2023 Canadian Grand Prix "The positive that we’re taking away from Montréal is that the car had good race pace"

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Sunday 18 June

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after the Canadian Grand Prix.

As it happened

• Both drivers had a clean getaway with Oscar getting the better of Lando for P7.
• Oscar got ahead of Hulkenberg with a nice move into Turn 1 for P6.
• The Safety Car was deployed after Russell collided with the barrier. Both drivers took the opportunity to pit for new Hards.
• Lando was subsequently given a five-second penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
• After the green light, Lando regained his original position ahead of Oscar. Lando P10, Oscar P11.
• Lando squeezed ahead of Hulkenberg with an aggressive move into Turn 1.
• It was then Oscar's turn to overtake Hulkenberg which took him back into the top 10.
• Lando pitted for a new set of Hard tyres, emerging from the pit-lane in P12.
• Oscar pitted two laps later, again for Hards.
• Russell was forced to retire promoting Lando to P10 and Oscar to P12.
• Lando passed Bottas with a super move to climb up to P9.
• Oscar finished P11 and Lando P13, following Lando's penalty.

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Started 8th [Due to grid penalty for SAI]
Finished 11th
Fastest lap  1m16.598s on lap 59 (+2.117s, 11th) 
Pit-stops 2, lap 12 [Medium/Hard] (3.3s) and lap 37 [Hard/Hard] (2.3s) 

"P11, a shame to be one spot off the points. 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."  

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Started 7th
Finished 13th [Due to five-second penalty]
Fastest lap  1m16.374s on lap 65 (+1.893s, 8th) 
Pit-stops 2, lap 12 [Medium/Hard] (4.1s) and lap 35 [Hard/Hard] (2.4s) 

"An intense race. We were a little bit unlucky that I lost the position at the beginning but happy apart from that. 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."

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“It’s a shame to leave Canada with no points at the end of a race where we were keenly competitive in the midfield. Lando crossed the line P9 but was penalised five seconds and demoted to P13, which is unfortunate. The positive that we’re taking away from Montréal is that the car had good race pace today in some parts of the race, but again we struggled, especially in the second stint, when tyres get too hot. We’re looking forward to the future now and to upgrading the MCL60, with a view to strengthening our pace and getting into the points consistently in the future.” 

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