For Alpine, Baku had looked like a chance to bring both cars home in the points. By lap 36 of Saturdayâs Azerbaijan Grand Prix, both cars were out of the race â and Lando Norrisâs McLaren had been caught in the same collision.
The trouble came at the restart after a safety car period caused by Alex Albonâs crash. As the field rushed towards Turn 1, Franco Colapinto locked up and hit his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly. Gaslyâs car then struck Norris. Race control sent the safety car back out while all three driversâ races came to an end.
Norris called for tougher penalties as he spoke to reporters after retiring. âI think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. Itâs just careless from people,â he said, according to GRANDE PRĂMIO, which attended the media session. Norris said the crash had left his carâs parts unusable and argued that driving of that standard did not belong in Formula 1. He had not yet watched a replay when he made the remarks.
âI cannot believe it, so many points gone,â Gasly said over the radio after the contact, according to Motorsport.comâs live coverage.
Alpineâs promising weekend unravels
The collision was especially painful after Alpineâs qualifying performance. Gasly had taken seventh and Colapinto had also reached the final stage of qualifying. Speaking before the race, Gasly said the car gave him âgood confidenceâ for Baku and that the team was âstarting in a good place for some good points.â
Colapinto had sounded less comfortable. After locking up during qualifying, he told Formula 1: âIâm not very comfortable in the hard braking zones, and here itâs full of those.â He said he would work to improve for the race. His later lock-up at the restart proved far more costly.
Norris had his own difficult afternoon before the collision. A lock-up at Turn 1 had cost him positions ahead of the first safety car, leaving him among the drivers fighting through the midfield when the race resumed. He had warned after qualifying that overtaking in Baku would be âvery complicated.â The restart ended any chance he had to recover.
More trouble for McLaren after the restart
Norris was not the only McLaren driver to leave Baku disappointed. Oscar Piastri was running third after the second safety car, but went deep at Turn 1 while defending from Isack Hadjar. He fell out of the points and finished 14th, while Hadjar took third on his return from a wrist injury.
George Russell held off Max Verstappen to win by a tenth of a second. For Alpine and McLaren, though, the defining moments came behind the leaders: one crowded restart ended three races, and another braking mistake took away Piastriâs podium chance. Formula 1âs race report confirms the finishing order and the sequence of incidents.
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