Oscar Piastri survives collision with McLaren teammate Lando Norris to finish fourth in Canadian Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were involved in a dramatic collision which knocked the Briton out of the Canadian Grand Prix and turned the F1 world title race into a McLaren civil war.

Australia’s Oscar Piastri survived unscathed from his first high-speed collision with Lando Norris to finish fourth in Monday morning’s Canadian Grand Prix and extend his lead in the Formula One world championship after his McLaren teammate admitted he badly messed up.

George Russell claimed his first Grand Prix victory of 2025 for Mercedes ahead of Max Verstappen in his Red Bull and Italian teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli.

But it was the drama in the closing laps that was the talking point: After avoiding contact with each other throughout the first nine races of the season, the two McLaren drivers finally came to grief in race 10 when they touched wheels four laps from the chequered flag at Montreal when Norris attempted a foolish overtake on the pit straight.

The under-pressure Englishman completely overplayed his hand when he went for a narrow gap that just wasn’t wide enough to pass and slammed his car into a concrete barrier, ending his race there and then.

“I’m sorry. It’s all my bad, all my fault,” Norris told his engineers over the team radio. “Unlucky, sorry. Stupid from me.”

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Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris crash Snippet 4x3

Norris personally apologised to Piastri straight after the race and the Australian said he accepted his explanation that it was just a simple misjudgment.

“Obviously it’s not ideal for anyone. I haven’t actually seen the incident so I don’t know what exactly happened,” Piastri said.

“But if Lando’s taken full responsibility then that’s how it goes I guess. It was just a bit of a tricky race in general and not an ideal for me.

“He made quite a large move into turn 10. I held my own into the chicane and it was definitely a tough battle but a clean one until that point.

“Again, I’ve not seen the incident but I don’t think there was any bad intentions involved, I think it was just unfortunate really. 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.”

Lando Norris hits the wall after clipping Oscar Piastri during the closing laps of the . Canadian Grand Prix. Picture: AFP

Lando Norris walks away after the crash. Picture: AFP

Marshals remove Lando Norris’s car after the conclusion of the Canadian Grand Prix. Picture: AFP

While Piastri also suffered some minor damage to his McLaren, he was able to return to the pits for some quick repairs and make it to the end as the Grand Prix finished behind a safety car.

In finishing fourth, Piastri’s run of eight successive podium finishes came to a screeching halt one short of Lewis Hamilton’s all-time record for McLaren.

George Russell led from pole position to claim his first Grand Prix victory of 2025 for Mercedes ahead of Max Verstappen in his Red Bull and Italian teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli, who registered his first career podium in the other Silver Arrow.

“It’s amazing to be back on the top step, the last one for us was back in Vegas,” said Russell.

“I’m so happy to see Kimi on the podium as well, it’s an amazing day for the team. Thanks to everybody back at the factory who have been working so hard to get us back fighting for victories and it feels good.”

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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner had lodged two appeals to the stewards over Russell’s erratic driving at the end of the race, but his complaint was dismissed and the Mercedes driver retained his victory.

Starting from third on the grid, Piastri’s hopes of winning in Montreal effectively ended on the opening lap when he had to brake heavily to avoid running into Antonelli on the second turn.

Piastri looked to have a late opportunity to get the position back late in the race but got caught in heavy traffic as he tried to get past the backmarkers.

That allowed Norris to close in on his team mate’s exhaust and get within DRS zone. He did briefly get past but couldn’t make it stick as Piastri kept his foot on the throttle then he gambled on a rash second attempt which ended in tears for the Englishman.

“No one to blame but myself, so I apologise to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something a bit too silly,” Norris said.

“Glad I didn’t ruin his race and yeah apologies to the team.

“That’s racing. Silly from my part. I’ll go to bed tonight, apologies to everyone and crack on.”

Despite tangling with his teammate, Piastri still benefited from the outcome because he almost doubled his lead in the championship, with Verstappen 43 points adrift in third, but with 14 rounds still to go the Australian wasn’t taking anything for granted.

“For me, this weekend wasn’t good enough and it’s still far, far too early to think that that is a comfortable advantage or anything like that,” Piastri said.

“There’s a long way to go in the season and we’ve got to try and improve on the whole.”

McLaren have repeatedly said they would not favour one of their own drivers over the other by allowing them to race freely and team principal Andrea Stella said that wouldn’t change although the incident would be talked about.

“Definitely, we never want to see the two McLarens touching each other. It’s something definitely that we need to review because this is a very clear principle,” Stella said.

“At the same time, it’s a contact that happened because of a misjudgment. Lando misjudged the distance to the car ahead. And therefore there was no malintent, and Lando owned it immediately and took responsibility for that.

“It cost Lando quite a lot in the championship and was about to cost many more points for the team, so this was definitely an incident that should not have happened.”

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Originally published as Oscar Piastri survives collision with McLaren teammate Lando Norris to finish fourth in Canadian Grand Prix