McLaren’s intra-team Formula 1 world championship battle erupted into contact at the Canadian Grand Prix as Lando Norris hit Oscar Piastri and crashed out with three laps left.
The dramatic incident meant Mercedes claimed its first win of the 2025 F1 season behind the safety car, as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli made it a 1-3 with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull between them.
After his messy run to seventh in qualifying, Norris regained ground in the race with an offset two-stop strategy with a very long first stint.
Going into the closing laps, the top five cars were covered by only six seconds with Russell leading Verstappen by just over two seconds having held him at arm’s length all race. Antonelli had outmuscled Piastri for third through the race’s opening corners and now had both McLarens on his tail.
Norris surged down the inside of Piastri into the hairpin but could not hold onto the place on the run down the long back straight as Piastri grabbed DRS from Antonelli.
Going onto the pits straight, Norris attempted to line Piastri up for another move only to clip his team-mate as he aimed at a narrowing gap, ripping the front wing off his car and sending him straight into the pitwall.
Piastri escaped damage and followed Russell, Verstappen and Antonelli home for a fourth place that extended his world championship lead over Norris to 22 points.
Charles Leclerc took fifth for Ferrari on a similar strategy to Norris, as team-mate Lewis Hamilton picked up damage and had a lonely race to sixth.
Behind Fernando Alonso’s seventh-placed Aston Martin, Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), Esteban Ocon (Haas) and Carlos Sainz (Williams) all pulled off very well-executed one-stop strategies to complete the scorers.
Race result
1 George Russell (Mercedes)
2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
3 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
4 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
5 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
6 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
7 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
8 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
9 Esteban Ocon (Haas)
10 Carlos Sainz (Williams)
11 Ollie Bearman (Haas)
12 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
13 Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
14 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
15 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
16 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
17 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
DNF: Lando Norris (McLaren) Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), Alex Albon (Williams)
