Nico Rosberg issues apology to Oscar Piastri

Nico Rosberg has apologised to Oscar Piastri after the McLaren driver qualified third for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Piastri had a difficult run of practice sessions as he failed to breach into the top five in any outing.

It led Rosberg to doubt the Australian's performance ahead of the grid-setting session in Montreal.

However, Piastri was the leading McLaren car in third place, behind pole-sitter George Russell and Max Verstappen. His team-mate Lando Norris could only muster seventh.

“I apologise to him [Piastri] personally, I underestimated him,” Rosberg told Sky F1. “I made a mistake. 

“He was definitely in the hunt for pole position there. But I must say, I also underestimated the change of geometry, how much that improved things for him, going to Lando's set-up with geometry.

“That seemed to bring him back to life and he was on it from the get-go. So my apologies.”

Nico Rosberg highlights latest Lando Norris error

Seventh for Norris will mark his lowest starting position of the season, bar Saudi Arabia, where he lined up in 10th place.

The 25-year-old currently sits 10 points off championship leader Piastri and faces an uphill battle to close the deficit on Sunday.

Rosberg has stated Norris' difficult result in qualifying is another example of struggling to deal with high-pressure moments.

“When you're driving for like eighth place or something, that's a total different pressure,” Rosberg said. 

“Even last year, when you're the underdog trying to chase the great [Max] Verstappen for that championship, it's a whole different game. 

“Now, this year, you start, in Lando's case, as the absolute favourite for the world championship. The pressure is like 10x [more]. It's just a whole different world. 

“Unfortunately, we're seeing Lando still needing to get to grips with that. It's still getting to him too much. 

“It's a little mistake here, little mistake there. Sometimes it costs him pole position and he goes second. 

“[In Canada] it cost him loads of positions and he's just seventh. He needs to find a way to just become more solid there and use all the tools that are available. 

“We see even the engineers now are starting to be psychologists a little bit, [telling him] 'reset the brain', just focus on that'. 

“That's nice, that's the right direction. He just needs to understand how to get there.”