Lando Norris took advantage of the intense battle between the Mercedes drivers to finish second in the Sprint race of the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1 this Saturday (23). The McLaren driver started from third position and capitalized on Kimi Antonelli’s mistakes during the fight with George Russell in Montreal.
Read more F2: Check out the starting grid for the Sprint race in Canada
The Sprint race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was marked by the strong pace of Mercedes in the early laps. Russell and Antonelli managed to open more than three seconds advantage over Norris, but the scenario quickly changed when the two started to fight for position between themselves.
With the internal battle of Mercedes, Norris managed to reduce the gap and began to pressure the race leaders. Antonelli ended up going off track on two occasions during the duel with his teammate, opening space for the Brit to take second position.
After the race, Norris admitted that McLaren’s strategy was precisely to take advantage of any opportunity created by the dispute between the Mercedes cars: “It was a good race. It was also fun to watch Mercedes fighting for a while,” said the McLaren driver.
Read more Canada GP 2026: the live of the F1 Sprint Race in Montreal
The Brit highlighted that McLaren needed to be ready to take advantage of any incident ahead: “We were there to pick up the pieces when something happened, and they were fast,” commented the current world champion.
Even after overtaking Antonelli, Norris remained under pressure until the final flag. According to the McLaren driver, the young Italian quickly closed in again after the mistake, while he was also trying to attack Russell for the lead: “Antonelli caught up with me again very quickly, so I was worried about what was behind. At the same time, I wanted to try to attack Russell ahead,” added Norris.
Despite not being able to surpass Russell in the final laps, Norris secured second position and left satisfied with the result this Saturday in Canada: “It was fun. It’s always a difficult track to attack because it’s easy to make mistakes, but today was a good result for us,” concluded the McLaren driver.
Read more F1: FIA releases the official starting grid for the Sprint of the 2026 Canadian GP
