F1 commentator Martin Brundle delivers verdict on Lando Norris’ collision with Australia’s Oscar Piastri

Lando Norris has been warned his F1 title hopes will go up in smoke if he goes down the same path that led to his dramatic run-in with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

F1 expert Martin Brundle has issued a blunt warning to a “clumsy” Lando Norris that he will not win the world championship if he keeps having weekends where it “all falls apart” after his dramatic run-in with Oscar Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Brit collided with his McLaren teammate Piastri late in Sunday’s race in Montreal when the pair were fighting for fourth.

After managing to avoid trouble between each other so far this year, Norris admitted fault after running into the rear tyre of Piastri while he attempted to overtake on pit straight and ending up crashing into the concrete barrier, ending his race.

Piastri went on to finish fourth and extend his lead in the championship battle to 22 points over his teammate.

Brundle said Norris, who has won two races this year in Melbourne and Monaco, seemed to be developing an all-or-nothing pattern at race weekends.

Britain's Lando Norris walks away from his car following a collision with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. Picture: Getty

While he did not rule Norris out of the title race, he said Piastri boasted greater consistency in his performances and the Brit would need to bring his “A-game” each race.

“Lando seems to have weekends which are utterly dominant, like Melbourne and Monaco, or it just all falls apart. It was one of those weekends, sadly for him,” Brundle told Sky Sports F1.

“Lando won’t win a world championship unless he can stop these weekends happening. It’s as simple as that.

“He’s got to bring his A-game pretty much all the time, like Max (Verstappen) does. Oscar’s much more solid in his delivery week in, week out, much more consistent.

“I find it really confusing that those two different levels of performance. He needs to park one and deliver the other one more often, but there’s a long way to go.

“It doesn’t mean he’s out of the championship at all. But when you look at the turnaround in points from the advantage he came away from Melbourne with, to what he’s got now, it’s a 45-point swing in that time.”

Oscar Piastri and McLaren teammate Lando Norris collided during the closing stages of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Norris had commented last week in the lead-in to the Canadian Grand Prix that an on-track clash between the papaya pair was “inevitable” this year as the title race heated up and the team was prepared for this happening.

The team’s famous “papaya rules” have allowed their drivers to race each other, but cleanly without making contact with their teammate.

Oscar Piastri sits atop the championship standings despite missing the podium in Canada. Picture: Getty

But Brundle said Norris’ move on Piastri had been “clumsy”.

“It was just very clumsy and sort of unnecessary,” Brundle said.

“The rules are, which Lando broke, you race hard, you’re both up for the championship, but don’t run into each other and only one part of that happened.

“As they’ve said frequently, it was inevitable. But, it wasn’t an inevitable championship clash, was it? They were fighting for fourth and fifth, so there’s no point in running into each other.

“It’s not the end of the world, far from it, but it’s difficult for Lando.”