Oscar Piastri willing to give up F1 Brazilian GP sprint win to help Lando Norris in the title battle with Max Verstappen

Oscar Piastri has revealed that he would be okay with giving up a win in the Sprint race for teammate Lando Norris to help him in his title fight with Max Verstappen. The Australian took a shock pole position for the F1 Brazilian GP Sprint with a last-ditch effort that saw him eclipse his teammate.

Throughout the Sprint Qualifying, Norris held a distinctive advantage over the rest of the field in terms of performance. Even in the first lap of SQ3, Norris put together a laptime that was around three-tenths of a second faster than anybody else.

It was, however, the final runs where Norris did get eclipsed as Piastri, his McLaren teammate, pulled off a special qualifying lap in the dying stages of the session.

With Norris in contention for the title but the Australian out of it, there have been questions about how Piastri could play the team game at McLaren. Talking to Sky Sports, Piastri seemed more than willing to help his teammate, even if it meant giving up a win.

"We'll see what the pace is like tomorrow for both of us. I think first and second is the first objective and then we'll see what order it is. I know that I'm not in the running for the drivers' standings, for the team it doesn't matter which way round we are, so I know that's the case and we'll see."

"I've said I would [relinquish a victory] from when we first had these discussions. It would be nice to win, but it's one point different and it's not the main race, so we'll see. Lando needs the points in the drivers' standings a lot more than I do, but of course I still want to win. If I put in the effort and show good pace I'm sure that won't go unnoticed, but we'll see," Oscar Piastri added.

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Oscar Piastri talks about his pole lap that beat Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri was not the favorite for pole position, and to a large extent, he was in the shadows while his teammate Lando Norris was dominating the session. Even in SQ3, the first lap of both drivers was separated by around three tenths. It was the final lap, however, where Piastri turned the wick up and there was no catching him. Talking through how he navigated the session, the McLaren driver said:

"I felt pretty comfortable at the start and then the grip was coming up a lot through the session. With the track this year it's hard enough to see where you're going, let alone trying to do a fast lap, so it's challenging out there."

"But happy to have qualified on pole for the Sprint. My first lap didn't feel amazing, and I knew there were a few places to improve and the second lap was good, and the tyres hung on. So very, very happy so excited to be starting off P1," Oscar Piastri added.

It will be interesting to see how McLaren can coordinate between Piastri and Norris, as team orders and generic teammate management are areas with which the outfit has often struggled this season.