McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battled on track during the Canadian Grand Prix, though the former of the drivers was left in the wall towards the end of the race.
McLaren didn’t issue an order to the drivers to avoid fighting on track, opting instead to let them race.
Norris ended up crashing into the wall, losing his front wing and unable to finish the race, leaving Canada with no points where he was expecting to come home with 10.
Oscar Piastri’s car was fine, finishing the race in P4.
Photo by Jayce Illman/Getty Images
Throughout the race weekend, the McLaren car struggled to get into an ideal operating window, despite being dominant for most of the season so far.
After a relatively poor qualifying for the team, Lando Norris started the race in P7, while Oscar Piastri was P3 when the lights went out.
How did the McLaren collision happen?
During the last 20 laps, Piastri and Norris ran P4 and P5, respectively. Norris pushed hard and got within the DRS range behind Piastri, pushing his teammate and applying pressure.
Meanwhile, the drivers’ championship leaders were fighting with Mercedes’ Kimi Antontelli for the last step on the podium.
Piastri spent a handful of laps attempting the move, all the while Norris closed in from behind.
Piastri was defending hard, closing any doors for his British teammate to make a move stick.
Both cars ran into massive traffic from lapped cars, creating a gap between the drivers as they navigated through the back markers.
Then, the drivers locked horns again, fighting down the main straight on track. Both McLarens ended up wheel-to-wheel down the straight line.
Norris tried to go around Piastri, though there was no space for Norris to go through, leading to contact with the racing wall and a massive shunt.
Who was at fault for the Piastri-Norris crash?
After the crash, Norris took responsibility for the incident while on the radio: “I’m sorry. All my bad. All my fault. Stupid from me.”
Piastri didn’t play an active role in the crash, defending in a fully compliant fashion and within the bounds of the rules.
It was Norris who forced the issue, seemingly growing impatient behind Piastri, trying a desperate maneuver.
After the race, during the media sessions, Norris apologized to Piastri for the risky maneuver that could have jeopardized both of their races.
Rather than deflect the blame, Norris metaphorically put his hand up and owned the mistake.
His approach will likely lead to the incident being water under the bridge between the drivers, but Norris’ championship aspiration took a massive blow.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
