Piastri fourth in sprint as gloves are off at Mercedes
Ian Chadband |
Oscar Piastri has lost more ground in the championship race after finishing fourth in the Canadian Grand Prix sprint – but McLaren could take heart from an extraordinary bust-up between Mercedes’ pacesetting drivers as George Russell celebrated victory.
The gloves really looked to be off at the German team in Montreal on Saturday after young championship leader Kimi Antonelli ended up raging about what he called a “naughty” move from Russell which he felt had shoved him off the track.
The furious teenager, who went off the track twice while battling for the lead with Russell, even demanded his teammate get a penalty, and ended up being scolded by team principal Toto Wolff to “stop the radio moaning”.
Ultimately, though, Russell took the victory and the eight points to Antonelli’s six, which reduces the third-placed Italian’s championship lead to 18 points,
McLaren’s world champ Lando Norris had to settle for the runner’s up spot with Piastri not too unhappy despite a fourth-place finish after the 23-lap sprint which keeps him sixth overall in the standings on 48 points, but now 10 behind fourth-placed Norris and 58 behind Antonelli.
The Australian, though, was happy to pull off a daring overtake on the outside to pip Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton of fourth place on the final chicane.
Piastri was looking to improve in qualifying for the main race later on Saturday, saying: “I think the pace is pretty good, it’s just I was stuck most of the race. I think the wind changed from yesterday – the balance was quite different so it wasn’t quite the car I expected to have.”
The drama began when polesitter Russell was being put under pressure from Antonelli on lap six. On turn one, the teenager swept round the outside, only for the pair to make contact as he was forced across the grass and Russell stayed ahead.
“That was very naughty. Not fair, he pushed me off,” Antonelli fumed over the radio, adding: “That should be a penalty, I was alongside the mirror.”
Wolff intervened to tell Antonelli to “concentrate on the racing please and not the radio moaning”.
Later in the lap, the youngster locked up as he tried to move past on the inside, moving on to the grass, allowing Norris to take second, a position he held despite one last lunge from the Italian.
“If we need to race like this, that’s good to know,” Antonelli muttered on the radio, with Wolff responding: “Kimi, now is not the time to talk about this. We talk about this internally and not on the radio, OK.”
Afterwards, on the press conference sofa, Russell told Antonelli: “I was going to close the line because that is my right to do so. A good, hard battle. Came out unscathed.
“Glad we are both sat here now, could have been something different and that is how racing should be.”
Wolff tried to play it all down later, telling Sky Sports: “We don’t want to start race five with headlines like ‘Star Wars’ or ‘this is escalating’, as it’s not. It’s emotion and he is a young driver.
“George would probably have done the same so we will see how we handle it.”
Behind Piastri came Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, with Max Verstappen seventh for Red Bull.
With agencies
AAP