Norris responds to Piastri clash: 'Then you shound't be in F1'

At lights out, Norris got off to a great start. Quickly dispatching Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the British driver set off on the hunt for his next target, Piastri, with whom he ended up making contact, which triggered an angry reaction from the championship leader.

Speaking after the race in which he finished third ahead of Piastri in fourth, thus cutting the gap to his teammate by anothe three points, Norris dismissed the clash entirely.

He said: "Anyone on the grid would have done exactly the same thing as what I did.

After the incident, things got heated in Piastri's cockpit, when the team declined his request to swap the cars positions back around to their original order, given their view that Norris had taken avoiding action in that tricky section of the track.

"That's not fair, I'm sorry. That's not fair," Piastri said.

As he made his way back into parc fermé, McLaren CEO Zak Brown was speaking on the radio congratulating the Australian for a job well done in helping the team clinch their tenth Constructors' crown in its history in Formula One. However, Piastri pulled the plug on the American's speech mid-way before climbing out of the car.

Afterward it emerged that the Australian had been absent from the podium proceedings where McLaren were celebrating their championship triumph.

The incident between both and the tensions it arose did not go unnoticed by Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff, who said he'd watch this movie before, in relation to his time managing relations between former Mercedes champions Leiws Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, a relation that would ultimately turn sour.

Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1 paddock? Then GPblog's F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog's YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes.