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Lando Norris' first Miami Grand Prix was cut short after the Briton made contact with Pierre Gasly on lap 41. The Briton admitted that if Gasly was going for a position, the collision could merely be written off as a racing incident. Given that the AlphaTauri driver was already set to retire the car due to pre-existing issues, Norris found it a bit "silly" that he did not simply get out of the way.
In a post-race media interaction, the McLaren driver commented on the incident that cost him his race, saying:
“It was difficult, it was hot, it was sweaty. A shame, I think it just ended in a silly way. Someone said on the radio he was going to retire or something so if that is the case, then I think what he did was silly and you know, if you’re going to retire, you just out of the way of people racing. If he was racing and still going for a position, then I would say it’s a racing incident kind of a thing. I could’ve left more, he could’ve left more. But if he was going to retire, then I just think it was a silly incident from his part and he should have just got out of the way.”
Despite securing his best qualifying position so far in the 2022 F1 season, Gasly made contact with Fernando Alonso earlier in the race, which caused significant damage to the car.
"It’s life, I’m unlucky" - Lando Norris on incident with Pierre Gasly
Lando Norris, who secured his first podium of the season two weeks ago at Imola, had an unlucky race in Miami, where he failed to see the checkered flag for no fault of his own.
Reflecting on the incident with Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri, Norris said:
“If he was going to box, then he should be getting out of my way a lot more than he did. It’s tough. If he was struggling to control the car, it’s life, I’m unlucky. It happens in racing sometimes.”
Gasly, meanwhile, told The Race his side of the story, saying:
“We did one more lap to see if we could continue and the car was too damaged. I couldn’t stay on track, couldn’t even steer left anymore. I was going slow after Turn 7. All the cars passed, I was trying to keep right to give room and then Norris came and clipped my front left tyre. I was so slow I was just trying to squeeze the car as much to the right as I could. In Turn 8 I was turning right and he came and everything went quite fast but I was trying to give room to everyone and he came and came close to me and clipped the front left.”
Lando Norris now stands seventh in the driver standings, while Pierre Gasly is down in thirteenth.
