Charles Leclerc gives take on bizarre Lando Norris pitlane crash

Charles Leclerc has explained his pitlane crash with Lando Norris during second practice at the Singapore Grand Prix.

In a chaotic practice session disrupted by two red flag periods, Leclerc and Norris came to blows in a bizarre and ridiculous collision in the pit lane.

Amid the desperation to get back on track following red flags caused by crashes for George Russell and Liam Lawson, Leclerc hit Norris after Ferrari released him directly into the McLaren driver’s path.

Norris was pushed into the pit wall and broke his front wing, forcing his McLaren crew to wheel him back to his pit box for repairs.

The embarrassing incident is currently under investigation.

“Good FP1, very difficult FP2,” Leclerc summarised after ending up ninth-fastest ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton at the end of Friday practice in Singapore.

“It’s been just a very messy FP2 with the traffic and with the red flags and with the pit lane incident, so lots of things going on, which haven’t been very positive.

“But we’ll reset and come back tomorrow stronger. I think the pace is in the car, so that’s the good one.”

On his collision with Norris, Leclerc said: “I’ve analysed it. My camera was on my face so I couldn’t see to double check with my mechanic but speaking with him it was a bit of confusion with the two McLarens going out.

“It looked like they were going out at the same time, so he thought they would go out slower, so I didn’t have a message to stop.

“On these kind of cases you rely on the team but these kind of things happen. It was also in a tricky moment because with all the red flags, everyone was in a rush to get out to do some laps.

“It’s a combination of things. It’s not something you want but these things happen.”

Pit lane incident ‘entirely unnecessary’

Sky Sports F1 pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz, who watched the incident happen in front of him, blasted both McLaren and Ferrari for allowing the crash to occur.

"That was ill-judged and badly executed by everybody,” he said. “In this scramble to get out ahead of everyone else, let's try and get out without crashing into anyone.

"That was entirely unnecessary. They have checked Lando Norris' front suspension but Lando had to feel the car at 10mph going down the pit lane to see if it was OK.”

Norris appeared to be unfazed about the incident and was more unhappy with his own performance in second practice.

“No, it cost the team a bit of money, which is a shame,” Norris responded when asked if he was frustrated by what happened.