Lando Norris went directly to Oscar Piastri in the media pen to apologise for his contact with his McLaren team-mate. The Brit crashed into the back of the Australian after misjudging an attack on the run down to Turn One.

On the radio after crashing out, Norris took immediate responsibility for the contact. Fortunately for him, his team-mate escaped the incident unscathed, although this had major implications on the championship picture. Piastri is now 22 points clear of his McLaren colleague at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings. Norris’ reaction showed maturity, though. After owning his mistake in the cockpit, he made a point of apologising to Piastri in the media pen, and made no attempt to shirk responsibility in the ensuing interviews.

In his interview with Sky Sports F1, Norris was visibly dejected. “No one to blame but myself, so I apologise to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something probably a bit too silly,” he said. “Glad I didn’t ruin his race. In the end, apologies to the team.”

Norris was then referred to some of his previous comments about contact with Piastri being inevitable. “This was just more silly,” he said. “This wasn’t even like a ‘that’s racing’ [thing], it was just silly from my part.”

Offering his thoughts on the contact, Piastri said: “Obviously it’s not ideal for anyone, but I haven’t actually seen the incident, so I don’t know what exactly happened. But if Lando has taken full responsibility then that’s how it goes, I guess. Just a bit of a tricky race in general, and not an ideal finish.”

Team principal Andrea Stella hinted that Norris is heading for an uncomfortable team review on Monday. “It’s something we definitely need to review because this is a very clear principle,” he said. “At the same time, it’s a contact that happened because of a misjudgement Just Lando misjudged the distance to the car ahead and therefore there was no malintent.

“Lando owned immediately, took responsibility for that, but certainly something to discuss and review. Our principles are already in place, our drivers will have something to learn further and we go racing again.

“It is absolutely a misjudgement that cost Lando quite a lot in the championship. It already cost for the team so definitely an incident that should have not happened.”