Russell wins under safety car as McLaren duo collide

Mercedes driver George Russell has defeated Max Verstappen at Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix to claim his first win of the 2025 season – while Lando Norris retired after colliding into McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Russell fended Verstappen off at the start after claiming pole on Saturday and then produced a measured drive, with his lead never under serious threat.

In a predicted two-stop race, Russell always had an answer to Verstappen’s pitstops and built up a decent buffer over the second stint to delay his final stop until lap 43 of 70, which then allowed him to keep his rival at arm’s length until the finish to take his and Mercedes’ first win of 2025.

Behind Russell and Verstappen, who settled for second, the battle for the final podium spot heated up over the final stint. Russell’s team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli produced his finest grand prix drive of his fledgling career and even passed Verstappen right as the Dutchman peeled off into the pits.

Verstappen’s earlier pitstop allowed him to keep position and in the second half of the race Antonelli’s challenge for second faded. The Italian rookie instead had to look in his mirrors to fend off Piastri, whom he had been able to overtake for third on lap 1, and he held firm until the finish to take a maiden F1 podium and hand Mercedes a 1-3.

Piastri and McLaren didn’t enjoy their usual race pace or tyre wear advantage in Canada, despite Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve being a track that emphases rear tyre management.

As such, Piastri couldn’t benefit from having fresher hard tyres than Antonelli to find a way past, with the championship leader instead coming under pressure from Norris.

After a disappointing qualifying session to seventh, Norris enjoyed arguably the strongest race pace of the pack as he made an alternative strategy work to claw his way back into contention.

Norris started on hard rubber, extended his first stint and then put himself in a position to put pressure on Piastri. After hounding Piastri for several laps, Norris initially passed the Australian at the hairpin on lap 66 before the pair barrelled towards the final chicane side by side.

Piastri kept the position by being later on the brakes, but on the main straight Norris then made an error of judgement as he attempted an overtake on the left into a closing gap, driving into the back of his team-mate and then hitting the pitwall to suffer terminal suspension damage.

Norris immediately owned up to his mistake via team radio, saying it was “all on me”, as he suffered a big points loss in the drivers’ championship.

Ferrari endured a disappointing afternoon, with Charles Leclerc furious as his team abandoned what appeared to be a manageable one-stop strategy and instead settled for sixth, which became fifth after Norris’ retirement.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton had a rough afternoon with disastrously slow race pace, which undid a solid fifth qualifying position and saw him finish behind Leclerc in sixth. The seven-time world champion is believed to have suffered damage by hitting a groundhog, which cost him downforce.

Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg both produced another combative drive to grab their second consecutive points-scoring results in seventh and eighth respectively, coming out at the forefront of an entertaining midfield dogfight.

The final points went to the Haas of Esteban Ocon and Williams driver Carlos Sainz, who overcame a disappointing qualifying session which yielded 16th on the starting grid.

His Williams team-mate Alex Albon was less fortunate after having to park his car on lap 48 with a Mercedes power unit issue, while Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson also retired from a hopeless position to conserve engine mileage.

In the drivers’ standings Piastri extends his lead over Norris from 12 to 22 points heading into the Austrian Grand Prix, which takes place at the Red Bull Ring on 29 June.

F1 Canadian Grand Prix results