the 2026 canadian grand prix: the gods don't want george in this fight
russell took both poles and the sprint, then his mercedes died while leading, so antonelli won a fourth straight race and went 43 points clear.
montreal got its first sprint weekend this year, and for two days it belonged to george russell. he arrived 20 points behind kimi antonelli, who had won the last three races, and he needed a big weekend to stop a 19-year-old from running away with the championship. he got most of one.
russell took sprint pole and won the sprint, but not before he and antonelli went wheel to wheel on lap 5. kimi ended up off the track and lost second place to lando norris. after a chat with russell and toto wolff, kimi’s summary was that they’re “free to race, but of course we need to race with respect.” noted.
qualifying was the same story. russell on pole, antonelli 0.068 seconds behind, then the two mclarens, lewis hamilton and max verstappen. my GOAT, fernando alonso, was P19 in an aston martin that still hasn’t scored a point this season. (he also crashed in sprint qualifying. it’s been that kind of year.)
then it rained just before the start, and mclaren did the most mclaren thing possible. both cars started on intermediates on a track that was barely damp. norris led into turn 1, and within two laps both papaya cars had pitted for slicks and were at the back. it got worse: oscar piastri locked up on lap 13, took alex albon out of the race and earned a 10-second penalty, and norris’s gearbox gave up later on. zero points for the reigning champions.
up front, the two mercedes drivers spent the first 29 laps swapping the lead and locking up at each other. on lap 24 they banged wheels at the final chicane, antonelli came out ahead by going off the track, and the team told him to give the place back. he did. six laps later russell’s power unit quit while he was leading. he slammed his fists on the car before climbing out, and honestly, fair.
sprint pole, sprint win, grand prix pole, leading on lap 30, and he leaves canada 43 points behind. “it feels like the gods don’t want me to be in this fight,” he said afterwards.
antonelli took his fourth win in a row from there. the real fight was for second, which verstappen held until lap 62, when hamilton went around the outside of him into turn 1. that’s hamilton’s first P2 in a grand prix for ferrari, and the first podium of the year for verstappen and red bull. charles leclerc finished fourth and called it the worst weekend of his career.
only four cars finished on the lead lap. isack hadjar was fifth despite a 10-second penalty for weaving in front of leclerc and a stop-and-go for a yellow flag infringement. franco colapinto took sixth, his best finish in F1, with pierre gasly eighth for a double alpine score. alonso retired after 23 laps with a seat problem. yes, a seat.
the championship: antonelli 131, russell 88, leclerc 75, hamilton 72, norris 58. mercedes leads ferrari 219 to 147. is it over? no. but russell now needs kimi to have a montreal of his own.
next is monaco on june 7. my prediction: russell puts it on pole and wins, because surely the gods owe him one. see you there.