Russell takes solid victory as Piastri and Norris collide late on in dramatic Canadian Grand Prix

George Russell has clinched Mercedes’ first victory of the season in the Canadian Grand Prix, a race that ended in dramatic style after a collision between McLaren team mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris that saw the latter crash out.

It had been a strong start from pole position for Russell, the Briton launching away cleanly to hold the lead from Max Verstappen. What followed was a race of different strategies across the pack, with some opting for a two-stop plan while others tried to nurse their tyres on a one-stop.

Most of the frontrunners executed a two-stop strategy, setting up for a thrilling finale as the gaps amongst the top five cars became increasingly close in the closing stages. While Russell was leading from Verstappen, Piastri was trying to catch Kimi Antonelli for third – but the Australian also had Norris hot on his tail.

The McLaren pair then engaged in a feisty battle and contact occurred between them after Norris hit the back of Piastri’s car, resulting in Norris parking up at the side of the track. The Briton went on to apologise for the incident over the radio.

With the Safety Car being deployed as Norris’ stricken car was recovered, Russell crossed the line to seal his fourth career Grand Prix victory while Verstappen followed in second. There were also double celebrations at Mercedes as Antonelli claimed third, marking the Italian’s debut F1 podium.

Piastri managed to hold onto fourth, the Australian having pitted under the Safety Car, while Charles Leclerc took fifth for Ferrari ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton in sixth.

Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, added to his points tally by claiming seventh for Aston Martin, while Nico Hulkenberg bolstered Kick Sauber’s total with a solid eighth.

Esteban Ocon was ninth in Haas’ 200th Grand Prix, while Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10 for Williams after a tricky day for the team. Haas’ Ollie Bearman just missed out on points in P11, while Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda recovered from P18 to a final result of P12.

Franco Colapinto was 13th for Alpine, ahead of Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto in 14th and the other Alpine of Pierre Gasly in 15th. Isack Hadjar ended the race down in 16th for Racing Bulls, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll endured a tough home race as the final classified runner in 17th.

Norris was one of three drivers not to reach the chequered flag following his aforementioned crash, and subsequently received a five-second post-race time penalty for the collision.

Liam Lawson earlier recorded a DNF after seemingly experiencing an issue with his Racing Bulls machine, and Alex Albon retired from the running, having suffered a power unit problem on his Williams throughout the race.

AS IT HAPPENED

One day on from a thrilling Qualifying session – in which Russell pipped Verstappen to pole position during the final moments, securing P1 on the Montreal grid for a second year in a row – the attentions of the paddock switched to Race 10 on the calendar, the 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix.

A number of changes had been made to the starting order prior to Sunday’s race. Tsunoda dropped to the back of the grid from P11 following a 10-place penalty for passing Piastri under red flag conditions in third practice, while Hadjar had been demoted three places for impeding Sainz during Qualifying, moving him from P9 to P12.

Meanwhile, Lawson and Gasly – who had both faced difficult Qualifying sessions, ending up in P18 and P20 respectively – would both start from the pit lane due to changes being made to their cars under parc ferme conditions, with each taking on a new power unit.

As the drivers assembled on a warm and sunny grid ahead of the formation lap, it was revealed that the top 13 cars – barring Norris in seventh and eighth-placed Leclerc – had bolted on the medium tyres, while the rest of the field had opted for the hard compound. Would this be a two-stop race, or could some make a one-stop plan work?

Russell made a clean getaway from pole when the lights went out, with Verstappen also launching strongly from P2, while Antonelli was quick to put Piastri under pressure in a fight for third, the Mercedes ultimately getting past into Turn 3.

There was plenty of action further back as Albon scrapped with former team mate Colapinto, leading to the Williams bouncing across the grass at Turn 9-10. All of this dropped the Thai driver back to 12th, while Hulkenberg had benefitted by moving up to ninth ahead of Colapinto.

By Lap 4, Verstappen was staying within DRS range of Russell, the Red Bull driver preventing his rival from building an early lead. Antonelli, meanwhile, had dropped to two seconds back from Verstappen, with Piastri a similar distance behind the Italian in fourth. Further back, Tsunoda had snatched P17 from Stroll while Hadjar was running ahead of Albon in P11.

