The 2025 Canadian Grand Prix was threatening to be a pedestrian one before Lando Norris crashed into the back of his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri and ended the race with a safety car.
Yet there’s no bad blood between the championship leader and Norris, who is now 22 points behind in the standings.
After the race, Norris went up to Piastri and apologised in view of media - a touch that Piastri said he appreciated.
“Lando is a very good guy and I think it's in his character and in his personality to say exactly what he thinks… and if that's detrimental to himself then, or if it's about himself, then it doesn't matter for him, and I think that's a great quality of Lando," Piastri said.
“I think it's good for the whole team going forwards that we can have these conversations and go racing like this and have things not go the way we want and get through them.”
Norris was told that Piastri had commended his approach to the incident.
“Yeah, I'm happy he said that,” replied Norris.
“Of course he's not going to be happy altogether with what happened. I wouldn't be either if it was the other way around.
“So, I owe him an apology for taking such a risk. He raced me fairly until that point, and close, and that's what you want. No one did nothing wrong here, just myself."
Norris admitted that he broke “rule number one” in making contact with his team-mate and felt compelled to apologise.
“McLaren is my family, I race for them every single weekend. I try and do well for them, more than I often try and do well for myself.
“So when I let them down like this, and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, I have a lot of regret in something like that.
“So I'm not proud of that, and I feel bad, and I feel like I let my down my team. And that's for me always the worst feeling. So of course, I really need to apologise to all of them. And Oscar as well.”
As for the incident itself, Piastri said he hadn’t had a look at it immediately after the race and Norris conceded that he took “way too much risk” in diving to the left and hitting the other McLaren.
Piastri ended up taking fourth place behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and Mercedes’ polesitter/winner George Russell.
Despite that, both McLaren drivers were happy with their race pace, with Norris saying it was “quite easily the quickest on track.”
Qualifying, on the other hand, is a different story. Piastri lined up third on the grid and Norris seventh.
“It's quite obvious to us that our weakness is qualifying at the minute as a team, of course myself too,” said Norris. “That’s something I have to work on.
“We’ve clearly always struggled more in qualifying this season than we have in the race. That showed again this weekend.”
It doesn’t seem like this incident has much bearing on the way Norris and Piastri will operate; while there’s been plenty of anticipation over a Norris-Piastri clash, this incident has been the only flashpoint (albeit a muted one) between the two.
“I think everything will stay the same. If it had been a crash in a corner and clearly we got it wrong and [were] too aggressive then that's one thing, but it was a bit of an unfortunate incident really on a straight, effectively,” said Piastri.
“So for me, I don't think it will change anything, and I think that's the way it should be, because ultimately we're both trying to fight for a world championship.”
Norris, on the other hand, said: “I let down the team so that's going to stay with me for a while, but at the same time part of moving on is trying to put it behind you and then crack on with the next weekend.
“But you know, we go back to the factory and I go and say hello to the whole team and I'm sure that's not going to be a nice moment for me… I think the best part of it is nothing happened to Oscar. Yes, you might have to say that, it's the best part of it.”
