Norris joins Ricciardo at Indy 500 after retirement ends Canadian GP nightmare

Lando Norris ended a bruising Sunday by flying to Indianapolis to join former McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and IndyCar driver Conor Daly for post-Indy 500 celebrations, hours after retiring from the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The retirement capped a painful afternoon for the McLaren driver. The Woking team opted to start on intermediate tyres, a call that initially looked inspired — Norris jumped from third to first off the line and built a lead of roughly two seconds by the end of lap one. But the forecast rain never arrived, the intermediates degraded rapidly on the dry surface, and Norris tumbled through the order before a reliability issue ended his race entirely.

While Norris was enduring that collapse in Montreal, Ricciardo — roughly 800 miles away at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — was attending his first Indy 500 as a spectator alongside Daly. The reunion that followed caught the attention of fans after Daly shared a photo on his Instagram Stories.

Reactions on Reddit ranged from sympathetic to affectionate about the pair’s friendship. “He needed a boys night out after that race,” one user wrote. Another reflected on the bond the two drivers built during their time together at McLaren: “Despite everything Daniel went through at McLaren, you could see at the time that by the end of their two years there, together they forged a genuine bond.”

One fan invoked the sport’s most prestigious individual achievement — “Lando for the triple crown!” — while another noted the particular comfort Ricciardo could offer: “Considering Daniel knows the pains of McLaren’s pitwall first-hand, not bad company to be in to get over a tough race.”

The result leaves Norris fifth in the 2026 drivers’ championship with 58 points.