Norris Escapes with Light Sanction After Clash with Piastri in Canadian GP F1

Lando Norris was involved in an incident during the Canadian Grand Prix, generating controversy over the penalty received. McLaren driver Lando Norris crashed with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, just four laps from the end of the race. Norris was trying to overtake Piastri to secure fourth position, but misjudged the distance, impacting the rear of Piastri’s McLaren and damaging his own suspension against the wall. The incident forced Norris to abandon the race immediately, taking full responsibility for the crash.

I accepted all the blame for the incident.

Lando Norris

The stewards investigated the incident and determined that Norris was solely to blame, but only imposed a five-second penalty. This sanction did not affect his final result, as he was classified in 18th position, four laps behind the leaders. Furthermore, the stewards decided not to award Norris any penalty points on his superlicense for the incident, a decision that was at their discretion.

Although the incident ended Norris’s race and left him out of the points, the penalty received did not have a significant impact on his result or his penalty points tally.

The standard penalty for causing a collision is ten seconds and two penalty points. However, the stewards explained that their decision was more lenient because the incident did not affect the result of any other driver. In a statement, the stewards declared: “The stewards determined that the driver of car 4 (Norris) was solely to blame for the collision. Because the collision had no immediate and obvious sporting consequences, we imposed a 5-second time penalty after the race on car 4.” Time penalties for drivers who do not finish a race are usually converted into grid penalties at the next race. However, since Norris completed more than 90% of the Canadian Grand Prix, he was officially “classified” in the results. This meant that the stewards could only issue a time penalty and not a grid penalty for the next round in Austria. However, the incident could have a significant impact on Norris’ hopes of winning the title after Piastri extended his lead at the top of the standings by 12 points, meaning it is now 22 in total.