Lando Norris Says Piastri Battle Was ‘Fair’ as McLaren Salvage Fourth and Fifth at Monza

• Lando Norris held off Oscar Piastri to finish fourth in the Italian Grand Prix, with Piastri fifth.
• Norris described an early moment on the grass with Piastri as “fair,” even with his initial radio frustration.
• McLaren lost the tow to the dominant Mercedes and Red Bull cars for much of the race at Monza.

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A Tough Race Salvaged With a Late Fight

Lando Norris says his late battle with McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri for fourth place in the Italian Grand Prix was “a good battle” and “fair,” even with an early flash of frustration over team radio.

Norris arrived at Monza off the back of two consecutive wins but could only start eighth for Sunday’s 53-lap race, while Piastri was demoted to sixth after a three-place grid penalty for blocking Liam Lawson in qualifying.

A Moment on the Grass

Norris made steady progress through the field and was challenging Piastri for fourth, sealing the position on the final lap into the Ascari chicane, but only after an earlier moment on the exit of Curva Grande where he took to the grass.

“No, it was okay,” Norris said, reflecting on the incident. “I still need to review things, but I think it’s just a perception of when you’re in the car, when someone’s kind of opening the gap a bit and then kind of go straight, you get that perception when you’re going at 200mph. So that’s all.

“But I think what he did was fair. It’s just when you’re in the moment and you’re half on the grass, you realise how quickly things can end pretty badly, just in the heat of the moment. But from that side it was fine, and was a good battle. So yeah, a good result from a tough race.”

Piastri’s View From the Other Car

Piastri battled Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari for much of the race before falling into the clutches of Norris late on, but he too believed the fight between the McLaren cars was fair.

“It was a tough battle for sure. I think we both seemed pretty even, especially in the last few laps, so it was definitely challenging to know when to use your battery, when not to,” he said. “I think that we saw a good battle. From my point of view, I thought it was good racing, exciting, that’s for sure, and ultimately I think that was the best result we could have got as a team, so I’m pretty happy with it.”

Losing the Tow to Mercedes and Red Bull

McLaren shares the same power unit as Mercedes, who claimed a one two finish through Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, but were unable to extract the same performance at Monza. The progress of Piastri and Norris was hampered by losing the tow to the Mercedes drivers and Max Verstappen in the middle phase of the race, leaving them adrift out of the slipstream.

“We needed someone to kind of pull us along, and then we could compete, because then we’re more on a level playing field compared to them,” Norris said. “I think on a day like today, it was almost a good thing to not be ahead for too often, because generally you would always go backwards. But then when you were behind, you always felt like you could go forwards. So it was always a tough position to be in. Sometimes you just had to be a little bit patient, and kind of for me, that worked on the final two laps. I think P4 was the best we could achieve, and P4 and P5 for us as a team is also good.”

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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