McLaren drivers address in-race contact after Monza near-miss

McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have played down the contact they made during the Italian Grand Prix, with the pair having almost come to blows at Monza.

The McLaren duo were running close together throughout the first stint at Monza, but Norris pitted before Piastri in an undercut attempt to try and move ahead of his team-mate.

Once Piastri pitted, he emerged level with Norris on track and under braking for the Rettifilo Chicance, Piastri locked up and tagged wheels with Norris.

McLaren drivers discuss Italian Grand Prix near-miss

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The contact between the McLaren pair drew tough words from team principal Andrea Stella after the race, who said it was “not acceptable” that they should be in a position to collide with each other, and there “must be no contact” in future.

Norris eventually claimed the position from his rookie team-mate, but he was happy to look past the incident as no major damage occurred between the two of them.

“所以他刚刚understeer, I left enough of a gap, I think, but it’s impossible to see,” Norris told media including PlanetF1.com after the race.

“It’s very difficult to see in the mirror. I left a good gap but hard and cold tyres is not a nice combination, and I guess he just ran into my rear tyre.

“We respect each other, we give each other space and [it’s] unfortunate but nothing happened, so all okay.”

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As for Piastri, he was on the wrong side of the incident having lost out to Norris with an undercut, and he expects talks to take place within McLaren to establish what happened between the two and how it can be avoided in future.

“Yeah, I mean, obviously not ideal,” Piastri said.

“Fortunate to have both [been] fine after that. Yeah, of course, the intention is never to get that.

“I’m sure we’ll talk about it with the team. Obviously, it was not an ideal scenario.

“I mean, I broke where I broke, and I couldn’t really slow down much more than that. I mean, I was at the limit of locking up and it was tight.

“In the end, nothing happened, so I’m sure we’ll talk about it.”

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