Antonelli wins Canadian Grand Prix as Russell DNF's

The Canadian Grand Prix was a dramatic one, as Kimi Antonelli took home his fourth straight victory, while teammate and championship contender George Russell retired from the race due to a power unit failure. Arvid Lindblad didn’t even get to start the race as he stalled at the start, which forced two more formation laps so that they could get his car out of the way. 

For the second year in a row, it was an awful day for McLaren. McLaren made the choice to start both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who were starting P3 and P4, on intermediate tires; everyone else around them were on slicks. Piastri questioned the choice on the second formation lap and even wanted to pit, but his race engineer, Tom Stallard, told him no and to stay out. 

Off the start, Norris hopped into first place after Senna, but had to pit on Lap 2 because his intermediate tires were giving out fast. The move to start the race on inters still doesn’t make any sense. Things didn’t get any better for McLaren, as Norris retired from the race due to a gearbox issue on Lap 40. Norris told the team it was all right and that it just wasn’t their weekend.  Piastri drove into the side of Alex Albon on Lap 13 and had to pit for a second time in the race, which saw him drop to P14. 

Verstappen took charge of his own race, running in second place for most of the Grand Prix until Lewis Hamilton overtook him on Lap 62. He finished in P3 and had a great recovery drive from the blunder that was Saturday. Hadjar had a good race as well, finishing just inside the top five, and had swapped positions with Charles Leclerc. 

Hamilton and Leclerc picked up mega points for Ferrari today, as they capitalized on all of McLaren’s blunders and are now 41 points ahead in second place in the Constructors’ Championship. Hamilton couldn’t find much pace in his first stint, but when he switched from the soft to the medium tires for the second stint, his car came alive and he closed an eight second gap and finished on the middle step of the podium. Leclerc had a rough race, but still managed to finish P4. While it’s a solid result, there’s no way he’s content with how this weekend went. 

The big storyline coming into this race was Mercedes. They battled for the first 30 laps of the Grand Prix, like the Sprint Race yesterday, switching back and forth, yo-yoing. However, on Lap 30, Russell’s car stopped working as he cut through a chicane with no control, and right then and there had to stop the car and retire from the race. Russell, before he got out of the car, threw his headrest out of the car and then slammed his fists on the front of it. He’s been fined $5,820 for throwing his headrest. 

Russell was nearly perfect throughout the entire three days, doing everything he had to do, including winning the Sprint on Saturday and letting Antonelli cost himself a point. With how the Drivers’ Championship fight is going, as crazy as it sounds, only five rounds in, especially with the two lost Grand Prixs, this was a must-win race for Russell, and he knew it. 

Antonelli now has full control of the Drivers’ Championship, gaining a whole 25 points on Russell, having a 43-point lead, nearly two races. The next Grand Prix is in two weeks in Monaco.