George Russell held off Max Verstappen to win F1 Canadian GP, as Andrea Kimi Antonelli was P3 after resisting McLaren pressure where Lando Norris crashed.
It was a rather clean start to F1 Canadian GP in Montreal as Mercedes’ George Russell led the way comfortably from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, as Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli took the inside line into Turn 1 to clear McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to move up to third.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton held on to fifth from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, as McLaren’s Lando Norries steadied in seventh from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The position behind changed after Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg moved up to ninth ahead of Alpine’s Franco Colapinto in the Top 10.
Colapinto went side-by-side against Williams’ Alexander Albon for couple of corners, as the Thai was forced to take the grass route at Turn 8. This allowed Hulkenberg to take the inside line and pass two cars into ninth, as the Argentine kept a points place in 10th.
Albon dropped to 12th behind Visa Cash App RB’s Isack Hadjar. At the front, Verstappen started to hustle Russell for the lead, but he dropped off after five laps of hustling. Antonelli started to catch the Dutchman, which forced the Red Bull driver to pit on Lap 12 itself.
The medium tyre started to degrade quickly as Russell and Antonelli pitted on Lap 13 and Lap 14 respectively. Piastri eventually pitted on Lap 16, as Norris assumed the lead of F1 Canadian GP, having started on the hard compound ahead of Leclerc, with Russell catching the back of them.
The line-up steadied as Ocon in eighth was the highest runner on the hard compound in the first stint. There was feisty no-go from Albon to switch from medium to hard after Williams delayed his stop. He started to loose places in heaps as other hard runners started to clear him easily.
At the front, once Russell passed Leclerc, Ferrari called him in the pits on Lap 30 with Norris following him on Lap 31. The Monegasque wanted to go deep on the hard tyre, as both gained on Hamilton. Ocon steadied in eighth from Sainz, as Alonso passed Tsunoda for 10th after the Spaniard’s stop.
Alonso even cleared Sainz as the early stoppers started to make inroads. He was on the tail of Ocon as well and passed him soon. In a bid to maximise, Alpine asked Pierre Gasly to swap with Colapinto, with the Argentine being on a different strategy to the Frenchman.
The second round of pit stops saw Verstappen pit on Lap 38, as Antonelli followed on Lap 39. The two came close at pit exit but the Dutchman managed to stay ahead on the Italian. Russell eventually pitted on Lap 43, as Piastri stayed out for longer in dilemma of whether one stop or two.
The big fight was outside the Top 10, where Colapinto was chasing Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, while Gasly held off Hadjar and Haas’ Oliver Bearman, who had a minor grass moment at Turn 8 in the chase. Both Hadjar and Bearman finally got through Gasly on Lap 44 – where the latter was aiming for one stop.
Piastri pitted on Lap 46, as did Hamilton. The likes of Ocon, Sainz, Tsunoda and Gasly maintained their one stop aim. The Frenchman had a moment with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll after he was passed at the back straight – the move was put under investigation.
Gasly tried to come back on him taking the outside line into the final corner, but Stroll didn’t leave him space and pushed him onto the grass. The stewards handed a 10s time penalty for the incident. Just behind them, Albon was forced to retire as he stopped by himself at the hairpin in safe space.
Hulkenberg, meanwhile, passed Tsunoda for 12th on different strategies. At the front, Leclerc stretched his stint in the lead after Norris stopped. He eventually stopped at Lap 54 after waiting for long. It handed Russell the F1 Canadian GP lead from Verstappen, with Antonelli’s third in threat.
Piastri closed in on Antonelli for third, as Norris started to join the party as well. Leclerc was a distant sixth from Hamilton, who was carrying a damage. Ocon and Sainz finally pitted on Lap 58 after Tsunoda did so on Lap 57. The Japanese driver had a slower stop to drop behind couple of cars.
Visa Cash App RB’s Liam Lawson was forced to retire to save his power unit. At the front, Russell had to respond to Verstappen’s inroads, as Antonelli had to fend off Piastri and Norris in the battle for third. It turned into a disaster for the Brit in the end after a collision with the Australian.
Norris made a move at the hairpin at the inside to get ahead but Piastri came back on him at the back straight to retake the position. The Brit tried to give a look at the main straight but misjudged and hit the back of the Australian to dislodge his own front wing by hitting the wall.
Norris accepted his mistake as the safety car was deployed to end the grand prix under it. There was some games between Russell and Verstappen behind the safety car, but the Brit took the F1 Canadian GP win from the Dutchman, as Antonelli secured his first podium finish in third.
Piastri was fourth to extend his points tally, with Leclerc in fifth from Hamilton, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Ocon and Sainz in the Top 10 points places. Bearman missed out in 11th from Tsunoda, Colapinto, Bortoleto, Gasly, Hadjar and Stroll to round out the 17 runners. Everyone from Ocon until Stroll finished a lap down on the leaders.
Post-race, the stewards put Ocon and Sainz under investigation for driving erratically, while the likes of Antonelli, Piastri, Leclerc, Ocon, Sainz, Gasly and Stroll noted for safety car infringement.
UPDATE: The stewards cleared Bearman with a warning for unsafe rejoin when battling Colapinto, where the Brit accepted that he could have done a bit more to adhere to the race directors’ note. Here: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_canadian_grand_prix_-_infringement_-_car_87_-_failure_to_follow_race_directors_instructions_corrected.pdf
Teammate Ocon was cleared of erratic driving against Sainz as well. The Frenchman braked hard at pit exit which caught the Spaniard but the Haas driver did so to adhere to the double yellow sector ruling, which the stewards reckon was the right thing to do, even though it compromised the Williams driver. Here: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_canadian_grand_prix_-_infringement_-_car_31_-_alleged_erratic_driving_corrected.pdf
Norris, meanwhile, was handed 5s time penalty for wholly responsible for his collision with Piastri. Since the Brit was classified having done 75% of the grand prix, the time penalty was applied accordingly and not converted to grid drop for Austria. Here: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_canadian_grand_prix_-_infringement_-_car_4_-_collision_with_car_81.pdf
In a safety car infringement look out for the likes of Antonelli, Piastri, Ocon, Leclerc, Gasly and Sainz, they were all cleared with a warning. They overtook cars while the track was under safety car even after the chequered flag was waved. Here’s explanation for one which was same for all: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_canadian_grand_prix_-_infringement_-_car_12_-_safety_car_procedure.pdf
Red Bull lodged a protest against Russell for two key factors. The first was erratic driving from the Brit behind the safety car which points towards the sudden braking, while the second was for the Mercedes driver not keeping up with 10-car length behind the safety car.
After a long discussion, the stewards dismissed the protest from Red Bull. The team also noted about unsportsmanlike behaviour from Russell in their argument, but the stewards rejected their claims that the Brit braked erratically and that his radio statement about Verstappen’s overtake was unsportsmanlike.
Therefore, the results stood as it is. Here in full: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_canadian_grand_prix_-_decision_-_red_bull_-_protest_against_car_63.pdf
