Lando Norris slams Sergio Perez after collision: ‘It’s nothing new’

Norris and Perez collided in the latter stages of Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Lando Norris was highly critical of Sergio Perez after the pair collided in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, insisting “he crashes into a lot of people.”

As the race entered its final stages, Red Bull driver Perez looked to take fourth place from the Brit at turn six, diving down the inside.

The pair touched, with Norris taking to the escape road, and Perez was later given a five-second time penalty due to “causing a collision.”

McLaren driver Norris was unequivocal afterwards about who was at fault.

“I was expecting it to be honest – it was nothing new,” Norris said afterwards.

“He crashes into a lot of people so not something new for anyone to know.

“But I did give him a lot of space. And so it didn’t change my race at the end of the day. It was a tough day, we just didn’t have the pace we wanted.”

Norris finished the race in fifth, with Perez overtaking him comfortably on the next lap. It meant the Brit finished sixth in the drivers’ standings, while McLaren beat Aston Martin to fourth in the constructors’ championship.

Lando Norris was not happy with Sergio Perez after their collision in Abu Dhabi (Getty Images)

“I’m still happy we as a team beat Aston Martin, that was our target and we achieved it,” he added.

Perez, however, was furious and was given a formal warning after describing the stewards’ decision as a “joke”.

The Mexican doubled down on the criticism afterwards: "I think the stewards were very poor today in my opinion.

"We’ve seen a lot worse, we touched tyre to tyre, Lando cut the corner and I still had the penalty."

Perez, despite dropping from second to fourth as a result of his penalty, comfortably finished second in the drivers’ championship for his best-ever season finish in F1.