McLaren attempted to play down any acrimony between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after they collided at the Canadian GP, with the Briton crashing out, as George Russell claimed a decisive victory for Mercedes after starting on pole.
Norris’s failure to finish, crashing out from fifth with three laps left, means the Australian, who finished fourth, increases his championship lead over his teammate to 22 points. Russell sits in fourth in the standings, 62 points off Piastri.
Norris was quick to hold up his hands over the crash on the team radio. “All my bad, all my fault, stupid from me,” he said straight after the incident. Later he added: “There’s no one to blame but myself, so I apologise to the whole team and to Oscar for attempting something probably a bit too silly. I’m glad I didn’t ruin his race.”
The McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, told Sky Sports: “We definitely never want to see the two McLarens touching each other. At the same time, it’s a contact that happened because of a misjudgment. Lando misjudged the distance to the car ahead. There was no malintent and Lando owned up immediately, took responsibility, which we appreciate. But it’s certainly something to discuss and review.”
Piastri said the tussle between the two drivers had been a fair one. “It was a tough battle but a clean one. I don’t think there were any bad intentions involved, I think it was just unfortunate. We’re both fighting for a world championship and I’m very thankful to the team that they allow us to race. I don’t expect this to change anything in terms of that.”
The long straights, heavy braking zones, kerbs and lack of long, fast corners at the Montreal circuit did not play to the strengths of McLaren’s car, which has set the pace everywhere else in 2025, and Norris is fortunate his error cost him a fifth place, not second. It is not the first time Norris has made costly errors this season, while Piastri, a small error in Australia in greasy conditions apart, has been a model of consistency.
