McLaren warned it faces 'emotional' title fight after 'desperate' Lando Norris move

McLaren has been warned by reigning F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling that it faces an "emotional" title fight between its drivers, following Lando Norris' move of "desperation" in Canada.

Norris retired from the Canadian Grand Prix on lap 67 after making contact with Oscar Piastri along the start/finish straight, sending him into the pit wall. 

It marked the lowest point of the season for the Briton, who slipped to 22 points behind his team-mate in the standings. 

For Norris, the number one rule of not crashing into a team-mate was broken, with his overtaking attempt criticised by Pulling.

"I mean, you always want to race hard, you know," Pulling told Sky Sports News. "I think you always know between team-mates, you've got to keep it fair and tidy. 

"And it just looked like a little bit of desperation from Lando. He had the advantage and he had the laps in hand to be patient, but going for a gap that didn't quite exist, not ideal. 

"I think McLaren are quite lucky, really, that Oscar didn't have any damage off the back of that."

Norris maturity

Whilst the incident was clearly the fault of Norris, the Briton did immediately accept responsibility for causing the crash and apologised to the Woking-based team. 

In addition, Norris apologised to Piastri on camera in the media pen, leaving Pulling to praise the 25-year-old's maturity.

"All racing drivers are walking on a tightrope, and it's quite easy to go over the limit and make these mistakes, but yeah, it just was a little bit clumsy," added Pulling.

"But for him to take ownership of it instantly is really mature to hear. And there are not many drivers that will hold their hands up instantly, although we could see that it was an error made on his behalf, but just the honesty that he had with the team.

"I think what McLaren and Andrea Stella are doing is a really good job at trying to keep things civil.

"They're two team-mates fighting for a world championship, it's going to be emotional, it's going to be tough. And yeah, it was nice to see that from Lando."