Lando Norris regrets making contact with Charles Leclerc: 'I didn't want that to happen'

Birthday boy Lando Norris defended himself after an early Sao Paulo Grand Prix collision with Charles Leclerc that earned him a five-second penalty.

The McLaren and the Ferrari touched after the restart following the Safety Car period triggered by an incident that had caused the retirement of Norris' teammate Daniel Ricciardo and Haas' Kevin Magnussen.

Leclerc flew into the barriers, but his race was not over, getting back to the pits for a new front wing and finishing a highly creditable fourth. In contrast, Norris later exited with a suspected electrical problem.

A huge collision for Charles Leclerc... but amazingly, he recovered to fourth! ??#BrazilGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/rAcCTSxfTZ

What happened?

On the day he turned 23, there were no gifts from the stewards at Interlagos for Norris, who was given a five-second penalty and two points on his licence for a collision he thought was nothing more than a "racing incident".

"He tried to go around the outside; there was a bit of contact," explained Norris during his post-race interview with Sky F1.

"Obviously, I didn't want any contact, I need a clean race, but I'm not just going to let everyone pass. I'm not here to let everyone pass.

"I tried to hold my line, and I held my line as much as possible. Maybe I could have given 5cm more, and he could have given 5cm more.

"Maybe he should expect a little bit more, me not being able to hold the inside line the whole way through, but I did my best.

"I feel it was a bit of a racing incident - I know he came off worse, and that's a shame. Obviously, I didn't want that to happen, but that wasn't the problem, that was just life, and the rest of it was we were just way too slow.

"The car wasn't performing well today, that's all, and we didn't even