Verstappen beats Norris to victory in thrilling Canadian GP

Undoing some of his rapid lap times, Norris locked up and ran wide at Turn 1, allowing Piastri to close up on his team mate and have a sniff at third place. “I lost a lot of time from Norris, avoiding action. One-and-a-half seconds,” reported Russell afterwards.

Gasly’s move to hard tyres triggered a wave of stops over the next few laps, with Hamilton, Ricciardo, Sainz, Perez, Bottas and Magnussen all responding and putting on mediums. Leclerc also pitted, but only to join Sargeant in retirement as his issues persisted.

Piastri (mediums), Alonso (hards), Tsunoda (mediums), Stroll (hards), Ocon (mediums), Albon (mediums), Hulkenberg (mediums) and Zhou (mediums) were next up, with top-three runners Verstappen, Russell and Norris all staying out for another lap.

The next time around, Verstappen and Russell joined the majority of the field on slicks as they switched to medium and hard rubber respectively, but Norris ploughed on up front for a couple more tours – continuing to set competitive times on his intermediates.

Norris finally pitted at the end of Lap 47, taking on mediums and coming back out side-by-side with Verstappen, who pounced with his warmer tyres. Russell and Piastri then piled on the pressure, with the former capitalising on a mistake from Norris at the hairpin a tour later to breeze past with DRS along the back straight.