Lando Norris has apologised to Franco Colapinto after calling for the Argentine driver to be banned following their collision at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The incident happened at the restart after a safety-car period in Baku. Colapinto locked his brakes and slid into Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, whose car then made contact with Norris’ McLaren. All three drivers were forced to retire from the race.
Colapinto accepted responsibility for the crash and acknowledged that he had made a serious error. Norris reacted strongly immediately afterwards, arguing that the Alpine driver should receive a ban for causing the accident.
The reigning world champion later reconsidered those comments and contacted Colapinto directly to apologise. Norris said emotions had been running high after a frustrating weekend, but accepted that his reaction had gone too far.
He also acknowledged that mistakes are an unavoidable part of racing at the limit and pointed to errors he has made during his own career.
Norris said the two drivers had resolved the issue privately and remain on good terms ahead of the next race weekend.
Colapinto received a 10-second penalty for causing the collision. Because he had already retired from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the sanction was converted into a five-place grid penalty, which he is set to serve at the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix weekend in Malaysia.