Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have their work cut out as McLaren boss tells them ‘may the best man win’

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McLaren already have a sizeable lead in the Constructors’ Championship hit the midpoint of the season, but Zak Brown is keen to let his star driver duo race it out between themselves.

Lando Norris has won the previous two races, marking the first time that the McLaren driver has secured back-to-back victories in his seven-year career.

Oscar Piastri started the season in top form, winning four of the first six races of the season. His form has seemingly dipped in the last six, with just the one victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in June.

However, Norris’ Aussie team-mate has minimised the championship gains by completing a McLaren one-two in both races, with Norris admitting that Piastri ‘put up a good fight’.

Norris ended up on the top step of the podium in three of those six races, closing the gap with the 24-year-old to just eight points.

Zak Brown sees previous McLaren clash as ‘a nice moment’ in hindsight

Martin Brundle has warned McLaren about the ‘fireworks’ that come along with team-mates fighting for a championship, but McLaren CEO Brown has made it clear that the team wants the drivers to decide who comes out on top themselves.

The McLaren duo clashed during the Canadian Grand Prix in an incident which was of great resemblence to Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button’s skirmish at the same corner 14 years ago.

Speaking to Sky Sports following the conclusion of the British Grand Prix on Sunday, Brown saw the incident at the Canadian Grand Prix as “a nice moment for all of us, in hindsight”.

“It just took the air out of the balloon and we got it over with,” he continued. “And everyone was talking about it.

“I feel like it’s raised everyone’s confidence and comfort; it’s happened, it was a mistake. We’ll see other incidents in the near future, but they’ll be racing mistakes and racing mistakes are going to happen.”

Mclaren CEO predicts an ‘epic battle’ for the remainder of the season

The Montreal incident was the first time this season that we saw the McLaren’s making contact with each other on track, with a lot of Norris and Piastri’s wheel-to-wheel racing concluding with a clean winner.

Brown hopes that both drivers can continue to display hard but clean racing, with the clash in Canada proving to be an anomaly come the end of the season.

“We just keep doing what we’re doing. Treat them equally, fairly, transparently, good communications.” Brown said.

“And if we can continue to build a gap, then we want it to be up to them to decide who wins the championship, and may the best man win.

“They’re both very clean drivers, so what’s cool is you don’t feel like one’s going to run one off the track. They’re going to fight hard.

“Again, mistakes will happen along the way. But I think it’s going to be an epic battle down to the final race.”

Both Norris and Piastri are chasing their very first Drivers’ Championship, so it should be interesting to see if they are able to complete their own personal dream without too many fireworks in the process.