McLaren's Lando Norris won Sunday afternoon's Mexico City Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez by more than 30 seconds over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in what was inarguably the most dominant showing of his seven-year Formula 1 career.
While it was his first win in nearly three months, the recent decline in form from teammate Oscar Piastri meant that Norris was able to use the 25 points he scored form that victory to vault ahead of Piastri for the lead of the world championship standings.
Piastri, who finished Sunday's race in fifth place, has now finished four consecutive races off of the podium. At no point before that cold streak had he even finished off the podium in back-to-back races this year.
As a result, Norris owns a one-point lead over Piastri in the standings, ending Piastri's 15-race streak atop the championship. Yet even with his recent decline in form, Piastri would still be in front had he not literally decided it was in his best interest to hand Norris the lead.
Formula 1 fans all know the incident in question.
Following discussions about "Papaya Rules" and how Piastri and Norris are allowed to race one another, Piastri was under the impression that a poor pit stop was merely part of racing. Yet when Norris had a poor pit stop in Monza, Piastri was told to let his teammate back around him for second place.
He resisted at first, but it didn't take long for him to give in, giving Norris the six-point swing in the world championship standings that Zak Brown and the rest of the organization clearly wanted.
Norris scored 18 points with a runner-up finish instead of 15, and Piastri scored 15 with a third place finish instead of 18. Piastri hasn't been on the podium since, while Norris has since finished seventh, third, second, and first.
It's not the first time that fans have found themselves questioning whether "Papaya Rules" has something to do with the so-called "pinnacle of motorsport" or if it's some sort of playtime/timeout mechanic used in a local preschool.
But perhaps even more notably, had Piastri done what somebody such as four-time world champion Max Verstappen or seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton would have done and completely ignored the nonsense being thrown his way from what has clearly become a one-sided pit wall, Verstappen would be 38 points behind the top McLaren driver in the standings.
Instead, he's 35 points behind Piastri and 36 behind Norris with four Grands Prix (and two sprint races) remaining on the 2025 schedule.
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix is the 21st of a record-tying 24 races on the 2025 Formula 1 schedule, and it is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 9 on ESPN2, following another sprint race at Interlagos Circuit on Saturday, November 8. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action!