A few tours later, the gap between Russell and Verstappen had opened, with Verstappen no longer within DRS of the Mercedes. Elsewhere there was plenty of tyre talk on the radio as Piastri reported, “Front deg is better than FP2, rear deg is worse,” while Verstappen stated that his tyres were “fragile”.

Norris was making gains further down the top 10 order, the McLaren man picking off Alonso for sixth place, while up ahead Antonelli had been chasing down Verstappen. The teenager looked ready to make a move – only for Verstappen to dive into the pits on Lap 13, re-emerging in ninth on the hard tyres.

While Albon was informed that the Williams team were monitoring a possible issue with his power unit, Russell opted to cover off Verstappen by pitting one lap after the Dutchman for the C4 tyres, bringing him out in sixth – crucially ahead of the World Champion.

This initially put Antonelli into the provisional race lead before the Mercedes also made a pit stop, returning to the track behind Verstappen. Piastri then inherited P1 ahead of Hamilton and Norris, with the latter urged by his race engineer to put in one of his “amazing races” as he looked to overtake Hamilton.

After losing the position to Norris, Hamilton headed into the pits to set up a McLaren 1-2 at the front. But it did not take long for the order to change again as Piastri then made his stop on Lap 17, bringing him back out behind Antonelli.

Elsewhere, replays showed Sainz suffering a lock-up that saw the Williams only narrowly avoid collecting Bearman and Bortoleto in the process. Up at the front, Norris was leading on Lap 20 from Leclerc – both having not yet made their pit stops – with Russell, Verstappen, Antonelli, Piastri and Hamilton following behind.

One of the biggest losers in this sequence looked to have been Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion losing time in traffic which had left him 10 seconds behind Piastri up ahead. Albon, meanwhile, was engaged in a radio debate over his strategy, the Thai driver the only medium-starter in the field to still be running their original tyres.

As the Williams became a sitting duck to the cars around, Albon finally pitted on Lap 24, returning to the track at the back of the field on the hard rubber. Another man discussing strategy was Leclerc, the Monegasque suggesting “Plan C” in response to his engineer questioning whether “Plan B” might be an option.

Further back, Stroll had pitted for another set of hard tyres, meaning that the Canadian would definitely be running a two-stop race given the requirement to run two different compounds during a race. And up ahead Russell was making moves, the Briton surging past Leclerc to take P2 down the main straight.

Leclerc headed into the pits on Lap 29 – and, like Stroll, the Monegasque re-emerged with the hard tyres on, committing him to making another stop later on. “I don’t understand this choice,” Leclerc commented over the radio.

Norris was the next to stop one lap later but the McLaren was fitted with the medium tyres, keeping the options open for either a one-stop or two-stop strategy. Leclerc, meanwhile, continued to voice his confusion over Ferrari’s call, the eight-time race winner questioning why the squad had decided to stop when he felt that the tyres were still okay.

With all of the frontrunners having pitted by Lap 33, Russell was back in the lead by three seconds from Verstappen, followed by Antonelli, Piastri, Norris, Leclerc and Hamilton. Ocon and Sainz – both yet to stop – were in eighth and ninth respectively, while Alonso rounded out the top 10.

“I’m nowhere in this race,” Hamilton reported, the Ferrari driver seemingly struggling in P7. Meanwhile there was further action in the pits on Lap 38, with Verstappen heading in for his second stop to bolt on another set of hard tyres. This put the Red Bull back out in sixth.

That stop looked to be in response to Antonelli closing in – and, as such, Mercedes opted to pit their driver, with the Italian re-emerging just behind Verstappen on track. Who would be the next to make a stop?

The answer to that was Russell. With the Briton approaching some traffic amongst the backmarkers, the Silver Arrows took him out of that by pitting him on Lap 43 for some fresh C4 tyres. This brought him out in fourth ahead of Verstappen, with Piastri now leading from Norris and Leclerc.

“The car is getting harder to drive,” Piastri informed his race engineer – and soon afterwards the Australian pitted, returning to the track in sixth place behind Antonelli. Elsewhere a battle was playing out between Stroll and Gasly for P17 that saw the Alpine pushed wide onto the grass, an incident noted by the stewards.

