Oscar Piastri defends his McLaren team radio call to pass Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri hinted via team radio that he should be allowed to pass Lando Norris at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

The McLaren drivers were both trailing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who eventually went on to win at Suzuka.

But Oscar Piastri, who finished third, was hoping McLaren might switch their drivers to give him a crack at chasing down Verstappen.

"I think I have the pace to get Max,” he said on his team radio on Lap 44.

But, McLaren were not tempted to let him pass Norris, who finished second behind Verstappen.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” Piastri said about his team radio request to Sky Sports.

“I just said what I felt. I thought that if I had the opportunity to get in front of Lando, then maybe I could get Max.

“My pace felt strong. I was able to get into DRS relatively comfortably but I couldn’t get it closer than that.

“I thought I’d ask the question but that’s fine by me.

“We go racing and want to finish wherever we finish because we earned it. We can both say that, after qualifying, that’s the result we deserve.”

Jacques Villeneuve’s verdict was: “Oscar could not get Lando, which means he probably couldn’t get Max either, because he had the straight-line speed.”

Oscar Piastri on McLaren strategy

The F1 Japanese Grand Prix was largely won by Saturday’s qualifying, with pole-sitter Verstappen able to convert into victory.

But McLaren’s strategy has been questioned.

As well as opting not to swap their drivers and let Piastri challenge Verstappen, their pit stops were also scrutinised.

Team boss Andrea Stella claimed “pit stop timing was pretty much set by the other people pitting”.

Piastri said about splitting their strategy: “It was a bit of a discussion. I had people behind who had already pitted and we didn’t want to take much risk.

“I was starting to struggle on the medium. Already, we had gone long on the medium.

“We’ll look to see if there’s anything we could have done differently. But we executed a good race.”

McLaren’s calls were justified because the result in Japan strengthened their lead at the top of the constructors’ championship.

Norris also leads Verstappen by one point at the top of the drivers’.