Martin Brundle believes “the ground rules have changed” between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after the title-contending McLaren team-mates made contact on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix.

With Norris starting fifth and Piastri third at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the former took advantage of a strong getaway to surge past the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and launch an attempted overtake on his team-mate.

Norris got up the inside of Piastri at Turn 3, but then made contact with the Red Bull of Max Verstappen ahead, with his reaction to that initial collision sending him right and into his team-mate, with the heavy wheel-to-wheel hit almost sending the Australian into the barrier.

Piastri appeared initially to suggest over the radio that McLaren should reverse his and Norris’ positions, and then fumed when he was told the team wouldn’t “take any action during the race”.

He said on the radio: “That’s not fair. I’m sorry, that’s not fair.

“If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that’s a pretty **** job of avoiding.”

Sky Sports F1 commentator Brundle’s assessment during the race was: “I think the ground rules between the two McLarens have just changed for the rest of the season.

“I thought it was punchy, opportunistic, aggressive, but this is a motor race. The ground rules have just been reset.

“I can’t see how McLaren would swap that round or how they could justify (swapping) it.

“But Oscar will say, ‘ok, then, that’s it. That’s how we’re going racing.'”

Piastri more measured after race

Despite Norris’ best attempts to challenge Verstappen for second place, the difficulty of overtaking meant the McLaren duo finished in the same positions they ended the first lap.

The upshot was that Norris reduced Piastri’s championship lead to 22 points, while Verstappen closed to within 63 points of the Australian with six rounds of the season remaining.

The result also saw McLaren seal a second successive Constructors’ Championship, with the team winning back-to-back titles for the first time since 1991.

Piastri, who was clearly keen for the team’s triumph not to be overshadowed, was measured in his post-race interview with Sky Sports F1.

“Obviously a difficult race, a difficult first lap. I’ve not seen the replay. I just know from in the car, so I’ll go and have a look,” he said.

“It’s obviously a great night for the whole team. Obviously not the race I was looking for, but for the whole team, tonight is the culmination of a lot of hard work from not just this year, but lots of years. It’s a really proud moment for me to be a part of that and a proud moment for the whole team.”

Asked whether he believes that he and Norris still race “cleanly”, Piastri replied: “Yes, I think we do. I don’t think there was any intention of contact, but there was, and I need to look at the replay and see what exactly happened.”

More to follow…

F1’s title race now heads back to North America, with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first on October 17-19 live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime