George Russell won the sprint race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve despite a clash with his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli.
Mercedes, which locked out the front row ahead of the McLarens, Ferraris and Red Bulls, maintained its performance advantage at the start as polesitter Russell led Antonelli, despite the Silver Arrows having previously suffered from slow getaways in 2026.
The only change among frontrunners was Lewis Hamilton going around the outside of Oscar Piastri in Turn 2 for fourth, as Lando Norris stayed third and Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar still made up the top eight.
Antonelli started applying pressure Russell on lap five, and attacked on the next lap around the outside in Turn 1, but he was given no space by Russell and cut through the grass.
Antonelli was not giving up and launched another attempt at Turn 8 but braked perhaps too late and bounced across the grass, losing second place to Norris. “That was very naughty,” Kimi complained of George, though the TV replays did not seem to relate his claim.
Briefly challenged by Hamilton, Antonelli pulled away and eventually closed the gap to Norris, who himself was pressuring leader Russell. The attacked from the McLaren on the last lap, around the outside in Turn 1, but could not make the move stick, so the top three remained unchanged.
Hamilton had to withheld pressure from Piastri and eventually collapsed to sixth on the last lap, behind the McLaren driver and Ferrari teammate Leclerc. Verstappen finished seventh.
Hadjar ended up three laps down after two pitstops, meaning Arvid Lindblad collected the last available point after completing the race on hard tyres for Racing Bulls.
Further back, Lance Stroll finished highest of all five cars which started from the pitlane, having encountered a front suspension issue shortly before the start. Valtteri Bottas, Oliver Bearman, Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly were in the same starting situation but were outraced by the Aston Martin.
So an exciting sprint race with the major talking point featuring the battle between the two Silver Arrows. The championship leader Antonelli believed he was pushed off by Russell, while team boss Toto Wolff commented on the team radio to not complain and focus on the racing.
Canadian Grand Prix, sprint results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 28:50.951
2 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +1.272s
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +1.843s
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +9.797s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +9.929s
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +10.545s
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +15.935s
8 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +29.710s
9 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +31.621s
10 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +36.793s
11 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +61.344s
12 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +61.814s
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Mercedes +64.209s
14 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari +70.402s
15 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +72.158s
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap
17 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +1 lap
18 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
19 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
20 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +1 lap
21 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls-Ford +2 laps
Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda DNF
George Russell resisted incredible pressure to hold on to the lead of the Canada Sprint, beating Lando Norris and a fiery Kimi Antonelli to victory after clashing with his Mercedes team mate.
For the first time this season, Russell and Antonelli held position on the opening lap, but it was far from a straightforward win for the Briton. He endured a tight battle with the 19-year-old, who repeatedly darted off track and was forced to settle for third place behind a rapid Norris, despite multiple calls for Russell to be penalised after the pair banged wheels and the Italian was pushed onto the grass.
Oscar Piastri was fourth as McLaren enjoyed another successful Sprint, gaining a position from Lewis Hamilton late on, before the Ferrari driver lost another spot to his team mate with Charles Leclerc sealing P5.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad grabbed the final points on offer in P7 and P8, neither able to find the pace necessary to fight those ahead.
Franco Colapinto was a respectable ninth for Alpine, followed by Williams’ Carlos Sainz and the second Racing Bulls car of Liam Lawson, who recovered from his limited running and charged through the field from P18.
Points were a distant prospect for Audi as Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg finished P12 and P15 respectively, with the latter handed a 10-second time penalty in the Sprint’s latter stages. They were separated by Esteban Ocon for Haas and Cadillac’s Sergio Perez.
Lance Stroll was 16th for Aston Martin after narrowly making the start. He took the chequered flag ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Ollie Bearman, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly, all of whom started from the pit lane.
Last in the order were Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and the final Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, with both drivers pitting during the Sprint and using it as a chance to gather further data.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/russell-clings-on-to-win-canada-sprint-after-clashing-with-antonelli.6Ggn92sBNEdqizMYOT44fb
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli wants his team to provide further “clarity” over its rules of engagement after a tense battle with George Russell in the Canadian Grand Prix sprint left him upset at his team-mate.
Starting from the front row, poleman Russell and second-placed Antonelli fought out a close battle in the opening stages of the 23-lap sprint when the pair came to blows at Montreal’s awkward Turn 1-2 chicane.
