Oscar Piastri was left furious at his McLaren team after a violent first lap overtake from Lando Norris threatened to turn the title fight nasty.
Norris started fifth for the Singapore Grand Prix with teammate and Championship leader Piastri third.
However, the Brit mastered the first two corners of the Marina Bay circuit to get alongside Piastri into turn three, where he then found the back of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in third.
Hitting the world champion, he then snapped his steering wheel to the right where he made even more contact with Piastri, forcing his Australian teammate out of his way and down the order.
Piastri instantly responded on team radio, saying: “That wasn’t very team like, but sure.”
McLaren have desperately tried to keep things even between their two drivers throughout their title bout, putting the team first.
Martin Brundle saw the moment as a turning point in the fascinating title fight, though, saying on commentary: “The rules have been reset.”
Piastri continued to protest on radio, with McLaren previously intervening to swap their drivers when they felt an unfair pass had taken place.
However he was then told by his race engineer Tom Stallard: “No further action from the stewards, as a team we can see that Norris has to avoid Verstappen so we won’t take any action during the race, we can review after.”
The normally cool and collected Piastri then appeared to lose his famous serenity at the announcement.
“That’s not fair. I’m sorry that’s not fair,” he said.
“If he has to crash into his teammate to avoid another car that’s a pretty s*** job of avoiding.”
More follows…