Stella: McLaren “appreciated that Lando immediately took responsibility” for the incident

After a difficult weekend for McLaren at Montreal, team boss Andrea Stella was quick to reveal that Lando Norris offered his apology for his incident with team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Championship leading team McLaren never looked dominant over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend despite Lando Norris having set the pace in final practice.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri ended up third in qualifying, but the Briton made mistakes on both his flying laps in Q3 which left him in P7 on the grid.

The championship leader had an average start, and lost a place to Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap.

Norris meanwhile had started on the hard tyre and ran a long first stint. Despite his offset strategy, he was unable to make a one-stop strategy work. It meant that he rejoined the track in P5 after his second stop.

In the dying stages of the races, Norris hounded Piastri, who in turn was chasing Antonelli. With only six laps to go, Norris made a move and got his team mate in the hairpin, but Piastri retaliated and got back past.

However, Norris was eager to make the move on his team-mate, but he misjudged the distance to the Australian and swiped the rear of his car on the start-finish straight.

The touch sent Norris into the wall and out of the race, while Piastri limped home to collect a valuable haul of twelve points with a fourth-place finish.

Reflecting on the Montreal weekend in terms of performance, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella reckoned that the Woking-based outfit has to “review a few things” in order to regain its competitiveness from the last races.

“A challenging weekend for the team both in terms of performance and in terms of the outcome. From a performance point of view, we managed to improve the competitiveness of the MCL39 thanks to the good work of the team and the drivers.

“In the race we were able to stay in contention for a podium finish, but we didn’t have the advantage that we have experienced in previous races this season. We now have a few things to review to make sure we get back in contention to win races at the upcoming events.

Pressed on to explain the incident between Piastri and Norris, the Italian reckoned that the British driver took responsibility for the race-deciding incident.

“In terms of outcome, for the first time this season we scored points with only one car. Lando, after a strong recovery in the race, was in fact involved in an accident while challenging Oscar, which put him out of the race.

“This resulted in contact between the two cars due to a misjudgement by Lando. The team appreciated that Lando immediately took responsibility for a situation which has cost him important points in the Championship.

” We will now regroup, take our time to review a few things and make sure we come back stronger, and continue what has been an extremely positive season so far.”

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