Norris: "Our number one rule is to not make contact with your team-mate"

Despite displaying an eye-catching race pace in the second half of the Canadian Grand Prix, McLaren's Lando Norris left Montreal with empty hands after a collision with his team-mate Oscar Piastri in the dying stages of the race.

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 unfortunate incident, Norris offered his apology, stressing that McLaren's "number one rule is to not make contact with your team-mate.

“I thought Oscar would move a bit more to the right, not to leave a gap obviously – I don’t expect something to be easy from him, but I just misjudged it,” the six-time race winner explained.

“It was all my mistake, I take full blame so I apologise to my whole team and to Oscar for attempting something like that," explained Norris.

“Our number one rule is to not make contact with your team-mate, and unfortunately that is what happened today. I apologise to Oscar and the team.

"I thought I had a small opportunity, but with hindsight, I should never have gone for that move. I’ve paid the price and I’m glad nothing adverse happened to Oscar. I will put it behind me and learn from today’s mistake to come back stronger as a team in Austria.”