Lando Norris crashed into McLaren team-mate and Formula 1 title rival Oscar Piastri in the latter stages of the Canadian Grand Prix, ending his hopes of scoring points
Lando Norris crashed out after contact with Oscar Piastri(Image: Getty Images)
Lando Norris said he was glad he didn’t take out team-mate Oscar Piastri after crashing into his title rival. Norris hit the back of Piastri’s McLaren late in the Canadian Grand Prix which saw the Brit crash out.
The championship leader was able to finish fourth and received an immediate apology from Norris, both over the radio and then in person after they climbed out of their cars. And Norris said: “I’ve got no-one to blame but myself so I apologise to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something probably a bit too silly.
“I’m glad I didn’t ruin his race. This was just silly. It was just racing and silly on my part. I’ll go to bed tonight, apologise to everyone and move on.”
Piastri is always calm and gave a typically measured reaction to the first collision between the two title rivals. He said: “It’s not ideal for anyone. I haven’t actually seen the incident so I don’t know what exactly happened, but if Lando has taken full responbiliity then that’s how it goes.
you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info
“It was just a bit of a tricky race in general and not an ideal finish. It was a tough battle but quite a clean one up to that point. I don’t think there were any bad intentions involved, I think it was just unfortunate, really.
“We’re both fighting for a World championship and I’m thankful to the team for allowing us to race. I don’t think this will change anything in terms of that. We’ll keep going racing.”
Piastri had to settle for fourth not because of the collision, but because McLaren couldn’t find the pace they needed to reel in teenager Kimi Antonelli ahead after the Mercedes man had snatched third on the first lap. He added: “We had a little bit more pace but not enough to overtake.
“We tried to go long on both stints but ultimately, in the final stint, the tyres held up better than we hoped for the others and we didn’t have enough of an advantage to do anything. That was a bit of a shame, but I think our pace was okay, it was more or less the race I expected in all honesty.
Oscar Piastri has reacted to the incident(Image: Getty Images)
“It was a bad start that cemented us in fourth and I don’t think we had enough advantage to do anything else. For me, this weekend wasn’t good enough and it’s far too early to think that’s a comfortable enough advantage. There’s a long way to go in the season.”
McLaren have worked hard to avoid any flashpoints between their drivers and team principal Andrea Stella looked unimpressed by what he had seen. But while he was clearly irritated, he did defend Norris having clearly been appeased by the Brit’s immediate ownership of his mistake.
The Italian said: “We never want to see a McLaren involved in an accident and definitely not the two McLarens touching each other. It’s something we need to review because it’s a very clear principal. As the same time, it’s a contact that happened because of a misjudgement, Lando misjudged the distance to the car ahead and therefore there was no malintent.
“And Lando owned it immediately, took responsibility for that which we appreciate. It cost Lando quite a lot in the championship and was about to cost quite a lot more points for the team, so it was an incident that should not have happened.”
