallout — matters, but wild conspiracy theories about favouritism within the Woking-based squad do not. Such suggestions are overblown and not rooted in reality.

McLaren has long maintained it would intervene when the team is at fault — as was the case at Monza — but not when a driver makes a mistake, or is the victim of misfortune, as seen in Zandvoort.

Like the FIA, the papaya outfit deemed Norris' actions to be acceptable and thus did not interfere with the running order of its two drivers in Singapore.

What McLaren was guilty of, however, was again trying to overmanage them and overengineer how the race developed thereafter.

In getting ahead, Norris had earned pit stop priority, and McLaren asking if he was happy for Piastri to be brought in first underlines that the team has not learned from the debacle at the Italian Grand Prix.

Thankfully, Norris has, so when Piastri, who was ultimately pitted second after his team-mate denied McLaren's request, had a slow stop, there wasn't a repeat of the messy situation from two rounds prior.

It was refreshingly uncompromising from Norris, who laid down a marker for Piastri to match. The question is, will he?

Time for the gloves to come off

Given Piastri's perspective on his clash with Norris, he was understandably aggrieved at the time.

He made his view of the incident perfectly clear over team radio, something he has been criticised for in some quarters, given the tone of this discontent.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, however, reiterated the constructors' champion's stance that its drivers should make their feelings known and express their emotions freely, in no uncertain terms. The Australian did just that.

What is considerably more fair game to call out is that Piastri was caught completely off guard by Norris. He simply was not expecting his team-mate to be so aggressive.

Labelling him complacent or naïve would be a step too far, but it was a wake-up call for Piastri, and now it is all about how he responds and how quickly he can match the reinvigorated Norris.

We know the championship leader can fight fire with fire; we've seen that in his battles with Verstappen earlier in the year. He merely has to bring that energy and intensity to the intra-team fight.

If he can't, he could be in trouble.

The constructors' title is wrapped up. Now is the time for the gloves to come off.

Norris got the memo, will Piastri?