Oscar Piastri has been left furious at his teammate, and his team, after his two drivers' championship rivals gained ground on him at the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
George Russell converted pole position into his second win of the season, beating Red Bull's Max Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris.
On a night when McLaren won the F1 constructors' championship with six rounds remaining, the talk of the paddock centred around an opening lap collision between their drivers.
Starting fifth, Norris got a terrific launch off the grid and was challenging Piastri for third in the opening corners.
Norris connected with the rear of Verstappen's Red Bull, which then sent the Brit into the side of his Australian teammate.
Piastri nearly went into the barriers after that shunt and was relegated to fourth, where he would finish 62 laps later.
Piastri demanded his team do something about the shunt, believing Norris should have returned the place to him, like he had done two races earlier when a slow pit stop had allowed the Australian to jump into second in the Italian Grand Prix.
But after the stewards cleared the contact as a racing incident, McLaren decided they would not order Norris to give Piastri the place back, believing that Norris was trying to avoid hitting Verstappen in the melee.
"That's not fair, I'm sorry. That's not fair," Piastri said.
"If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his teammate, then that's a pretty s*** job at avoiding."
Piastri's hopes of fighting back and snatching a podium effectively ended with McLaren suffering a slow pit stop on lap 27 of 62, something that has plagued the team in recent times.
The left rear tyre was slow to come off Piastri's McLaren, leaving him stationary for three seconds longer than his teammate, who pitted the lap prior.
Piastri entered the race with a 25-point lead over Norris and a 69-point advantage over Verstappen.
Those margins have narrowed to 22 points to Norris and 63 points to Verstappen.
[race classification]Speaking post-race, the Australian said he did not believe Norris had intended to hit him on the opening lap, and was unsure if McLaren's rules of engagement would change going into the final quarter of the season.
"I don't think there was any intention of contact, but there was. I need to look at the replay and see exactly what happened," he told Sky Sports F1.
Also speaking to Sky Sports F1, McLaren CEO Zak Brown described the lap one incident as "hard racing".
Norris also took a similar view when asked about his eventful opening lap during the immediate post-race press conference.
"[Lap 1] It was slippery, so wet in lots of places. It is racing, I put it on the inside, had a little correction, and yeah, that's it," Norris said.
Despite finishing behind his title rivals, the damage to Piastri's lead in the championship was minor.
Russell was flawless for Mercedes to claim his second win of the season.
Verstappen was under constant pressure late in the race from Norris in the battle for second.
But Singapore's notoriously hard street circuit meant that, despite having DRS for lap after lap, Norris never had a true overtaking opportunity.
Mercedes' teenage driver Kimi Antonelli drove a clean race to finish fifth, ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton was on course to finish fifth after overtaking Antonelli and Leclerc late, but when the brakes failed on his Ferrari, he limped home just four-tenths ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.
But Hamilton was handed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, going off the circuit multiple times in the final laps as he struggled to stop his Ferrari. The penalty gave Alonso seventh place, and Hamilton was classified as eighth.
Haas' Oliver Bearman was the last car to finish on the lead lap in ninth, while Carlos Sainz rose from 18th to 10th for Williams.
Relive all the action of the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix on the live blog below.
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