Lando Norris has revealed that McLaren’s Sprint strategy in Canada was simply to be in a position to “pick up the pieces” should the Mercedes drivers fight.

The reigning world champion started third but finished second after capitalising on a tense battle between George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, which saw the latter go off the circuit twice.

Russell and Antonelli had broken away by more than three seconds, only for Norris to quickly close the gap after the Silver Arrows drivers fought each other.

Norris capitalised on Antonelli going off the circuit to move into second before setting his sights on Russell.

Despite running close to Russell, Norris failed to overtake his fellow Briton but did manage to stay ahead of Antonelli.

“Yeah, it was a good race,” said Norris. “I mean, it was good just to watch Mercedes go at it for a little while.

“But of course we were there to pick up the pieces when things happened, and they were quick.

“I mean, Antonelli caught me pretty quickly again, and then I was quite worried from behind, but I also wanted to try and attack Russell ahead.

“So it was fun. It’s always a tough track to push on, and it’s easy to make mistakes, but today was a good result for us.”