Former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle stated that McLaren will be extremely upset after throwing away vital world championship points due to an intra-team collision during the Singapore Grand Prix sprint race.
On the final lap of Saturday's action-packed 20-lap sprint race, Lando Norris wiped out his own teammate Oscar Piastri following a late lunge in a failed attempt to capture fourth place.
The ambitious dive down the inside heading into Turn 5 resulted in heavy contact, sending Piastri spinning directly into the barriers while Norris dropped down the order before salvaging the final point on offer in eighth place.
The blunder proved costly as Red Bull narrowed the gap to just 11 points behind third-placed McLaren in the constructors' standings following a dominant victory by Max Verstappen in the sprint.
Giving his definitive verdict on the intra-team clash, Brundle insisted that the risky overtaking maneuver was completely unnecessary given the ongoing championship stakes.
"I think the team will be pretty upset that they ended up meeting in the middle at Turn 5 on the last lap of the sprint when they are in a big fight in the constructors' championship with Red Bull," Brundle told Sky Sports F1.
"It just wasn't really necessary. It doesn't really matter what the rules are, they didn't need to make contact there. It's difficult. They can't afford the parts, they can't afford the points and now they are up in the stewards' office which will destabilise their preparation."
Norris defended his aggressive move despite facing a subsequent summons from the FIA race stewards to review the final lap incident.
"In the last lap, there was a big opportunity into Turn 5, so I went for it," Norris explained. "The gap closed a bit more than I would have liked, and obviously I've had to back out of it because the gap was closing, so I've had to try and avoid the incident. And obviously there still was one."
Meanwhile, Piastri maintained a calm composure regarding the controversial collision and preferred to analyze the data alongside his engineering crew.
"I need to look at it. I didn't see him at the apex. I looked behind into the corner and saw he was a reasonable way behind for a corner like that but I'll have a look and the team can do what it needs to do," Piastri added.
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