Piastri reflects on “unfortunate incident” to end podium streak

Oscar Piastri’s Canadian Grand Prix came to a bittersweet end in the form of a long-anticipated collision with teammate Lando Norris — a moment that fractured McLaren’s race day, but ultimately extended the Australian’s lead in the championship and added a new layer of tension to the 2025 title fight.

On the opening lap, Piastri’s fate was sealed when he was forced to surrender third place as Kimi Antonelli dove down the inside at Turn 3 — a decisive move that not only bumped the Australian off the podium early but also paved the way for the rookie’s maiden top-three finish in Formula 1.

Piastri settled in behind the Mercedes driver, tailing him by one and a half seconds before Antonelli set his sights on the Red Bull ahead, leaving the Australian to grapple with the ups and downs of tyre degradation. 

The McLaren pit wall was made aware that front tyre degradation was “better than FP2” while his rear tyre degradation was “worse”, however, it wasn’t until Lap 16 that Piastri was called in for his first stop of the race, relinquishing his medium tyres and the inherited lead to his teammate.

Rejoining the race on the hard compound, Piastri emerged from the pit exit in seventh place, with the motivation of catching Antonelli propelling the #81 to set the then-fastest lap of the race.

Running two seconds behind the 18-year-old, Piastri’s pace still didn’t drop off, with the Australian besting his former lap time yet again before tyre management came into play given the visible banding starting to appear on his front tyres. 

The Australian inherited his way back into the familiar groundings of the race lead, however, after reporting that his car was “getting harder to drive”, McLaren called Piastri in for his second stop on Lap 45.

“Yeah, our pace wasn’t great in the first in on the medium,” Piastri said.

“I think where we came into our own today was when everyone else was degrading, we were good. 

“And unfortunately, we probably needed the race to be about 100 laps, not 7, to take advantage of that. 

“So, I think we were quick at points. 

“I think at other points we didn’t have enough and I think the whole race we didn’t really have enough of an advantage to make track overtimes. 

“So, a bit frustrating.”

Armed with another new set of hard compound tyres, Piastri returned to top form as he lit up the sector timesheets. 

He spent the first ten laps after his second stop attempting to close the gap to Antonelli once again, coming closest to doing so at the first corner on Lap 56 after running just four-tenths behind him for several tours of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

His progress was brought to a halt, however, when the DRS train of back-markers interrupted the battle which allowed Antonelli to advance — taking Piastri’s DRS advantage with him — and Norris to close in behind. 

On Lap 60, Piastri switched from attack to defence mode as his teammate picked up DRS while running within a second of the Australian’s rear wing.

As the laps ticked by, the #81 defended well, holding off an attempt on the back straight before the battle reached its peak on Lap 66. 

Closer than ever, Norris launched his attack into the Turn 10 hairpin, braking late to edge ahead of Piastri, but his wider exit line left the door open. 

Seizing the moment, Piastri tucked in alongside on the run to the final chicane, mirroring his teammate’s move with even later braking into Turn 13 to snatch the position back.

Charging down the start/finish straight, Norris’ impatience got the better of him when he misjudged the shrinking gap between Piastri and the wall, lunging down the inside and tagging the rear of the #81 — his front wing shattering as he slammed in the wall directly in front of the McLaren pit wall.

“I obviously felt a bit of a touch, but yeah, it’s an unusual place to have an incident, so I still need to have a look. 

“Lando’s apologised to me, so I guess that says a little bit, but I honestly haven’t seen much.”

Piastri added: “I think Lando is a very good guy and I think it’s in his character and in his personality to say exactly what he thinks. 

“And if that’s detrimental to himself, or if it’s about himself, then it doesn’t matter for him and I think that’s a great quality of Lando. 

“I think it is a good quality, I think it’s good for the whole team going forwards that we can have these conversations and go racing like this and have things not go the way we want and get through them.”

Despite the shunt wiping his teammate out, Piastri’s McLaren remained relatively unharmed and he was able to round out the 70-lap race behind the Safety Car.

Finishing in fourth place and ending his streak of consecutive podium finishes, Piastri added 12 points to his championship charge, making his total 198 points after ten rounds of racing.

The #4 took full blame for the collision, owning up to the inevitable run-in that always felt one miscalculation away as he was handed a five-second time penalty by the stewards.

Moving forward, the Australian made it clear that famously coined ‘Papaya Rules’ wouldn’t be affected by this morning’s incident, with the teammates’ relationship as good as ever as the sport jumps ship back to Europe for the next round.

“I think everything will stay the same,” he said.

“If it had been a crash in a corner and clearly we got it wrong and too aggressive, then that’s one thing, but it was a bit of an unfortunate incident really on straight effectively. 

“So, for me, I don’t think it will change anything and I think that’s the way it should be because ultimately we’re both trying to fight for a world championship.”

Lando Norris is not at a 22-point deficit to his teammate, with his retirement also allowing Max Verstappen — remaining adamant that the championship fight is not his in 2025 — to shrink the margin under Norris to 21 points, with the championship leader 43 points in the distance.

“I mean, it’s still so, so long to go and that points gap is only if Lando wins three races and I finish second with one point in three races again,” Piastri said.

“So, it’s not a comfortable margin at all and that’s not how I want to build the margin. 

“This weekend wasn’t strong enough from myself. 

“I think as a team we also recognised it was a challenging one and we need to be stronger. 

“So, plenty of things to work on and obviously not content finishing.”

But the drivers’ title is not the only championship on the cards, with the order of the constructors’ championship shifting after the chequered flag in Montreal to see Mercedes slotting into second place ahead of Ferrari.

Sitting with 374 points, McLaren remains out of reach of its competitors, with results like today’s not shaking the Woking-based squad’s confidence in clinching both titles in 2025. 

“I don’t think [Mercedes will be fighting for the title],” Piastri said.

‘I mean, George is quite a long way behind.

“They were quick here last year — I feel like this is kind of the result that they should have achieved last year, I guess. So, yeah, we’ll see. 

“I think they’ve been very promising at a lot of races, especially in qualifying. 

“I think today they finally converted it in a race, but I still am confident in our team for the long haul.”

Piastri and the rest of the grid will have one weekend of rest before returning to the European leg of the season in Styria, Austria.

The Austrian Grand Prix will run across June 27-29 as the first race of the upcoming double-header. 

Image: McLaren

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