Lando Norris admitted he was to blame for the collision with his team mate which put him out of the Canadian Grand Prix.
The stewards handed him a five-second time penalty for his clash with Oscar Piastri on lap 65.
The McLaren driver ran into the back of his team mate’s car as they fought over fourth place with five laps to go. Piastri was able to continue and finished the race without losing a position, but Norris retired due to damage.
“Sorry,” he told his race engineer Will Joseph on the radio after coming to a stop. “All my bad. All my fault. Stupid from me.”
The McLaren driver remains second in the championship standings but has fallen 22 points behind Piastri. He endured a difficult weekend in Canada, qualifying seventh after making two mistakes in Q3.
Norris brought himself into contention in the race by running a long opening stint on the hard tyres. He closed on Piastri over the final laps but his attempt to attack his team mate was frustrated when they caught Andrea Kimi Antonelli. That allowed Piastri to use his DRS, helping him to resist Norris’s attacks.
On lap 65, Norris dived down the inside of Piastri at the turn 10 hairpin. He briefly got ahead, but Piastri repassed him as they approached the chicane at the end of the lap.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Norris tried to claim the inside line as they approached turn one but as Piastri moved towards the pit wall there was no space for him to move into. He ran into the back of the other McLaren, lost his front wing and damaged his suspension as he struck the pit wall.
Afterwards Norris accepted the responsibility for the collision was entirely his. “There’s 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,” he told Sky. “I’m glad I didn’t ruin his race.”
The stewards spoke to both drivers and representatives of the team. They held Norris responsible and gave him a five-second time penalty, which does not change his finishing position of 18th.
“Car four [Norris] was attempting to overtake car 81 [Piastri] on the main straight,” they noted. “He attempted to move to the left of car 81 but there was no space. The driver of car four said that he thought there might be space but realised too late that there was not and he collided with car 81.
“While car four sustained damage and retired from the race (but was nonetheless classified in the results), car 81 was not damaged.
“The stewards determined that the driver of car four was solely to blame for the collision. Because the collision had no immediate and obvious sporting consequence, we imposed a five-second […] post-race time penalty on car four.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
As Norris completed more than 90% of the race distance he is considered a classified finisher and his penalty is therefore not carried over to the next race. The stewards also chose not to apply any penalty points.
Norris and Piastri shook hands in the media pen after the race. Piastri said he was willing to give his team mate the benefit of the doubt over the contact.
“He made quite a large move into turn 10, I held my own into the chicane and it was definitely a tough battle but a clean one until that point,” he said. “I’ve not seen the incident but I don’t think there was any bad intentions involved. I think it was just unfortunate really.”
Team principal Andrea Stella said they will look into the incident but is satisfied there was no malicious intention on Norris’s part.
“We never want to see a McLaren involved in an accident and definitely we never want to see the two McLarens touching each other,” he said. “It’s something definitely that we need to review because this is a very clear principle.
“At the same time it’s contact that happened because of a misjudgement, just Lando misjudged the distance to the car ahead. And therefore there was no ‘malintent’ I have to say.
“Lando owned [up] immediately, took responsibility for that which we appreciate but certainly something to discuss and review. The principles are already in place, I think our drivers will have something to learn further and we go racing again.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2025 Canadian Grand Prix
- 2025 Canadian Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
- Why Verstappen’s claim Russell dropped too far behind the Safety Car was wrong
- Antonelli was counting down final laps in “very stressful” run to first podium
- Would the one-stop strategy Leclerc wanted have paid off? Canadian GP data
- Russell keeps Canadian GP victory as Red Bull fail in bid to promote Verstappen
