Norris 'not proud' after Piastri Brazilian sprint gift

Lando Norris declared himself "not proud" after being handed his São Paulo sprint victory on a silver platter by McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Piastri led from pole position through to lap 21 of the 24-lap race at Interlagos. On lap 22, the Australian moved aside to allow Norris to go on and take the chequered flag.

With Red Bull's Max Verstappen third, it means Norris has cut the lead at the top of the drivers' standings to the three-time champion to 45 points, with 112 up for grabs.

From a front-row lock-out, spearheaded by Piastri, and with the duo maintaining their one-two throughout the race despite Norris coming under occasional pressure from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, it was always going to be a case of when and not if the positions were reversed.

Reflecting on the 'gift' from Piastri, albeit after the questioner had congratulated Piastri on the win, Norris said: "We've helped each other over the last two years for different things.

"It's one of our strengths, that we work very well as a team. I don't think there's probably any other team on the grid that works as well. So I'm proud about that.

"We're fighting for a constructors', and we're fighting for a drivers' [championship], and we want to help the whole team achieve both of these goals. Obviously, from a drivers' point of view, it puts us in a slightly different position.

"I'm not proud to win a race like I did today. You congratulated Oscar on the win. It's not how I want to win. I'm not proud of it.

"I'll work hard to go and do a better job in quali later and put myself in a better position for the race, but we want to avoid it as much as we can.

"At the same time, we sign up for this. We have to work together as a team, we got told what to do. We have a boss, and we do the best we can to help each other out."

Piastri felt his actions "demonstrated what the short and long-term objectives are".

He added: "The long-term objectives are to win everything we can. That's quite clear. And in the short term, there are two championships at stake, and I'm really only involved in one. That's where I sit with it."