Lando Norris Rues ‘Unfortunate’ Canadian Grand Prix Penalty that Ended Points Chance

Lando Norris lost a certain top ten finish in Sundays Canadian Grand Prix due to a penalty, with the Briton dropping from eighth place to thirteenth after being found guilty of unsportsmanlike behaviour.

The McLaren F1 Team driver was deemed to have slowed unnecessarily when the safety car was deployed to avoid too much delay when pitting, with the team set to double stack him behind team-mate Oscar Piastri.

The stewards handed him a five-second time penalty, which relegated him five spots due to how close it was between seventh and thirteenth, and he says everyone will now review what happened at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve so they can understand why the penalty was given.

“An intense race. We were a little bit unlucky that I lost the position at the beginning but happy apart from that,” said Norris.  “I think the pace was OK, it was good to compete on-track for some points.

“A difficult race though in terms of tyre degradation and overtaking, but I think we made the most of it today, so I’m happy. Of course, unfortunate we got the penalty but we’ll review that as a team.

“Next up is Austria, one of my favourite tracks, so I’m looking forward to it. We’ll give it our all and try to score some points.” 

“A shame to be one spot off the points” – Oscar Piastri

Team-mate Piastri was also unable to break into the top ten, the Australian completing his first Canadian Grand Prix in eleventh place.

Piastri says the pace was in the car in the first stint at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve but fell down the order in second and third stints, which left him frustrated to miss out on the top ten by just over half a second.

After crashing the car during Qualifying, Piastri was thankful to his team for repairing the car for the race, but he was disappointed not to reward them with points.

“P11, a shame to be one spot off the points,” said Piastri.  “Very good first stint and then after that we just didn’t quite have the pace or the tyre life, but plenty to learn from the race.

“Big thanks to the team for getting the car ready to go again today. Bit of time to reset now before we go again in Austria.”  

Oscar Piastri missed out on points by less than a second in Canada – Credit: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images, courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport