Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but the bigger talking point came from behind him as McLaren’s late team orders created tension between their two drivers. Verstappen started from pole position and held off Lando Norris at the first chicane, though he was told to give the place back after running off track. He quickly retook the lead and from then on managed the race calmly, staying ahead of the McLarens and taking his third win of the season.

For most of the afternoon Norris ran in second with Oscar Piastri close behind in third. The two McLarens kept each other in check and built a gap to Charles Leclerc in fourth, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton fought further back. McLaren had the stronger car after Verstappen, and both drivers were in line for a big points haul. By the time the final pit stops came into play, it looked clear that Norris would finish ahead of Piastri, as he had led him since the start.

The situation changed in the closing stages when McLaren chose to run both cars long and then switch to soft tyres. They wanted to stay out as late as possible in case of a safety car or red flag, which might have given them a chance to attack Verstappen, and they also needed to protect against Ferrari putting Leclerc in between their cars. To prevent that risk, McLaren pitted Piastri first even though Norris was in front. The idea was to bring Norris in straight after and keep the order the same.

However, when Norris stopped a lap later, the plan went wrong. His front-left wheel took far too long to go on, and the pit stop dragged out to 5.9 seconds. That delay was enough for Piastri, who had stopped cleanly, to come out in front. Suddenly the McLarens were in the wrong order, and with only a handful of laps remaining, the team had to decide what to do.

On the radio, Norris’s engineer Will Joseph apologised immediately, telling him: “Lando, apologies for the pit stop.” Norris did not respond, staying silent in the car. Piastri, though, was not happy when he was told to let his teammate back through. “I mean, we said that a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here,” he said. “But if you really want to do it then I’ll do it.” A lap later he moved aside and Norris retook second place behind Verstappen.

Even Verstappen had something to say when his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase updated him on the McLaren switch. “Ha! Just because he had a slow stop?” the Red Bull driver laughed, before Lambiase quickly replied, “It’s not our business, but I guess it keeps it fair between the drivers in terms of the championship. You focus on the road ahead please.”

After the race, Norris said he did not want to gain positions this way but accepted that the team had made the call. “Every now and then we make mistakes as a team and today was one of them. I did everything I could today. I couldn’t do a lot more. I tried to fight against Max. We had a good race and he came out on top,” he said. Piastri, meanwhile, admitted the decision was “a fair request” and that keeping harmony within the team was more important, though he hinted that he still did not fully agree by saying: “I think the radio call kind of says enough.”

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella later explained that the order was always clear: the driver who led before the stops should not lose out purely because of the way the pit sequence played out. He said the intention was never for Piastri to gain from being pitted first, but to protect both cars from Leclerc and keep the best overall result for the team. The slow pit stop for Norris had created an awkward situation, but Stella insisted that restoring the order was in line with McLaren’s principles.