‘He dive-bombed me’ - How Gasly-Alonso F1 clash led to Norris DNF

Alonso attempted to dive up the inside of Gasly at Turn 1 as the pair battle over ninth place on Lap 39, but the lunge resulted in contact that ultimately ruined both driver’s afternoons. 

Gasly made his feelings clear that Alonso was to blame for the incident. 

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“Fernando just dive-bombed into me, crashed into me and broke the rear right corner,” Gasly said after the race. 

“He came to apologise, but unfortunately it’s not going to give us back the points and it’s a big shame. 

“I’m disappointed because it was a great afternoon. We had a brilliant start passing Lewis [Hamilton] into Turn 1, running in P7 after that and we would have had a great battle with Fernando but he just took it a step too far and unfortunately it ruined our race.”

Meanwhile, Alonso, who picked up a five-second time penalty that cost him a points finish, conceded he was in the wrong for the coming together. 

“I closed the gap, and was very optimistic on the move with him,” the two-time world champion said. 

“I touched with Gasly again, got a penalty of five seconds. I deserved it. I braked too late. We were ready to give back the position but he was in the pits at that time, so I had to pay those five seconds.

“It was my mistake, it happens to me sometimes. Mick [Schumacher] spun in Imola and destroyed my race. Today, I destroyed Pierre’s race so it was my mistake.

“I feel sorry for him because I know how he feels and it was not his fault.”

Dramatic Gasly and Norris clash brings out Safety Car 

Gasly went on to make contact with Norris after re-emerging onto the track side-by-side with the McLaren driver after a wide moment at Turn 7. 

The pair tagged wheels with dramatic consequences. Norris was pitched into a violent spin into the barriers, forcing him to retire on the spot after his right-rear Pirelli was pulled off the rim. 

A dramatic end to Norris's race after contact with Gasly #MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/IM4tJoWjO1

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 8, 2022

Gasly explained that he had been trying to continue in the race but said the damage picked up in his earlier collision with Alonso had affected his steering. 

“We did one more lap to see if we could continue and the car was too damaged,” Gasly said. 

“I couldn’t stay on track, couldn’t turn left anymore. I was going slow after Turn 7. All the cars passed, I was trying to turn right to give room and then Norris came and clipped my front left tyre.

“I was so slow, I was just trying to squeeze the car as much to the right as I could. In Turn 8 I was turning right and he came and everything went quite fast, but I was trying to give room to everyone and he came and came close to me and clipped the front left.”

Norris initially suspected that Gasly had not been completely aware that he was approaching to his left. 

“He went off the track, had a lot of damage, from my opinion he just drifted over to the left quite a bit, the track is kinking to the right, he wasn’t turning to the right,” said Norris.

“If he was going to box, then he should be getting out of my way a lot more than he did. It’s tough.

“If he was struggling to control the car, it’s life, I’m unlucky. It happens in racing sometimes. If it wasn’t that bad, he shouldn’t be drifting on track like he was doing.

“It looked like he was looking in his right mirror and wasn’t looking where I was on his left. I’m not sure, I don’t want to blame him, I’ll speak to him and see what he says.”

But Gasly ultimately felt there was no reason to apologise to Norris. 

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” the Frenchman replied when asked if he would offer an apology. 

“I was trying to give room. He could have probably gone to the left. I was turning right.

“You guys can check the onboards, I don’t know where I could have gone and I was slow obviously just trying to get back to the pits.

“Unfortunate for him because that’s not the way you want to finish the race, but obviously it all started with Alonso crashing into us and breaking our car.”