Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix - Montreal 2025
STARTING GRID:
1) RUSSELL 2) VERSTAPPEN 3) PIASTRI 4) ANTONELLI 5) HAMILTON 6) ALONSO 7) NORRIS 8) LECLERC 9) ALBON 10) COLAPINTO 11) HULKENBERG 12) HADJAR 13) BEARMAN 14) OCON 15) BORTOLETO 16) SAINZ 17) STROLL 18) TSUNODA 19) LAWSON 20) GASLY
LAP 1: Into the first corner, a good start from Russell as he kept the lead. The cars followed smoothly behind the leader. As the front cars went into turn 3, Kimi Antonelli was able to make a great move on the inside of Oscar Piastri to move up to third.
A familiar sight just behind with Colapinto moving ahead of Albon as they were side by side coming out of turn 3. Moving into turn 8 and 9 Albon tried to get the place back on the outside of Colapinto but ended up going over the grass. With the car bouncing up and down as he made his way back onto the track he almost collected Colapinto but he ended up losing more places with Hulkenberg and Hadjar taking advantage of the chaos.
Yuki Tsunoda managed to move past Lance Stroll into P17 in the last few corners. The rest of the field was almost identical to when the race started. Despite the incident with Albon going off the track, it was a clean first lap for the most part for the entire field.
LAP 11: Lando Norris closed in on the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, just under 0.3 seconds behind as they came up to the DRS detection zone at the end of the lap. Into turn 10, Alonso went wide with Lando moving up the inside and past the Aston down the back straight. The current vs past of McLaren battling with the current driver coming out on top.
LAP 12/13: The Italian Kimi Antonelli showed he’s not afraid to take on the current World Champion as he looked to try and pass Verstappen on the back straight. Verstappen dived into the pits before Antonelli had a chance to make the move. An early pit stop from Red Bull as they chose to put on the hard tyre.
He then comes out ahead of Franco Colapinto in 9th place. Just as he came out of the pits, behind there was a move between team mates. Esteban Ocon with a tremendous exit out of turn 2 to move on the inside of Ollie Bearman and make the overtake stick before turn 3.
LAP 20: After pitting Lewis Hamilton found himself in between the Williams cars. With Carlos Sainz coming up behind him with pace, Hamilton managed to get past Albon on the pit straight. Albon then quickly let his team mate by as he had not pitted yet and Sainz needed the clean air.
In the following laps, Albon would then get overtaken by Bortoleto and Alonso. A reported issue with the car for the second race in a row, seemed to have been the cause for him tumbling down the order.
LAP 26: On the back straight, George Russell was able to get past Leclerc to move back into the top 2. Only Lando Norris was ahead of him at this point but he still had to pit.
LAP 34: Fernando Alonso got past Carlos Sainz who was also yet to pit, moving the Spanish driver up to 9th for another potential points finish. Shortly after Pierre Gasly moved up the inside of Nico Hulkenberg at the end of the back straight to get to P14.
LAP 39: After Max Verstappen pitted for another set of hard tyres, he was followed shortly after by Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli. It was close on the pit exit as both drivers went round turn 2, one on the track and the other via the pit exit.
Max Verstappen was able to maintain the place even though Antonelli seemed to be ahead initially after crossing the pit exit line. A great lap from Verstappen kept him ahead of the Italian.
LAP 49: Replays showed the Williams car of Alex Albon coming off turn 10 and parking the car up in a safe place. Another power unit issue caused the race to end prematurely for Albon on a day to forget for the Thai driver.
LAP 57: Less than 10 laps later, Liam Lawson is seen retiring from the race. It appeared from the radio messages that it may have also been power unit related. Another driver’s rave ended prematurely.
LAP 66: Lando Norris had been closing the gap on his team mate Oscar Pistari for a number of laps. This appeared to be due to Piastri being held up by Antonelli for the final podium place.
Lando had been trying to bide his time for the right opportunity but tried to surprise Piastri by going up the inside of turn 10 to try and take 4th place. Piastri then immediately tries to fight back on the back straight. Both drivers had DRS due to being as close to Antonelli as they were. Piastri then out braked Norris going into turns 13 and 14 to take the place back.
Once again both drivers had DRS assistance on the pit straight as the battle continued. However, Lando then tried to go for a move up the inside where there was no space going into turn 1. He made contact with the back of his team mates car and the entire front wing came off as a result of that. He then collided with the wall and the front right tyre and suspension broke, putting him out of the race.
Thankfully, Lando was unharmed in the crash and took full responsibility for the contact/incident. He said “It’s all my bad. All my fault. Unlucky, sorry. Stupid from me” a mature response from the McLaren driver in an unlucky situation for both him and his team.
LAP 68: Replays showed that whilst under the Safety Car there was an incident between the 2 front cars of Russell and Verstappen. It appeared that Russell braked suddenly to try and get heat into his tyres. But with Verstappen next to him he overtook him as he was close to him and didn’t seem to be aware he was going to brake.
Both drivers complained on the radio of each other’s driving, with both teams saying they would have a look at it. The tension continues to rise between the two following many moments over their careers and most recently in Spain.
LAP 70: The race had one final corner without the Safety Car to end the race. A deserved win from a very mature driver of George Russell. Max Verstappen finished in 2nd with a good drive, behind Mercedes with a first podium for Kimi Antonelli in Formula 1. This made him the third youngest podium sitter in F1 history behind Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.
In the end, despite a protest from Red Bull over the race win for Russell it was decided that Russell did nothing wrong and was allowed to keep the victory. With another good points haul for Mercedes in their pursuit of McLaren in the Constructors Championship.
Only one McLaren to finish the race in Oscar Piastri in 4th to help his World Championship hopes. Especially since his closest rival in Lando Norris didn’t manage to pick up any points. A solid performance for Ferrari with both cars in the top 6. This again helps the team to try and close the gap on their rivals ahead of them and stay ahead of Red Bull.
More strong performances rounded off the top 10 with the last 4 places taken by 4 different constructors. Fernando Alonso followed his first points of the season by adding more points with a 7th place finish. Nico Hulkenberg came home in 8th, doing a phenomenal job in the Sauber. Esteban Ocon once again put his Haas in the top 10 in P9. Finally, Carlos Sainz took home the last points place for Williams. A good drive from Carlos after starting from P16 to get points for his team.
RACE RESULT:
1) RUSSELL 2) VERSTAPPEN 3) ANTONELLI 4) PIASTRI 5) LECLERC 6) HAMILTON 7) ALONSO 8) HULKENBERG 9) OCON 10) SAINZ 11) BEARMAN 12) TSUNODA 13) COLAPINTO 14) BORTOLETO 15) GASLY 16) HADJAR 17) STROLL 18) NORRIS (DNF) 19) LAWSON (DNF) 20) ALBON (DNF)
