Norris defies orders to help Piastri and Verstappen loses the Qatar pole to Russell

LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — Lando Norris ignored team orders and handed his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri the sprint race in Qatar on Saturday, while Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen was stripped of the pole position.

His penalty elevated George Russell to first on the grid.

With McLaren eyeing its first F1 constructors' title in 26 years and Russell close behind for Mercedes, Norris was told by the team over the radio to “finish in this order,” ahead of Piastri.

He chose to gift his teammate the win anyway, easing off to the right on the exit of the final corner and then swooping back across in front of Russell, who finished third.

“The team told me not to do it, but I thought I could get away with it and we did,” Norris said. "Honestly, I don’t mind. I’m not here to win sprint races. I’m here to win races and the championship, but that’s not gone to plan."

Norris was paying Piastri back for doing the same in the sprint race in Brazil when Norris was still fighting Verstappen for the drivers’ title.

“I made my mind up in Brazil when it happened,” Norris said. “I needed to do something to give it back.”

Piastri said he hadn't expected Norris to take the risk.

“I was aware it could happen. I was a bit surprised that with George half a second (away) it did,” Piastri said. “It just shows off our teamwork and the lack of egos within the team.”

It continues a season where McLaren’s race tactics have often been a talking point, such as when Norris and Piastri swapped for the lead in Hungary after a lengthy and often awkward radio exchange with the team.

On Saturday, Norris started on pole position and kept the lead at the start as Piastri squeezed past Russell for second. As Russell repeatedly attacked Piastri, Norris dropped back instead of building a lead. That put Piastri within one second of Norris, allowing the Australian to use the DRS overtaking aid for extra speed.

Russell said he found the McLaren teamwork “pretty infuriating” while stuck behind Piastri and also objected to what he saw as late moves from Piastri to defend the position.

“Hopefully we can have a proper race (on Sunday) rather than this team orders stuff,” Russell said.

Verstappen penalized

The F1 champion thought he'd secured his first pole position since the Austrian GP in June, but a lengthy stewards' inquiry gave him a one-place penalty for driving “unnecessarily slowly” in an incident with Russell, who moved up to first on the grid.

The Mercedes driver complained over the radio that it was “super dangerous” that he'd had to avoid Verstappen, who was ahead of him on the racing line as both drivers prepared for their final runs of qualifying.

The stewards agreed Verstappen was going too slowly as he tried to cool his tires but didn't apply the usual three-place penalty because neither driver was trying to set a fast time.

Verstappen hadn't been much of a factor in the sprint but he returned to form in qualifying, beating Russell by just .055 of a second on his last run.

“Crazy. I mean, honestly, I didn’t expect that,” Verstappen said. “We did change a bit on the car but I never thought it would make such a swing in performance.”

Norris was .252 off the pace and lines up third, with Piastri fourth, followed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr.

Constructors' race

McLaren increased its lead over Ferrari in the constructors’ championship to 30 points, and has both of its drivers ahead of the Ferraris on the grid.

Teams can earn a maximum 88 more points from the grand prix in Qatar and next week’s Abu Dhabi GP.

Red Bull dropped to 67 points behind McLaren in the standings as Verstappen — crowned the drivers' champion for the fourth time last week in Las Vegas — finished eighth and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was last after a pit stop to change his car's nose.

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