Russell Triumphs in Canada, McLaren Implodes, and Antonelli Arrives

George Russell took his first F1 win of the season Sunday like a man settling an old score—clean, precise, and just smug enough to remind everyone why Mercedes keeps him around. He led from pole, managed his tires like a sommelier manages wine, and held off Max Verstappen in the kind of calm, competent drive that would’ve looked dull if it weren’t so satisfying.

“It’s amazing to be back on the top step,” Russell said, and it was—especially for a team that’s been stuck in the no-man’s-land between Red Bull dominance and Ferrari confusion for far too long. “Last year felt like a win lost. Today felt like one we earned.” And to be fair, he’s not wrong. That pole lap was sensational, and the Sunday execution was clinical.

Behind him, Verstappen finished second—not because he lacked pace, but because Russell had just enough to keep him from getting ideas. Max complained early on that his tires were “very fragile,” which in Verstappen-speak means he wasn’t going to risk getting out-strategized. He pitted early, forced Mercedes to respond, and then spent the rest of the race hovering around the lead like a shark who wasn’t quite hungry enough to bite.

But the real headline wasn’t Russell, or Verstappen. It was Kimi Antonelli. The teenager—who’s still young enough to need parental consent for a Spotify account—drove like he’d been doing this for years. He muscled his way past Piastri early on, stuck with the front-runners, and kept his nose clean while the rest of the field lost theirs. He ended up on the podium not because others failed, but because he didn’t. Simple as that. He even managed to fend off Verstappen for a few corners, which is the F1 equivalent of holding your own in a bar fight with Mike Tyson.

Then there was McLaren. Oh dear.

With about 15 laps to go, we were treated to a full-blown civil war between teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. And like most civil wars, it ended badly for both sides. Norris had fresher tires, more pace, and a championship to think about. He also had just enough DRS to believe the impossible was possible. After an aggressive but fair pass at the Turn 10 hairpin, Piastri came roaring back. They ran side-by-side through the chicane like it was Days of Thunder, only with more telemetry and fewer mullets.

Norris, perhaps feeling he’d been wronged or just a bit overexcited, decided to try again down the pit straight. He went for a gap that existed only in the same way unicorns exist—great in theory, disastrous in practice. He clipped the back of Piastri’s car, slammed into the wall, and scattered McLaren’s race strategy across the asphalt like confetti at a wedding that just got canceled mid-vow.

“I just misjudged it,” Norris said afterward, looking like a man who knew his afternoon had ended somewhere between brave and boneheaded. “It was all my mistake. I take full blame… There’s going for it like at the hairpin—a good, fair move—and then there’s being stupid like I was at the end.”

With Norris out and Piastri somehow keeping it pointed in the right direction, the field tucked in behind the Safety Car and trundled to the finish line like it was the world’s most expensive Uber ride. The race ended with Russell in first, Verstappen in second, and Antonelli standing on the podium for the first time, probably wondering how soon he could change his Instagram bio to “F1 Podium Finisher.”

Piastri took fourth—his reward for surviving a teammate with tunnel vision—while Leclerc and Hamilton quietly collected fifth and sixth. Fernando Alonso, Hulkenberg, and the one-stoppers Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz rounded out the top ten in what can only be described as “the part of the race the TV director mostly ignored.”

So yes, Russell won. Antonelli arrived. Norris exploded. And F1 reminded us once again: it’s not always about who’s the fastest. Sometimes, it’s about who keeps it out of the wall.

Canadian F1 Grand Prix Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	63	George Russell	Mercedes	70	1:31:52.688	25
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	70	+0.228s	18
3	12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	70	+1.014s	15
4	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren Mercedes	70	+2.109s	12
5	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	70	+3.442s	10
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	70	+10.713s	8
7	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	70	+10.972s	6
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Kick Sauber Ferrari	70	+15.364s	4
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas Ferrari	69	+1 lap	2
10	55	Carlos Sainz	Williams Mercedes	69	+1 lap	1
11	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas Ferrari	69	+1 lap	0
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	69	+1 lap	0
13	43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine Renault	69	+1 lap	0
14	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Kick Sauber Ferrari	69	+1 lap	0
15	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine Renault	69	+1 lap	0
16	6	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls Honda RBPT	69	+1 lap	0
17	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	69	+1 lap	0
18	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Mercedes	66	DNF	0
NC	30	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls Honda RBPT	53	DNF	0
NC	23	Alexander Albon	Williams Mercedes	46	DNF	0
* Provisional results.

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Greg Engle

Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community.

Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.

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