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Oscar Piastri sounded the alarms early.
Menacing dark storm clouds were hovering over the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve and McLaren engineers decided to take a gamble. They would give their two drivers – Lando Norris and Piastri starting third and fourth respectively– intermediate tyres in preparation for the wet weather they were certain would come.
The McLaren duo were the only drivers in the top 10 to take that risk – the rest of the grid started on softs.
Piastri had his doubts. “I feel like I’m floating,” he warned his engineers over the radio during the three formation laps. The Australian went back and forth with his team, asking if they should switch tyres, but McLaren told him to stay.
It wasn’t necessarily a mistake from McLaren, but a bold strategy gamble that would pay off if it rained.
The race began and the rain never game.
Piastri was forced to pit at the end of the first lap for slicks and plummeted down the scoreboard losing places.
His teammate Norris snatched the lead from pole-sitting George Russell after an impressive start. However, Norris was also forced to pit after his tyres failed, losing valuable places and rendering McLaren’s realistic podium dreams completely unreachable.
Then it got worse.
While trying to execute an overtake on Ollie Bearman, Piastri slammed into Alex Albon’s Williams car and copped a 10-second time penalty and wing damage. Norris later suffered a gearbox failure and had to retire.
Both McLaren drivers finished with zero points with a DNF from Norris and an 11th place finish from Piastri.
Piastri spoke with the media after the race and apologised to Albon and Williams for the incident. The Australian also addressed McLaren’s tyre gamble.
“ I mean it was raining … unfortunately for us, it stopped raining as the formation lap started, just one of those things where if it rained a little bit more we would have looked like heroes, but it didn’t so we looked like idiots,” he said.
Norris said it was “not our day from a decision point of view”.
“I guess we made the decision as a team, I also pushed for it, so I kind of take the responsibility for that one. But.… I don’t think we had the pace today,” he said.
There was plenty of poor luck and car trouble around the grid, with race-leader George Russell suffering a power unit failure and forcing a retirement. The furious British driver angrily threw his headrest of out his car, and will likely cop a fine from the regulatory body, the FIA.
After extraordinarily tense battle, Antonelli capitalised on his teammate’s retirement and snatched the lead, winning the Canadian Grand Prix and extending his championship lead. The Italian teenager has now won four consecutive grands prix and boasts a 43-point lead in the championship.
It was bittersweet news for the Mercedes team who were hoping for a 1-2 finish. The atmosphere in the garage looked fairly tense as both drivers furiously battled it out, with neither willing to give an inch.
Both drivers were told to tidy up their racing before they caused a crash, with the pair nearly colliding during lap 6.
Antonelli repeatedly attacked Russell for the lead, complaining at times Russell had “pushed him off”, and the race lead switched numerous times. After Russell’s power failure, Antonelli easily snatched the lead and sailed to victory, with an impressive Lewis Hamilton in second and Max Verstappen in third to complete the podium
Speaking after the race, Antonelli said it was “a fun battle with his teammate”, noting the windy conditions made racing tricker.
“It was a shame for him [Russell] to have the failure as we would have had a close battle, but we will take it. A big thank you to the team,” the Italian said.
The next race will be in Monaco on June 7.
