McLaren’s Lando Norris crossed the finish line at P2, splitting both Mercedes’, at the F1 2026 Canadian GP Sprint Race.
Norris had qualified P3 on Friday, during the Sprint Qualifying. He sat on the starting grid next to his teammate Oscar Piastri, just behind Mercedes’ George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in P1 and P2.
After a solid start, Norris focused on staying behind the Mercedes’. The opportunity came up when Antonelli tried to overtake Russell into turn 9, but locked up and went straight off, freeing up P2 for Norris.
The three way battle carried on for the remaining laps. By the end, it looked like the young Italian would overtake last year’s champion, but Antonelli finally cut the corner and had to give the position back.
Norris on keeping up with the Mercedes during the 2026 F1 Canadian GP Sprint Race
While the focus was on the inside battle between the Mercedes teammates, Lando Norris managed to interfere in the championship fight and steal P2. After the Sprint Qualifying, the reigning world champion admitted it was the first weekend in the F1 2026 season where he felt truly comfortable in the car.
During the post race podium interviews, the Brit said: “Yeah, it was a good race, I mean it was good just to watch them go at it for a little while. But of course we were just there to pick up the pieces when things happened.”
On the Silver Arrows’ pace, Norris mentioned: “They were quick. I mean Kimi caught me back up pretty quickly and then I was pretty worried from behind. But also I wanted to try and attack George ahead.
“So It was fun. Always a tough track to kind of push on and easy to make mistakes, But today was a good result for us,” he concluded.
By the end, Norris finished +1.272s behind Russell in the lead. The McLaren driver collected 7 points in the F1 2026 Canada Sprint Race. Norris currently sits in P4 in the drivers’ championship with 58 points. Just 5 points behind Charles Leclerc and 4 points ahead of his Ferrari teammate, Lewis Hamilton.