Antonelli attempted a pass around the outside of Turn 1 as it would yield the inside for Turn 2, but had to escape onto the grass after Russell refused to yield ground on exit. The battle then resumed in Turn 8, with Antonelli sailing off the track and ending up behind Lando Norris in third.
In the heat of the moment, the incident angered Antonelli as the Italian called for a “naughty” Russell to receive a penalty for pushing him off the track. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had to intervene twice on the team radio to urge Antonelli to stop venting his frustration in public.
Speaking after the race Antonelli said Russell’s robust defence was not how he had understood Mercedes’ internal rules on engagement, and he urged the Brackley team to provide more “clarity”.
“Obviously, we do meetings before races and that’s what we say in the room,” Antonelli said. “Then, of course, we race to win and we try to do our best to defend our position. Probably I understood the significance of that meeting a bit differently.
“Emotions were very high in the moment and obviously I was very annoyed. But I just need to recheck and for sure we’re going to talk about it and we’re going to clarify that.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/annoyed-kimi-antonelli-demands-clarity-over-robust-george-russell-defence-in-canada-f1-sprint/10823462/
The Formula 1 sprint in Canada began aggressively enough, as polesitter George Russell pulled up on the grid with his Mercedes angled aggressively to cut off any challenge from team-mate Kimi Antonelli at launch.
But this was nothing compared with the events of lap six, when Antonelli tried to pass around the outside into Turn 1, only to be given no room at all – and indeed a tap of wheel-to-wheel contact. That sent Antonelli into the run-off area and then, as he lined up to try another pass into Turn 8 later in the lap, he ran over the grass, enabling Lando Norris’ McLaren to slip by into second place.
Antonelli complained repeatedly over the radio about Russell’s driving etiquette, warranting not just an instruction from race engineer Peter Bonnington to focus on the race, but also two interventions from team principal Toto Wolff. It’s not unknown for Wolff to take to the airwaves to either throw an arm around a driver’s shoulder or read the riot act, but seldom does he do it twice.
In this case, the very emphatic message was that matters such as these are not to be discussed over the radio.
Afterwards, Wolff was keen to frame the race positively, as a learning experience for both drivers as they battle for a world championship for the first time. He has been in this scenario before, mediating between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg during their ultimately toxic rivalry as team-mates between 2013 and 2016.
“It was good,” Wolff said after the race. “Good cinema, and the race was good as well. For us, actually a very good learning experience about how we want to do things – or also how we don’t want to do them.
“You can see how quickly you give away an advantage when you simply fight each other too hard. And there are always two people involved.
“So now we’ll discuss it: what can we learn from it, what conclusions can we draw, so that in the future we simply avoid these situations.
“If it’s not George but another driver, then you also wouldn’t expect him to drive alongside you there and invite you through. And I think that’s the consequence.
“Team-mates can overtake each other in moments like these. But probably defending that hard, the way it happens when it’s about the championship – you can’t expect someone to just open the door anymore.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/you-cant-expect-to-have-a-lion-in-the-car-and-a-puppy-outside-of-it-mercedes-boss-defends-kimi-anto/10823482/
Lando Norris took advantage of an intense intra-team battle between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli to secure P2 in the Sprint at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, revealing that he was “pretty worried” about having to then defend from the Italian driver.
After proving McLaren’s potential by winning the Miami Sprint last time out, Norris reaffirmed the success of their upgrades by claiming third place in Sprint Qualifying in Canada, lining up just ahead of team mate Oscar Piastri.
The pair were unable to edge past Mercedes at lights out as the leaders refined their approach to the opening lap, and Russell was able to open up a slim advantage of a few seconds over Norris.
However, as Antonelli launched a fierce attack for P1, Norris closed in and was able to swoop past the 19-year-old when he ran wide, leaving the top three drivers separated by tiny margins for the remaining laps.
“It was a good race,” the McLaren driver said afterwards. “It was good just to watch them [the Mercedes pair] go at it for a little while but of course we were there to pick up the pieces when things happened, and they were quick.
“Kimi caught me back up pretty quickly and then I was pretty worried from behind but also I wanted to try and attack George ahead. Overall, it was fun. It’s always a tough track to try and push on and easy to make mistakes but today was a good result for us.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-pleased-he-was-there-to-pick-up-the-pieces-from-mercedes-battle-in-canada-sprint.4zytYTauK33DwHkFvK1lCb