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McLaren’s Montreal Gamble Fails as Team Leaves Canada Without Points

Andrea Stella says a jointly made call to start on intermediate tyres was undone by extra formation laps that rapidly dried the track.

Overview

  • McLaren chose intermediate tyres for both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the lead-up to the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday because the track looked greasy and the team feared cold slicks.
  • A double-aborted start caused by Arvid Lindblad stalling extended formation laps and allowed the circuit to dry, removing the performance edge of intermediates and forcing early stops for slicks.
  • Oscar Piastri pitted early, later collided with Alex Albon while trying to recover, received a 10-second penalty and finished 11th after the contact put Albon out of the race.
  • McLaren confirmed Lando Norris suffered two separate reliability failures: an overheating issue that needed an unscheduled radiator-cleaning stop and an independent gearbox fault that led to his retirement.
  • The team defended the shared tyre call as reasonable given the information available before the start and will regroup for the Monaco round where McLaren will mark its 1,000th Grand Prix appearance.