A furious Lando Norris has called for a rival F1 driver to be hit with a race ban after he was wiped out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. George Russell completed a lights-to-flag victory in the crash-marred race, with Max Verstappen second and Isack Hadjar third.
Oscar Piastri blew a chance at a podium finish when he locked up with third place in his grasp with 10 laps remaining, sliding straight into the run-off. The Aussie ended up in 14th place, however the final result was overturned following a post-race penalty.
Franco Colapinto (L) wiped out Lando Norris, while George Russell (R) cut into Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead. Image: F1/Getty
Piastri was elevated to 13th when Gabriel Bortoleto was hit with a 10-second time penalty for overtaking under yellow flags, which sent him back to 15th. It meant Sergio Perez also had his final result changed from 15th to 14th.
Bortoleto was joined by Franco Colapinto in copping a post-race penalty after the Argentine caused a crash that wiped out Norris and teammate Pierre Gasly. Colapinto didn’t finish the race, so a 10-second sanction was instead converted to a five-place grid penalty for the next race in Malaysia.
Colapinto locked up his cold front tyres on a lap 36 restart, ploughing straight into Gasly which knocked the other Alpine driver into Norris. All three cars were unable to continue.
Lando Norris calls for Franco Colapinto ban
Speaking after the race, Norris called for Colapinto to face a ban of at least one race. “I think the FIA should be stricter and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff,” Norris said.
“It’s careless from people. It costs a lot of money; all my parts are in the bin now. People should just get banned, because that’s not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1.
“I think you expect drivers to anticipate things. Grip is going to be low, tyre temps are low. They weren’t even that low. In Formula 1, we want to be against the best drivers in the world, and when stuff like this happens, it’s because [they] shouldn’t be there. I’ve not seen it, but if you cause a crash in a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban.”
Colapinto was apologetic after the incident, saying: “A big mistake. I locked up completely with cold tyres and cold brakes and was out of control completely. Not a lot to say more than sorry to the team, to Pierre of course, to all the factory.
“We’ve been working really hard to score points and I threw it away with that big mistake. So, I’m very sad for the team. Of course it’s a big disappointment. I’m sorry to Lando as well.”
Franco Colapinto caused chaos in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Image: F1
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli started 16th due to a crash in qualifying, but recovered to finish fifth and maintain a 66-point lead from Russell with eight races remaining.