Lando Norris had been attempting to minimize the impact of his poor qualifying but made an ill-advised move and collided with teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri
Lando Norris crashed out after contact with team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri, but admitted it was all his fault. They were duelling for position with three laps to go in Montreal when Norris tried to push past the Aussie.
But there was no room as he tried to move past on the start-finish straight and he clipped the back of the other McLaren, sending him into the wall. And that was a huge blow to his title ambitions with Piastri able to continue and finish fourth, while Norris would leave Canada pointless and kicking himself.
Over the radio, he immediately apologised and said: "All my fault." George Russell won the race, proving that Mercedes can handle the heat as he secured his first win of the season in the Montreal sunshine.
Mercedes have struggled on warmer tracks this season and Toto Wolff was worried before yesterday’s race with temperatures 10 degrees higher than in practice. But Russell found the pace not only to fend off Max Verstappen at the first corner but also to keep the Red Bull behind throughout a mostly low-key race.
And McLaren were denied a podium for the first time all year with championship leader Piastri fourth, having lost a place to teenager Kimi Antonelli on the first lap. It was the teenager’s first podium in Formula 1 and secured a double podium for the Silver Arrows.
Norris looked to have limited the damage caused by his poor qualifying by closing in on Piastri in the final stages. But his crash saw him throw away all the points he was due to score and saw the race end behind the safety car.
All the pre-race hype of a blockbuster duel into turn one fizzled away when Russell got a better launch off the line than Verstappen, easily holding the lead into turn one. The only change from the starting grid on the first lap was on the second row with Antonelli getting the jump on Piastri to snatch third place from the McLaren.
As then Antonelli closed in on Verstappen, the Dutchman dove into the pits to shed his failing tyres and that prompted Russell to stop too, to prevent the undercut. On the radio, Norris’ race engineer told the Brit, who started on the hard tyres with an alternative strategy: "We need one of those amazing races from you."
He produced exactly that – by the time everyone had made their final stops, Norris was on the back of a top five train separated by only a few seconds. But though his strategy had paid off, the McLarens were finding it tough to close in on Antonelli ahead who had the pace in his Mercedes to keep Piastri at arm’s length.
And then it was all over when Norris went for a gap that simply wasn’t there and got himself sandwiched between Piastri and the pit wall. Lewis Hamilton finished sixth having moaned: "We’re nowhere in this race. He suffered damage early in the race which cost him crucial downforce.
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