Norris rejoined behind his team mate after pitting on Lap 48, while the yellow flags were briefly thrown soon afterwards as Albon pulled off the track down an escape road, the Williams having been struggling with a power unit issue.

Another driver having a tough afternoon at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was Stroll, with the Canadian receiving a 10-second time penalty for forcing another driver off the track in that Gasly scrap. Meanwhile Leclerc – still yet to make his second stop – was leading up front, but the Ferrari’s pace was dropping off.

The Monegasque was engaged in another strategy discussion with his race engineer, the driver keen to pit for a set of medium tyres. Elsewhere Piastri was informed that he was in a “straight fight” with Verstappen and Antonelli for a spot on the podium – while Leclerc finally made his stop on Lap 54, re-emerging in sixth as the top five cars all looked to have closed in on one another.

Things were heating up between Antonelli and Piastri, the McLaren looking to find a way past in the fight for third. But that was not the only duel to keep an eye on – Norris was closing in on his team mate, while intriguingly Verstappen looked to be eating into Russell’s lead.

There was bad news for Lawson, the Racing Bulls driver heading to the pits to retire the car, while Sainz finally made his pit stop, returning to the track in 11th. Meanwhile Piastri faced a difficult run of traffic whilst lapping backmarkers, resulting in Antonelli extending his gap ahead while Norris had got himself on the tail of his team mate.

Russell looked to have found himself some breathing space from Verstappen, the Briton stretching the gap back out to two seconds with eight laps remaining. Piastri, however, did not have that luxury as Norris was getting agonisingly close to him – but the Australian was also still keeping Antonelli honest, setting up for a thrilling duel for the final spot on the rostrum.

What followed was a nail-biting battle between the two McLarens, with Norris initially taking the position in the hairpin before Piastri snatched the place back into Turn 13. However, when Norris looked to find a way back through down the straight, the Briton braked late and made contact with the back of Piastri, putting Norris out of the race.

“All my fault,” Norris said over the radio, apologising for the incident as he parked his damaged car at the side of the track. Meanwhile Piastri had continued on and, with a Safety Car called to recover the stricken McLaren, the Australian pitted to re-emerge in fourth place.

Many other cars also dived into the pits before running behind the Safety Car on track. There was a moment of angst between Verstappen and Russell as the Mercedes man accused his rival of overtaking him, with Verstappen going on to comment: “George erratically braked.”

The race ultimately ended behind the Safety Car, a jubilant Russell crossing the line in P1 to take his and Mercedes’ maiden victory of the 2025 season. And to add to the festivities for the team, Antonelli clinched third place to complete a double podium for the squad, as well as it being his own debut rostrum in Formula 1.

Verstappen was sandwiched between them in second, while Piastri held onto fourth and will leave Canada still holding the lead of the championship. Leclerc and Hamilton followed in fifth and sixth, while veterans Alonso and Hulkenberg both put in solid drives to claim valuable points for their respective teams.

Ocon and Sainz collected the final points on offer in ninth and 10th respectively – with a post-race investigation into Ocon for alleged erratic driving in the pit exit road resulting in no further action – while Bearman just missed out on the top 10 in 11th.

Tsunoda took 12th place after starting from the back of the grid, followed by Colapinto (13th), Bortoleto (14th), Gasly (15th) and Hadjar (16th). Stroll completed the order in 17th, marking a difficult home race for the Canadian.

Norris was amongst the three drivers not to finish the race, with his collision with Piastri going on to be investigated following the Grand Prix, resulting in a five-second post-race time penalty being handed to Norris. Lawson and Albon, meanwhile, both recorded a DNF owing to their earlier mechanical issues.

Key quote

“It’s amazing to be back on the top step," said Russell. "Obviously the last time for us was back in Vegas. I thought last year for us was a victory lost, and then obviously we got the victory today, probably due to the incredible pole lap yesterday. So happy to see Kimi on the podium as well, so it’s an amazing day for the team – thanks to everybody back at the factory who’s been working so hard to get us back fighting for victories. It feels good."

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