Lando Norris has apologised to Franco Colapinto after calling for the Argentine driver to be banned following their race-ending collision at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Colapinto locked his brakes at the restart after a safety-car period and slid into Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, whose car then struck Norris’s McLaren, forcing all three drivers out. Colapinto admitted making a “big mistake” and apologised, while an emotional Norris initially responded: “Give him a ban. It’s quite simple.”
The world champion later withdrew the remark, saying he had personally messaged Colapinto to apologise and acknowledged that “emotions were running high but that is not an excuse, it was wrong of me.”
Norris added that he had made his own mistakes during his career and said the pair remained good friends. Colapinto received a 10-second penalty for the incident, which was converted into a five-place grid penalty because he had already retired, to be served at the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
