Antonelli cruises – Kimi Antonelli took his fourth consecutive victory of the season and the first of his career in Montreal, after Mercedes teammate George Russell suffered a rare engine issue on the 30th lap of the 68-lap Canadian Grand Prix. The result reshaped the battle at t
Kimi Antonelli was already doing the hard part—staying close, staying sharp, staying ahead—when George Russell’s car suddenly stopped behaving like a contender.
The Canadian Grand Prix looked headed for a tense. close finish between the two Mercedes teammates after they lined up side-by-side on the front row. Antonelli edged Russell to the first turn and inherited the lead when Lando Norris dived into the pits at the end of the second lap. But the chase snapped into another rhythm on lap seven, when Russell surged back ahead.
From there, it became a cat-and-mouse sprint that never felt comfortable on the edge. Antonelli locked up his tires under pressure and nearly collided with Russell. The pair continued to slingshot back and forth. close enough that a radio call was made to Antonelli to tidy it up—an instruction that carried its own history on the Mercedes pit wall. Antonelli and Russell had already tangled during Saturday’s sprint. and this time the atmosphere was different. but the tension wasn’t.
Then the race turned in an instant.
On lap 30 of the 68-lap event, Russell lost power due to an untimely engine issue. His car came to a halt. cutting short a run that had been going right for him up to that moment. The 28-year-old had won the season opener in Australia. won Saturday’s sprint from pole position. and had qualified P1 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the third straight year. After Antonelli’s string of victories in China. Japan and Miami. Russell needed the win too—he’d watched himself fall behind in the championship.
Instead, he exited his car frustrated, tossed his headrest onto the track, and banged his fists as he left it behind.
Antonelli didn’t look back. He cruised to the checkered flag with a 10-second advantage over Hamilton. The result was Antonelli’s fourth consecutive victory of the season and of his career, and it widened his championship cushion over Russell from 18 points to 43.
Hamilton kept the pressure on, even after an early setback. He finished second in Montreal for the first time in his career. the 204th podium of his career and his 11th at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Verstappen held third for much of the running. but Hamilton erased a five-second deficit and pulled off a late. gutsy late-braking manoeuvre to overtake him heading into the first turn during the final stages. Verstappen took his first podium of the year and was eventually joined by an unexpected name further back—Isack Hadjar.
Hadjar, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, came home in fifth, marking his best finish of the season. But it was a day shaped as much by penalties as by pace: Hadjar received a 20-second time penalty for moving under braking while trying to block Charles Leclerc. then was also handed a stop-and-go penalty for failing to slow down in time during a yellow flag. Leclerc. meanwhile. finished fourth after nearly losing it on a late spin and coming close to crashing into the “wall of champions.”.
McLaren’s tire call unravelled everything
If Russell’s race ended with an engine, McLaren’s ended with the wrong kind of momentum.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri lined up third and fourth respectively after locking out the second row in qualifying behind the Mercedes front row. All Mercedes. Ferrari and Red Bull cars started on the soft compound tires. but McLaren chose intermediates. expecting a wet track with more rain coming. The forecast didn’t arrive.
The circuit was already drying during the formation laps. Norris lunged ahead of both Mercedes cars at the start. but his lead didn’t last because he pitted at the end of the second lap to switch off the intermediates. After that. Norris spent the rest of the day chasing lapped traffic rather than racing for position. and it only got worse when he locked up on lap four and cut through the grass.
He saved his car from hitting the wall, but the field left its mark—clippings collected in a way that forced him into yet another unexpected pit stop to clear his car’s cooling duct. Norris fought back into the points, moving up after the stop, but the recovery didn’t last.
Norris retired due to a gearbox issue.
Piastri’s day also turned brutal. He received a 10-second time penalty when he locked up and rammed into the side of Williams driver Alex Albon. He still managed to make it to the end, but finished 11th—one spot outside of the points.
Ferrari and Red Bull capitalise
With Russell out and McLaren unravelled, Hamilton and Verstappen were the obvious beneficiaries.
Hamilton’s second-place finish and Verstappen’s third made the most of the swing at the front. It also kept the championship narrative from drifting too far away from the teams that could still convert misfortune into momentum.
Hamilton moved into fourth overall and is now three points behind Charles Leclerc.
For Verstappen, the podium was a bright spot in an uncharacteristic season, with him sitting seventh in the standings ahead of what promises to be a fast-moving stretch of races.
Russell isn’t out of the fight yet—but the clock is ticking
Antonelli’s win didn’t just hand him a milestone moment in Montreal; it forced the championship to recalibrate quickly.
Russell’s first DNF in almost two years left him reacting, but the gap wasn’t insurmountable. With the season still only five races down, he has time to recover. The next phase looks intense as well: six races in the following nine weeks heading into the summer break.
That’s why Russell’s frustration mattered so much. His car had been reliable—until it wasn’t. And for McLaren. the story was similar in its own way: a strategy built around rain that never came. followed by mechanical problems and penalties. left a double-constructors-champion outfit scrambling to explain how quickly the day turned.
Good news and bad for Stroll
Lance Stroll’s Canadian Grand Prix carried its own split-screen.
The Montreal native finished with a season-best result at his home race, improving seven places after starting from the pit lane at the back of the pack. For a driver who has been dealing with an ugly start to the season, finishing the race was a clear relief.
But there was a hard sting to the numbers. Stroll was four laps down in 15th and second-last among the cars that actually made it to the finish—an outcome made possible only because the number of retirements, plus a DNS for Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad, inflated his final position.
In other words: Antonelli found clean distance at the front, while the rest of the field found out how quickly a race can flip from plan to problem.
F1 Canadian Grand Prix Kimi Antonelli George Russell Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Lando Norris Oscar Piastri Toto Wolff Charles Leclerc Isack Hadjar Alex Albon Lance Stroll