Norrs says he's not McLaren's #1: 'Talked about team orders this morning'

Oscar Piastri was the quickest McLaren driver at one point of the race in Australia, however, as he set out to attack then leader and teammate, Lando Norris, an order came in for the Australian from the pitwall to hold position. The eventual winner of the race, Norris, has now said the order stemmed from McLaren's cautious approach to the very tough race in Melbourne and denies it was done to favour his Drivers' title bid.

"I didn't really know about it, because they said it to Oscar," says Norris during the FIA Drivers' press conference, of the team order that prevented Piastri from attacking him at the Australian Grand Prix. "It was literally just for two or three laps, just as we went through the back markers," added the Briton downplaying the magnitude of the team order.

"It's just because of risky conditions. We’re 1-2, we’d look like complete idiots if we attempted to race and we both ended up off the track or out and didn't score the result that we should do. So it was just a couple laps that they asked us to just hold position and it was free to race," added Norris, clarifying the motivation behind the 'hold position' instruction issued to his teammate.

'McLaren order came when Oscar was pushing to try and get me'

"I'm sure we will talk about it more. We even had a little talk about it this morning," revealed Norris. "But it was just from the team's interest, not for mine or for Oscar's or whatever. It was just, ‘McLaren, we're first and second, let's not do anything silly when we don't need to’. And there was still a lot of opportunity left for Oscar to try and race me," continued the Briton. However, the conditions were the same throughout the Grand Prix in the end.

"It was just stupid to try and force a situation when we're behind back markers, blue flags, if you go offline at that part of the race, you're in the wall. But it was also a stage of the race when I was just very... I was still trying to think, I need to get this ‘high as the lap 54, whatever it was’. And I think Oscar was just trying to push a bit more and try to get me but, it was all comfortable from my side," concluded the championship leader.

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