Overview

• McLaren instructed Oscar Piastri to return second place to Lando Norris after a slow Norris pit stop, a move team boss Andrea Stella defended as restoring pre-stop order.
• Bernie Ecclestone accused McLaren of favoring Norris, Helmut Marko mocked the call, Max Verstappen said he would not have obeyed, and Toto Wolff warned it sets a tricky precedent.
• Martin Brundle and Nico Rosberg called the swap understandable, with Rosberg saying there was no clear right answer but that Norris earned the points on the weekend.
• Piastri now leads Norris by 31 points with eight races to go, Verstappen sits further back, and McLaren remains comfortably ahead in the Constructors’ standings.
• McLaren launched a technical review after Verstappen’s 19‑second win, with Stella citing low-drag efficiency as a weakness and Red Bull’s Laurent Mekies saying the team’s race‑pace advantage was unexpected; Rosberg urged McLaren to define scenarios as tensions rise.