“The rules are very clear” - Oscar Piastri “free to race” Lando Norris in Dutch GP

Oscar Piastri has confirmed he’s still “free to race” McLaren F1 teammate Lando Norris at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Norris still has a faint chance of winning this year’s F1 drivers’ championship, trailing Max Verstappen by 78 points.

Given McLaren’s impressive turn of speed in recent rounds relative to Red Bull, Verstappen’s lead isn’t insurmountable, but it will require Norris to maximise every opportunity.

McLaren were engulfed in a team orders fiasco at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Piastri claimed the lead from Norris on the opening lap - and led much of the race - before losing out through the pit stop phase as McLaren covered an undercut attempt behind.

This handed Norris the race lead - but McLaren ordered him to move over - which he eventually did after his race engineer, Will Joseph, was effectively forced to beg over team radio.

Speaking to media including Crash.net in the FIA press conference, Piastri made it clear that the ‘rules haven’t changed’.

“Yeah, the rules are very, very clear and haven’t changed,” he said. “And yeah, we’re free to race each other to try and win.

“Of course, we’re in a Constructors’ Championship fight and we know that there’s a lot at stake for the team. But we’ve shown time and time again that we can race each other well, race each other cleanly.

“And yeah, we’re free to try and both win the race. And that’s not changed.”

Norris added: “We’re free to race. There’s never been any rules apart from don’t crash into each other. That’s literally the only rule.

“Otherwise, we’ve always been free to race. We’ve raced well in the past. So that’s all good for us.”