At the Canadian Grand Prix, Lando Norris received what was widely considered a lenient penalty for causing a collision with his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, with only four laps remaining.
Attempting to pass Piastri for fourth position, Norris misjudged the space, making contact with the rear of his teammate`s car and subsequently damaging his own suspension against the pit wall.
The crash immediately ended Norris`s race. Following the event, the British driver took full responsibility for the incident during interviews with the media.
Later that Sunday evening, the race stewards investigated the collision. They concluded that Norris was entirely to blame but imposed only a five-second time penalty. This penalty had no practical effect on his final result, as he was classified 18th, several laps behind the leaders.
Furthermore, the stewards decided against assigning any penalty points to Norris`s super licence for the incident, a matter solely within their discretion.
Despite the incident ending Norris`s race and costing him a points finish, he appeared to escape significant consequences from the stewards, as the penalty neither altered his outcome nor affected his future penalty points tally.
While the standard penalty for causing a collision is ten seconds and two penalty points, the stewards` statement explained their more lenient decision for the Norris incident, citing that it did not negatively impact the race outcome of any other driver.
Their official statement read: “The Stewards determined that the driver of Car 4 [Norris] was solely to blame for the collision. Because the collision had no immediate and obvious sporting consequence, we imposed a 5 second time post-race time penalty on Car 4.”
Normally, time penalties for drivers who retire are converted into grid penalties for the next race. However, because Norris completed more than 90% of the Canadian Grand Prix, he was officially `classified` in the final results. This classification meant the stewards were limited to issuing a time penalty rather than a grid penalty for the subsequent race in Austria.
Nonetheless, the incident could significantly impact Norris`s championship aspirations, as Piastri extended his lead in the standings by 12 points, bringing the total gap to 22 points.
