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ESPN staff
BARCELONA, Spain — The clash between Lando Norris and Lance Stroll which nearly turned the Spanish Grand Prix on its head has been declared a racing incident, despite both drivers hinting that the other was to blame.
Stroll caught Norris at the start of lap 45 and moved to overtake on the inside. The pair went through the first corner close together, with Stroll marginally ahead, but tangled as the Racing Point driver turned towards the apex for Turn 2.
Both cars spun out into the gravel and into the wall. Norris briefly got his McLaren going again, scattering gravel across the track in the process, but retired a little further down the road. The incident led to the Safety Car being deployed, closing the field back up and creating some late drama in a race which had been severely lacking it until that point.
Stroll felt there was nothing different he could have done, saying: « There was not much room there. I had to make the corner, so I turned in. There wasn’t much I could do. I braked on the inside and went deep into the first corner, and then I had to turn in for the next corner and unfortunately there was not enough space for both cars. »
« It was pretty simple to be honest. I was on the outside into Turn 1, he knew I was there, he defended into Turn 1. After that, I don’t know if he saw me going into Turn 2 but I was still on the inside then for Turn 2 and he just turned in and didn’t leave me enough space basically.
« He cut across the front of my car and he put himself out of the race and me out of the race. So a bit annoyed I didn’t get to finish my fifth grand prix, but at the end of the day we weren’t in the points so it didn’t cost us as much as it could have done in another race or anything. I didn’t think it was my fault, but I was the guy driving the car so I effectively lost the race for the team. It wasn’t for points, so it wasn’t as annoying as it could have been if we were in the points. »
The stewards looked at the incident and declared neither driver was « wholly or predominantly to blame », meaning neither picked up a penalty for the next race or points on the superlicence, which can accumulate towards a one-race ban.
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/26731319/lando-norris-lance-stroll-clash-declared-racing-incident
