Norris lost seventh place to Piastri at the start, but regained it when Nico Hulkenberg came into the pits.
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Lando Norris described his Canadian Grand Prix experience as enjoyable, despite the unfortunate penalty that knocked him out of the points – while his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri admitted a few mistakes cost him a top-10 finish. Norris lost seventh place to Piastri at the start, but regained it when Nico Hulkenberg came into the pits. The Briton then passed his rookie teammate for 10th at the Safety Car restart, despite both drivers having just pitted. However, it was later revealed that Norris was being investigated for an infringement under the Safety Car, with the stewards later penalising him for unsportsmanlike behaviour with a five-second penalty.
“I’m not unsportsmanlike,” he said after the race. “Of course, [it’s] unfortunate we got the penalty, but we’ll review that as a team.”
Norris attempted to make his way through the pitch in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the penalty. While he did pull off an impressive overtake on Valtteri Bottas, he was stuck behind Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon in the DRS train. Norris was asked to reflect on his race after taking the checkered flag as the 11th car, which became P13 after the penalty was applied.
“I was happy. It was a fun race. I could do some overtaking, some good racing,” the Brit said. “It wasn’t like the pace was amazing, it was just enough to kind of, at times, catch some of the cars ahead. And when I had a chance to overtake, I did into the hair pain. It was exciting. It was close at times, even with Esteban, in the final corner. It was a tough start, but we came on better and better through the race. It was just enjoyable.”
Piastri, along with Pierre Gasly, benefited from Norris’ penalty, finishing 11th, but he was frustrated by his own mistakes, as well as a drop in the performance of his tyres, which cost him points. “The first stint was very good,” said Piastri. “Some good moves and the pace generally felt very good. The next couple of stints struggled a little bit. Just struggled for a bit of pace. Made a few mistakes here and there.”
“Ultimately it probably cost us a spot in the points, which is a shame. We struggled a little with tyre life again, but a lot of learning from that race, both good and bad. All in all, a shame to be so close to the points, but still learnt a lot. A shame to be so close, but I think our race pace was definitely better than Barcelona, for example. I don’t know how difficult it is to be better than Barcelona, but I think overall we can be more positive about our pace.”
