Lance Stroll, Racing Point, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Stroll and Norris cleared over collision

2019 Spanish Grand Prix

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Lando Norris and Lance Stroll have escaped any penalty over the collision which put both drivers out of the Spanish Grand Prix.

The pair collided at turn two on the 45th lap of the race as Norris tried to overtake Stroll on the inside of turn two.

After examining video of the collision and speaking to both drivers, the stewards decided to take no action.

“Car four [Norris] attempted to pass car 18 [Stroll], on the outside, in turn one but did not in the view of the stewards, complete the overtake because the car four was not completely alongside car 18,” the stewards noted.

“The driver of car four believed that he had the right to be allowed “racing room” into turn two whereas the driver of car 18 stated that he was on the racing line in turn one and had to take turn two by remaining on the racing line. He stated he was not aware at that point, of the location of car four.

“The stewards believe that the driver of car four could have backed out of the attempted overtake into turn two and also that the driver of car 18 might have been more aware of the possibility that car four could be on his inside.

“Accordingly, we believe that neither driver was ‘wholly or predominantly to blame’ and therefore in accordance with Article 38.2 a) of the Formula One Sporting Regulations, ‘no penalty will be imposed’.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Stroll and Norris cleared over collision”

  1. An acceptable decision even if I still feel Stroll was slightly more to blame for it than Norris, i.e., he’s the one who had a higher chance to avoid the contact.

    1. I fail to understand this. AFAIK, the rule says you have to give a car’s width if the other car is alongside, i. e., if his front wing is ahead of your rear wing. That was very clearly the situation here, so according to the rule it would be clearly Stroll’s fault. Then again, it looks like for some reason this rule is ignored all the time.

      1. I thought the rule was that a significant portion of the car needs to be alongside, not just the front wing…

        Still Stroll needs some driving lessons if he had no clue Norris was there…

  2. Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
    12th May 2019, 19:10

    So they didn’t give Stroll a penalty because

    car four could have backed out of the attempted overtake

    ??? That’s very weird. Norris had every right to be where he was, attempted to avoid contact in every reasonable way by going over the curbs and attempting to back out of it, but Stroll just closed the door on him. The FIA have said they want to encourage overtaking, so saying that a driver doesn’t get a penalty for avoidable contact because the other driver could have backed out of the overtake which they attempted is frankly ridiculous.

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      12th May 2019, 19:14

      Stroll took his usual line. Although Noris has been quite easily along side, at the time they contacted, Stroll had almost totally pulled ahead again. Stroll should have been aware given how close Noris was to him just before that he may still be there, but I also agree that Noris was somewhat optimistic. I think it was a racing incident and they were both equally to blame. But neither IMO did anything that bad at all. It was just an unfortunate outcome.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        12th May 2019, 19:15

        I need to remember that it is Norris not Noris!

  3. Neil (@neilosjames)
    12th May 2019, 19:39

    Racing incident, but I think more blame lies with Norris than Stroll. He had a far better view of what was happening, and was behind, but just left his nose in as if he was entitled to the racing line in T2.

    1. @neilosjames Agreed. In what’s likely to be the only time I’ll ever jump to Stroll’s defence, I reckon Norris is fortunate to avoid a post-race penalty here.

    2. I think so too. Maybe still a racing incident but at least it seemed stupid from Norris as it was never going to work.

  4. pastaman (@)
    12th May 2019, 20:30

    Neither driver predominantly to blame, good call.

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