Rival verdict on McLaren clash in F1 cooldown room: ‘There wasn’t really a gap’

George Russell seemed to blame Lando Norris for his race-ending clash at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Norris hit the rear of Piastri on Lap 67 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The McLaren pair battled hard after Norris attempted an aggressive divebomb into the hairpin.

They ran side-by-side down the back straight, with Piastri braking late into the final chicane to keep the position.

Piastri covered the inside off, but Norris tried to go for the move regardless.

The incident put Norris out of the race, while Piastri was able to finish in fourth.

Norris immediately took the blame for the incident, saying over the team radio: “Yeah, sorry, my bad. All my fault. Stupid from me.”

It means that Piastri was able to extend his F1 championship lead to 22 points over Norris.

Rivals give their view on the incident

As per modern F1 tradition, the top three finishers were shown the highlights of the race in the cooldown room.

Russell clinched his first win since Las Vegas last year ahead of Max Verstappen.

Kimi Antonelli scored his first podium in F1 and ran just ahead of the McLaren pair before their collision.

Antonelli admitted he didn’t know which driver to give slipstream to when he was ahead of the battling McLarens.

Antonelli: “I was a bit uncertain over who to give the slipstream to. They both had DRS. I was like… left or right?

Verstappen: “What did you do? Go in the middle?”

Antonelli: “Yeah (laughs).

When shown the contact between the McLarens, Russell was the one to give his opinion.

Russell: “It was literally like Lewis and Button in 2011.”

Russell then added: “There was not really a gap there, was there?”

Antonelli and Verstappen recognised that the former was fortunate to escape the mayhem given that Norris’ stricken car could have propelled into the first corner had it not been the barrier on the left-hand side.