SINGAPORE -- Oscar Piastri insisted he has no doubts about McLaren's commitment to a fair championship fight with teammate Lando Norris, despite their controversial clash at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris barged past Piastri at Turn 3 on the opening lap, a move which saw them make contact. Piastri was fortunate to avoid race-ending contact with the wall on the other side.
In the laps which followed, Piastri questioned the fairness of the move to his team. "I mean, that wasn't very team-like, but sure," Piastri said immediately afterwards.
He later asked: "Are we cool with Lando barging me out of the way, or ... what's the [deal] there?" McLaren reviewed the incident and determined that Norris' move into Piastri had been to avoid driving into the back of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
When told that, Piastri said: "That's not fair. Sorry, that's not fair. If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his teammate, that's a pretty s--- job of avoiding."
The overtake determined the outcome of their race, with Norris finishing third ahead of Piastri, cutting his championship lead down to 22 points with six races to run.
He was diplomatic about the incident in his post-race media commitments and appeared to row back slightly on what he had said during the grand prix. "In the moment, obviously it's the first lap, tensions are high," Piastri said.
"We're obviously encouraged to share our views on what happened and I did that. I'm sure we'll discuss it more after."
Referring to what had seemed like a lengthy back and forth with his team, he said: "I think most of my comments were over two laps out of 62. I don't know if maybe it was delayed more on TV."
The Australian driver was talking so soon after the race, McLaren's constructors' championship celebration was still taking place on the podium overlooking the start-finish straight -- due to finishing outside the top three, Piastri had gone straight to the TV pen, therefore missing the celebration.
He pointed out he wanted to properly watch it back before commenting properly.
"I need to see the incident in more detail, honestly," he said. "I think once I have the full picture of things, then yes, undoubtedly we will speak about it. I want to see exactly what happened before I make any conclusions."
Piastri gave two very simple but clear answers to two of the most obvious questions which followed in the media pen. When asked if he feels like McLaren is giving Norris preferential treatment, he replied simply: "No."
When asked if the incident will make him re-assess the way he races Norris going forward, he replied simply: "No."
McLaren has tried at every turn to ensure a fair fight between its battling drivers. That has not been the smoothest process, with several controversial moments through the season.
One was two races ago at the Italian Grand Prix when Piastri was asked to let Norris through for second position after the latter had a slow pit-stop late in the Monza race.
Piastri said he has full faith in the team's commitment to being as fair as possible. When asked if he felt the championship fight has been fairly balanced between him and Norris, he replied: "I think ultimately, yes.
"There's obviously been some difficult situations for the whole team. We've obviously spoken about a number of things. Could things have been better at certain points? Yes.
"But ultimately it's a learning process with the whole team. I'm very, very happy that the intentions are very well meaning, if that makes sense. So I have absolutely no concerns about that.
"Yes, just obviously there's been some tough situations this year and this is another one. Are you concerned that as you get closer to the end of the season, things are so tight that those intentions should go out of the window? No, I'm not."