Having been on tenterhooks waiting for the inevitable crash, the McLaren drivers collided at the Canadian Grand Prix as Lando Norris challenged Oscar Piastri only to run into the back of his team-mate.

The only upside, says Ted Kravitz, is they were fighting over fourth and fifth, not the victory.

Ted Kravitz: Or it was just racing…

McLaren recorded their worst weekend of the F1 2025 championship at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as they lacked the pace to challenge for the victory.

Although Piastri qualified third, he was overtaken by Kimi Antonelli and headed into the final laps trying to hold off Norris, who had the better pace of the McLaren team-mates.

An opportunistic dive into the hairpin gave the Briton the chance to drag race Piastri, before the Australian moved ahead into the chicane to retain the advantage.

Norris closed in on his team-mate on the back straight and went for a gap that wasn’t there, hitting the back of his team-mate’s MCL39. Norris lost his front wing and crashed into the outer pit wall to immediately retire.

Piastri pitted behind the Safety Car for a precautionary tyre change and finished the race in fourth place.

Norris immediately apologised to McLaren over the radio, before later saying sorry to the team and Piastri as he held up his hand.

McLaren team-mates: F1 2025 head-to-head stats

???? F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

???? F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

His team principal Andrea Stella acknowledged that this one was on the Briton’s shoulders, saying: “It is an episode that cost him championship points and is an episode that, from his own admission, he said the principle was clear: ‘I just made a misjudgment‘.”

“The situation,” he added, “would be different if Lando had not taken responsibility and apologised.”

Stella confirmed he would be speaking with the drivers about the Montreal incident. “We will have to go into what is needed in order to make sure that, when we go racing, we preserve the margins that are required,” he said.

He went on to say that it would a “good conversation” after everyone involved was “rested and calm”.

Kravitz reckons that conversation would be a lot harder to have had the team-mates been fighting over the Grand Prix victory.

“They decide to have this fight between themselves over fourth place. They pushed each other so hard that Lando made a misjudgment,” the pit lane reporter told Sky’s F1 Show. “That was weird for me.

“I think what Andrea Stella means when he says we are going to have a discussion about it is, is…

“What was the point of pushing it too hard?

“Was the intention just that Lando, after winning Monaco but then not winning Monaco, wanted to make a point about the championship to Oscar and thought even though this is just fourth place, I need to have this off you.

“Or it was just racing.

“And then I think the outcome is that Stella, who is not a man to be crossed or a man to annoy, I think we need to give each other a bit more racing room.

“I think the only positive you can say about it is better they were only fighting over fourth and fifth, and it was only 10 points lost for Lando, although it could’ve been many more for Oscar, better now than if they were fighting over first and second.

“Then I think we’d have a bit more of a thing on our hands.”

Norris’ lost points mean he trails Piastri by 22 points in the race for the Drivers’ Championship title.

Read next: Rosberg delivers Russell contract blow with ‘maybe some Verstappen talks’