Lando Norris facing jarring reality over irreversible McLaren mistake

Lando Norris is still suffering the consequences of a disastrous mistake made at this season's Canadian Grand Prix, according to one former F1 boss.

The McLaren star crashed out in spectacular fashion during the closing stages of the race in Montreal back in June after running into the back of team-mate Oscar Piastri as the pair jostled for fourth spot.

The result saw Norris lose vital ground in the drivers' championship battle, with the 25-year-old apologising to Piastri and the team post-race following his error of judgement.

Norris has since bounced back in some style, taking victory in three of the subsequent four grands prix, including in Hungary at the final event before the current F1 summer break.

Speaking on the Red Flags Podcast, ex-Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was full of praise for Norris' performance at the Hungaroring, saying: "Fair play to him and his engineer and the strategist. They outsmarted Oscar."

But Steiner was quick to point out the frustrating reality for the Brit, that despite his recent triumphs over championship leader Piastri, he would actually be ahead in the standings had he held his nerve in Canada.

He continued: "Guess what, if Lando wouldn’t do his little mistakes..

"Canada, if he would have been patient, guess where he would be? Leading the world championship."

Could Canada error prove costly in Norris title race?

Unfortunately for Norris, Steiner's statement is correct.

Had he accepted his fate of finishing fifth behind his colleague that afternoon, he could have picked up 10 valuable points.

That would have taken the British star's tally to 285 heading into the summer shutdown, just one more than the 284 that Piastri has racked up so far.

While Norris has done a fine job of narrowing the gap at the top of the standings to just nine points as things stand, he may be left to rue that costly mistake come December, with both drivers set to take the title fight down to the wire.

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