An early exit from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday left a sour taste in Lando Norris’ mouth, leading the McLaren driver to call for Franco Colapinto to be banned for the next race for an incident that took out both Norris and Colapinto’s Alpine teammate, Pierre Gasly.
At a Safety Car restart on lap 36, Colapinto locked up and went down the inside of Turn 1, wiping out Norris and Gasly in the process.
Norris, the reigning world champion, had locked up earlier in the race and dropped down the order, forcing him to battle in the midfield when the race was restarted.
“I was just slow,” Norris told Sky Sports after the race in Baku. “Struggled a lot in this race. You saw how quickly everyone came past me.
“Otherwise, I still made the mistake. But at the end of the day, I just got taken out. Just some drivers that shouldn’t be in Formula 1, to be honest.”
According to PA Media, Norris said, “If you cause a crash on a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban.
“I just got taken out. And the FIA should be stricter by starting to hand out bans for this kind of stuff.”
For his role in the incident, Colapinto was given a 10-second time penalty and a five-place grid penalty for the next race in Malaysia.
Colapinto took the blame and apologized to Norris, Gasly and the team.
“Just sorry to all the team, not only to Pierre, it was a big mistake,” Colapinto said. “Big sorry to Pierre, he has been working really hard in the factory. We lost a lot of positions and we were with both cars in the points.
“Very sad and disappointed. Big, big sorry, it’s a big mistake. Cold brakes, cold tires, I was completely out of control. Unfortunately, I also took Pierre out. And Lando, of course. Big sorry to both of them.”
Mercedes’ George Russell survived a late challenge from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to win his third Formula 1 race of the season.
–Field Level Media
