Gasly questions stewards’ decision not to penalise Norris after Singapore clash

Pierre Gasly has challenged the FIA stewards’ decision not to penalise Lando Norris after his collision with Oscar Piastri in Singapore. “We’ve got stewards for that. They made up their minds. Whatever the ref says, the ref is right,” the Alpine driver said, in words that conveyed his disagreement.

The incident happened on the final lap of the sprint race. Norris attacked on the inside at Turn 5 as the McLarens held fourth and fifth, ahead of Leclerc, whose intermediate tyres were wearing down. Norris went for the inside at Turn 5. He was committed to the move as Piastri took his line; the cars collided and Piastri ended up against the barrier.

The stewards investigated the incident before classifying it as a racing incident in a bulletin released during qualifying, about three hours later. Their document said the driver of Car 81 had not expected Car 1 to attempt an overtake. After turning in, he saw it on the inside and tried to leave room. The driver of Car 1, meanwhile, believed he had moved far enough ahead to be left space. As he approached the apex, he found less room than expected, used the inside kerb and braked before the collision.

The stewards judged that both drivers had contributed to the incident, but that neither was wholly or predominantly to blame. They therefore took no further action. Norris recovered to finish eighth, ahead of Gasly.

The decision also mattered to Gasly: a penalty for Norris would have given him a point. At the beginning of this triple-header, his team-mate Franco Colapinto had been punished after an incident in Azerbaijan. In Baku, Colapinto locked up at the first corner as the race restarted after a safety-car deployment and hit Gasly, who then collided with Norris. Those earlier events help explain Gasly’s interest in the Singapore ruling, without changing the stewards’ finding on the Norris-Piastri collision.