Kimi Antonelli claimed his fourth consecutive victory at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, but the result came wrapped in controversy and drama as team-mate George Russell — who had been battling the Italian wheel-to-wheel for the lead — was forced to retire from the front with a suspected power unit failure on lap 30. The retirement handed Antonelli a victory he may well have taken anyway, but it also robbed the race of what had been shaping up as one of the most compelling team-mate battles in recent memory.
With Russell out, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen contested second place in the closing stages, Hamilton ultimately getting the better of his old rival with a superb outside move at Turn One with six laps remaining. It was Ferrari’s best grand prix result of the season and Verstappen’s first podium of 2026. McLaren, meanwhile, endured a nightmare afternoon of their own making, with both drivers eliminated before the finish after a bold — and ultimately catastrophic — tyre strategy call at the start.
Antonelli and Russell: A Battle Cut Short
The rivalry between Mercedes’ two drivers has been simmering since Miami, but in Montreal it boiled over into something altogether more intense. Russell made a slow start from pole and Antonelli swept past him immediately, only for Norris to take advantage of the chaos to lead from third on the grid on intermediate tyres. Once Norris pitted on lap two, leaving Antonelli at the front, Russell immediately began pressing his team-mate for the lead.
What followed was a breathless sequence of moves, counter-moves and controversies across the next 25 laps. Russell took the lead at the final chicane on lap six, with Antonelli forced into the run-off. The Briton locked up at the hairpin on lap 12 and Antonelli got through, only for Russell to reclaim the lead into the final corner. Antonelli repeatedly probed at the hairpin and chicane, and at one point was ordered by the team to hand the position back after passing off the track — a call he disputed furiously over the radio, insisting Russell had pushed him off. Both drivers were eventually warned to keep the racing clean or they would be told to hold position. The fight had barely calmed when Russell’s car stopped dead on lap 30, ending the contest before it could reach its natural conclusion.
“It feels incredibly lucky to win today,” Antonelli admitted afterwards. The four wins in a row extend his championship lead to 43 points over Russell — seven points shy of two clear victories.
Hamilton Outsmarts Verstappen in a Classic Duel
With the Mercedes battle resolved by mechanical failure, the race’s second narrative belonged to Hamilton and Verstappen. Verstappen passed Hamilton’s Ferrari with an audacious move into Turn One on lap 13 and pulled clear in the middle stint, but two virtual safety car periods allowed Hamilton to close back up. With 13 laps remaining, the Ferrari was within a second of the Red Bull and Hamilton began to apply pressure.
On lap 62 with six to go, he produced the move of the race — sweeping around the outside of Verstappen at the first corner to take second place. Verstappen hit back immediately, challenging Hamilton into Turn One on the following lap and staying within striking distance to the flag, but the seven-time champion held firm. It was Hamilton’s best grand prix result since joining Ferrari and Verstappen’s first podium of a difficult 2026 season.
McLaren’s Tyre Gamble Backfires Badly
McLaren arrived in Montreal as one of the teams most likely to challenge Mercedes following their strong showing in Miami. They left with nothing. Both Norris and Piastri started on intermediate tyres despite a dry track, hoping cold conditions would give them an early advantage. Two aborted starts — caused by Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls failing to engage gear — meant the intermediates were on the cars far longer than planned, and Piastri twice asked to pit for slicks before the race had even properly begun. His engineers refused.
Norris used the warm tyres and poor Mercedes starts to grab the lead, but was forced to pit at the end of lap two as the intermediates quickly fell off. Piastri had already come in a lap earlier. Both cars dropped to the back of the field before their afternoon fell apart entirely — Norris suffering a suspected gearbox failure on lap 39 after also having to stop to clear debris from a cooling duct, while Piastri collected a 10-second penalty for a clumsy collision with Alex Albon’s Williams. It was a damaging day for the championship aspirations of the reigning world champion.
Top 10 Results
1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
2. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
5. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)
6. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
7. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
8. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
9. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
10. Oliver Bearman (Haas)
Analysis: Antonelli Pulling Away
Four wins from five races. A 43-point championship lead. An opponent whose car failed just as the fight was reaching its peak. The 2026 season is in danger of becoming a one-man show, and while Russell will rightly feel that Montreal could — should — have been very different, the gap in the standings is now enormous. McLaren’s strategic blunder wiped out their two most realistic title challengers in a single afternoon, and Ferrari, despite Hamilton’s excellent second place, remain too far back to mount a serious championship challenge. The Monaco Grand Prix in two weeks’ time will be a fascinating test of whether the barriers and the pressure of a street circuit can do what Russell’s Mercedes could not — stop Kimi Antonelli.
What’s Next?
Formula 1 returns to Europe for the Monaco Grand Prix at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo, from 5–7 June. The narrow streets of the principality offer a very different challenge to the open layout of Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, and with team-mate tensions inside the Mercedes garage now very much in the open, the most glamorous race on the calendar promises to be anything but processional off the track.
