Norris repeats painful McLaren history in Canada

Russell beats Verstappen for emphatic win

The incident steals some of the limelight from George Russell’s first win of the season, which is a shame, because the Mercedes driver put in a truly accomplished performance to see off Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Somehow it was inevitable that after Verstappen drove into Russell on purpose at the Spanish Grand Prix they should find themselves sharing the front row in Montréal. But fears of another coming together, this time at the first corner, were quickly scotched as Russell made a clean getaway from a well-earned pole position to thwart Verstappen’s hopes of stealing the lead.

In a slow-burn race dominated by variations on Pirelli tyre strategy that finally converged for a closely fought finale, Russell always looked calm and in command. He responded to any threat Verstappen could pose, either in attack or on pitstop timing, and the Mercedes led the Red Bull across the line as the race finished behind the safety car thanks to the scattered debris left by Norris’ crashed McLaren.

But was there gamesmanship at play in those final moments? Was Russell trying to draw a penalty from Verstappen in the way he was braking suddenly behind the safety car? It looked a touch suspicious, especially after so much talk about the World Champion’s accrual of penalty points and potential race ban if he earned one more.

Whatever, Russell fully earned his fourth Formula 1 win. “It’s amazing to be back on the top step, obviously the last time for us was back in Las Vegas [last year],” he said. The result made up for what he considers a lost victory in the rain-affected 2024 Canadian Grand Prix, and he put the strength of Mercedes in Montréal down to the cooler temperatures. Repeat results week in, week out won’t necessarily follow, he warned.

Antonelli’s first podium

Behind the top two, teenager Kimi Antonelli scored his first F1 podium — surely the first of many. From fourth on the grid, Antonelli expertly picked off a slightly cautious Piastri at the start, played the strategy game with a straight bat, then was saved from having to defend his podium from the fast-closing McLarens by Norris’ mistake. Antonelli is the third-youngest podium finisher in the F1 World Championship’s 75-year history, behind Verstappen and Lance Stroll.

Bad weekend for Norris

As for Norris, this is a Canadian Grand Prix best forgotten quickly. He’d only qualified a lacklustre seventh, having struggled through Friday and Saturday, but at least looked set to limit the damage by using an offset strategy to make a net gain of two places in the race.

That left him hard on Piastri’s tail in fifth as the race entered its closing stages. Norris had warned that in all likelihood the team-mates would come together at some point, given how they are fighting it out for the World Championship. Now that time arrived.

On lap 67 of 70, Norris made his move and initially it was a good one. Late on the brakes into the hairpin, his McLaren slid up the inside line beside Piastri’s, only for the Australian to fight back as the two cars accelerated onto the back straight. They were neck and neck into the braking area for the chicane, Piastri cooly leaving it late to claim his line and keep his fourth position. But Norris still carried momentum and was keen to act quickly to use it.

He edged towards a space to the left of Piastri as the McLarens shot along the start/finish. The plan was clearly to move up on the outside for the kink right, to leave himself on the inside for the left-handed first turn — not uncommon at this section of track.

But Norris judged it horribly. The gap was never there, and Piastri had not deviated from his line — just as Button didn’t in his duel with Hamilton all those years ago. As then, the chasing McLaren clipped the one in front and then clobbered the pitwall hard. Unlike then, Piastri didn’t go on to win the race as Button did so famously — which might be of small consolation to a despondent Norris.

“I thought Oscar would move a bit more to the right, not to leave a gap, obviously — I don’t expect something to be easy from him, but I just misjudged it,” Norris explained. “It was all my mistake, I take full blame, so I apologise to my whole team and to Oscar for attempting something like that.”

Then again, surely he had to go for it given that he’s fighting for a World Championship? “Yeah, but there’s going for it like in the hairpin — a good, fair move — and there’s being stupid like I was at the end.”

You have to love his honesty. But Norris must simply stop making so many unforced errors. As it is, he’s now fallen to 22 points behind Piastri in the standings thanks to this silly non-score and Piastri surviving the ‘friendly fire’ to still finish fourth. Not for the first time this season, the Briton needs a positive and quick response to make amends and close the gap once again.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.