“The last thing I want is to make contact with my teammate,” Norris offers his verdict on his collision with Piastri

F1 Grand Prix, GP Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit

Reflecting on the incident with his team-mate Oscar Piastri at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix, Lando Norris reckoned that “the last thing I want is to make contact with my teammate.”

Pole-sitter George Russell maintained his lead at the start, and although Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had a slow getaway off the line despite his bold tyre choice for the start, he also hang on to his starting position.

However, there was drama behind between the McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The Briton had a great start from P5 on the grid, and boldly attacked Piastri into Turn 3.

Norris then went so deep at Turn 3 that he tagged the back of Verstappen’s car, before making contact with Piastri’s sister McLaren, who slightly touched the wall as a result of the incident.

Asked to offer his verdict on the incident, Norris added: “I’ve still not even seen it. I still need to go in and see it. I might look at it and think there’s something else I could have done or done better. Anyone on the grid would have done exactly the same thing as I did.

“So I think if you fault me for just going on the inside and putting my car on the inside of a big gap, then, yeah, I think you shouldn’t be in Formula 1. So, you know, I don’t think there was anything wrong that I did.

“Of course, I misjudged a little bit how close I was to Max, but that’s racing. Nothing happened otherwise, and I’m sure I still would have ended up ahead of Oscar anyway because I was on the inside and he would have had the dirty side of the track on the outside.

The Briton continued: “So, I need to go review it, of course. I need to look at things and see if there was something I could have done better.

“The last thing I want is to make contact with my teammate, especially because all I get is questions from you guys. So, you know, I’m the one that can’t afford anything compared to him.

“I would put myself at risk just as much if that kind of thing happens. So, yeah, I’ll see what I can do with it next time. But the FIA obviously thought it was fine, and the team did too. So, that’s it,” Norris concluded.