McLaren appear to have avoided a major fall-out following their team-orders drama at the Italian Grand Prix, but the incident has only heightened the challenge of managing the title battle between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for the rest of the season.

With Max Verstappen cruising to victory for Red Bull at Monza, Norris was comfortably ahead of Piastri in second as McLaren prepared to bring their drivers in for their only pit stops of the race.

Norris agreed to give up his right as the lead McLaren on track to stop first, encouraging the pit wall to bring in Piastri to ensure his team-mate wasn’t at risk of being undercut from behind by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

After a clean stop for Piastri, Norris’ stop moments later was significantly delayed by an issue with the front-left tyre, resulting in him emerging just behind is team-mate as he returned to the track.

McLaren swiftly instructed Piastri to give the position back to Norris, an order he followed after momentarily questioning the logic behind the decision over the radio.

The order was unchanged at the chequered flag, which meant Norris reduced Piastri’s lead at the top of the championship to 31 points with eight rounds remaining.

While Piastri said after the race that he didn’t have problem with the decision, it sparked a major debate in the media as to whether McLaren team principal Andrea Stella had made the right call by restoring the pre pit-stop running order of his drivers.

As the battle resumes at this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Sky Sports F1 assess how the situation could play out over the coming weeks.

What will McLaren do next time?

Piastri’s initial response to the radio request to let Norris through was that he understood a slow pit stop was “part of racing” and therefore wouldn’t be corrected.

Perhaps the biggest question going forward is where McLaren now stand on that topic.

This incident had a mitigating circumstance in the fact Norris had generously allowed Piastri to pit before him, without which he likely would have held on to second place even with the slow stop.

It’s also worth noting that it was extremely clear in this scenario that the very slow stop had cost Norris his quite comfortable lead over Piastri.

There could be future situations where the gap between the drivers is smaller, and a more minor differential in pit stop times could contribute to a change in places.

However, perhaps the simplest remedy for McLaren to ensure they don’t find themselves in a tricky situation where comparisons are drawn to this incident, is to stick with letting the lead driver on track pit first.

This will usually build in an additional buffer of time gained on new tyres, and ensures that only a significantly delayed pit stop could result in a switch of position, in which case – assuming no other cars had got between their drivers – they could reasonably stick to the precedent set in Monza.

The fact that McLaren are on the brink of wrapping up the Constructors’ title – and will almost certainly do so in Azerbaijan or Singapore – should reduce any pressure on the team to prioritise the second driver on track, with it now having to them into uncomfortable territory in Hungary last year and Monza this time around.

Does Norris have an advantage after Zandvoort misery?

The other mitigating factor in Monza was what had happened a week earlier at the Dutch Grand Prix, when a DNF for Norris caused by a reliability issue massively tilted the title battle in Piastri’s favour.

A gap which would have been 16 points had Norris finished second, where he was at the time of his retirement, instead grew to 34 points, making Piastri an overwhelming favourite to claim a maiden title.

It is certainly reasonable to wonder whether the previous incident impacted Stella’s decision to restore Norris to second in Monza.

Having already suffered an 18-point swing through no fault of his own in Zandvoort, Norris would have this time been on the wrong end of a six-point swing in the title race had Piastri not let him back through.

From the outside looking in, the optics would not have been good. It’s also reasonable to assume that Norris may have been more angry at the perceived unfairness of the situation than Piastri was by what ultimately played out.

The question now is whether the team’s guilt at what occurred in Zandvoort is likely to have an impact further down the line. Did this 50-50 call go Norris’ way because of that previous incident, and could the team lean his way again if similarly uncertain situations arise?

Or, will the team see this as a situation where Norris got priority over Piastri, and be wary of angering the Australian and his camp by being seen to rule in the Brit’s favour again?

Rosberg: McLaren lucky drivers aren’t yet assassins

The other element that could change is the compliance of the drivers as the battle continues to intensify.

Both Piastri and Norris said after the race in Monza that they would continue to follow team orders in the closing stages of the season.

2016 world champion Nico Rosberg, who was involved in his own memorable intra-team battles at Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton, isn’t convinced the McLaren drivers will remain as obedient as they have to this point.

Rosberg told the latest episode of Sky Sports’ The F1 Show: “I think McLaren has been a bit lucky that their two drivers are not yet proper assassins.

“They’re just getting there but haven’t arrived yet. I think that’s what’s been holding up the whole situation so far.

“But the intensity still lies ahead of us because world championship, it’s so big. It’s your childhood dream that’s at stake there. It’s so huge and they’re going to be fighting every weekend, so there’s still plenty of action ahead of us.”

“These are horrible situations. What I would really ask McLaren is please sit down, take time to plan ahead for as many possible situations as possible and clearly define them amongst your drivers. That’s really what they have to do.

“Even though some situations like this are just really hard to plan for, it’s really their duty to do that.”

Formula 1 heads to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime