Oscar Piastri defiant over Lando Norris decision that could decide F1 title

Oscar Piastri says he would have "no regrets" if he were to lose the F1 drivers' title to Lando Norris as a result of his decision to follow team orders in the Italian Grand Prix. 

With both McLarens opting to run long and fit the soft tyres at Monza, Piastri, from second, was pitted first to cover against Charles Leclerc behind, which was achieved.

However, when Norris stopped next time around, he suffered a slow stop on the front-left, and dropped behind the Australian as long-time leader Max Verstappen reassumed his lead to run ahead of Piastri and Norris.

Had the cars finished in this order, Piastri would have earned 18 points to Norris's 15, extending his points lead to 37 over his team-mate, but following a McLaren request, Piastri ceded position to Norris. 

This meant the gap was actually trimmed to 31 with a six-point swing in Norris's favour, with the title being decided by six points or fewer 26 times in the 75 seasons since the world championship was formed in 1950. 

The last was Nico Rosberg beating Lewis Hamilton by five points in 2016, but Piastri has no doubts he made the right decision.

"I wouldn't regret it, no," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365. 

"It was a fair decision. Lando was ahead the whole race, and it wasn't through any fault of his own [that he dropped behind]. 

"For me, that's fine. Ultimately, whoever wins the championship wants to have won it as much as they can through their own performances and things they can control; this wasn't one of those things.

"Lando qualified ahead, was ahead the whole race, and lost that spot through no fault of his own. I said what I had to say on the radio. 

"And once I got the second request, then I'm not going to go against the team.

"There are a lot of people to protect and a culture to protect outside of just Lando and me, and ultimately, that's a very important thing going forward."