Lando Norris crashed out of the Canadian Grand Prix and lost valuable points in the Formula 1 title race with Oscar Piastri – but was he cursed?
George Russell impressively won from pole in Montreal on Sunday ahead of Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli – the 18-year-old’s first F1 podium.
There was late drama at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as Norris attempted to overtake McLaren teammate Piastri but misjudged a gap and ended up colliding with the Australian and a wall.
The Brit was immediately out of the race but Piastri was able to continue and took the chequered flag in fourth-place, extending his championship lead over Norris to 22 points.
Norris took full responsibility for the collision, saying he ‘made a fool’ of himself, but some fans believe an F1 champion may have actually jinxed the crash…
What is the Nico Rosberg curse?
2016 world champion Nico Rosberg has garnered a reputation for seemingly inflicting bad luck on drivers and teams via the power of… selfies.
On numerous occasions, the German has posted selfies with a driver’s car ahead of a race or thrown his support behind a certain team, only for them to endure a miserable grand prix.
For example, prior to qualifying for the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, Rosberg posted from the Red Bull garage, only for Verstappen to fail to claim pole position.
The following day, he took a selfie with polesitter Lewis Hamilton’s car and in the race the Mercedes man lost the lead before the first corner and finished fourth.
In Canada, Rosberg avoided taking a picture of any cars but instead posted a selfie of himself on the start grid… in the exact spot that Norris and Piastri collided – something fans immediately noticed.
‘The curse of Nico Rosberg lives on,’ one Reddit user stated, while another added: ‘Seriously this has to be studied. There’s no way there can be this much coincidence.’
‘His powers are too dangerous to go unchecked. How can we harness this power?’ one fan jokingly asked.
‘Bro cursed the guy right there,’ was one comment on Instagram, while another read: ‘I’m back from lap 67. BRO DID CURSE TURN 1.’
Lando Norris: ‘I let McLaren down’
Norris instantly accepted full responsibility for the collision, which could have major ramifications on the title race, saying: ‘I didn’t expect to pass Oscar on the outside into Turn One. It’s just, I should never have gone for it, I guess is my complete hindsight thing.
‘I thought he was starting to drift a little bit to the right, so I thought I had a small opportunity to go to the left. But it was way too much risk, especially on my team-mate.
‘So, happy nothing happened to him. I paid the price for my mistake.
‘Our rule number one is to not make contact with your team-mate and it’s what I did. McLaren is my family. I race for them, you know, every single weekend.
‘I try and do well for them, more than I often try and do well for myself. So, when I let them down like this and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, yeah, I have a lot of regret.
‘I’ve let down the team. So, that’s going to stay with me for a little while. But at the same time, part of moving on is trying to put it behind you and crack on with the next weekend.’
Rosberg, who has previously acknowledged the curse’s existence, is fearful that the mistakes are building up for Norris, telling Sky Sports: ‘Lando did an amazing first lunge into the hairpin, that was beautiful.
‘Then afterwards it was just very strange the mistake that Lando made. Super super strange.
‘It’s just one more mistake of the many, and this is a big mistake. He really committed, he doesn’t back off or anything, he just stays full on throttle which is also a bit strange.
‘The thing is that it also becomes a little bit traumatic at some point because you also start spiralling negatively down and down. You get this reputation of “I’m making mistakes, I’m not good enough, I’m making mistakes” and it starts to get to you in your head.
‘I’ve been through this and it gets really dark and especially when you make a mistake like today where everybody can see it and you hit your teammate. It’s difficult for Lando to get out of that one.’
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