George Russell held his nerve to take victory after an eventful sprint in Canada. One that saw him and his teammate cross swords on track for the very first time.
After retaining his lead off the start, Russell soon came under fire from Kimi Antonelli. The championship leader attempted an audacious pass around the outside of turn one, only to run wide. Antonelli made an even more daring lunge up the inside of turn eight but locked up, ran wide and lost a place to Lando Norris.
Antonelli wasted no time in making his feelings known on the radio and spent the remainder of the race hustling Norris for second. Despite his clear pace advantage, Antonelli was unable to find a way past, the teenager made a final, major lunge around the outside of turn one on the final lap but ran wide yet again. With this result, Antonelli’s championship lead has been cut to 18 points.
Norris capitalised on the Mercedes battle up front and resisted stern pressure from Antonelli to take fourth and seven valuable championship points.
Behind them Oscar Piastri was involved in a race-long battle with the two Ferraris. Lewis Hamilton passed Piastri at turn two and held fourth for the majority of the race, but brushed the Wall of Champion on lap 21. He later lost out to Piastri at the final corner on the following lap and was passed by his teammate Charles Leclerc in the process. Hamilton finished sixth behind Leclerc who very nearly out dragged Piastri to the line on the final lap.
After struggling with bouncing throughout sprint qualifying, Max Verstappen had a lonely sprint race in which he finished seventh. Behind him Arvid Lindblad maintained his eighth place starting position and secured the final points paying position. An impressive showing given Lindblad’s lack of experience at this circuit.
Franco Colapinto benefitted from the misfortune of others to move from 13th to ninth ahead of Carlos Sainz, a promising result for the Alpine driver who failed to secure any meaningful running in free practice.
Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto and Esteban Ocon. Sergio Perez secure Cadillac’s second-best result in any race format thus far with 14th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg who was awarded a ten-second time penalty after cutting the final chicane on lap 14.
Technical problems forced Lance Stroll to start from the pitlane. However, the local hero was able to recover to 16th. Valtteri Bottas finished 17th ahead of Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar. The Red Bull driver’s sprint was scuppered by engine issues. Fernando Alonso failed to finish due to further mechanical issues with his Aston Martin.
Russell is still on track to reignite his championship challenger this weekend. However, if the incidents with Antonelli are anything to go by, this weekend could mark the first flashpoint in a potential future Mercedes civil war.
