F1 Canadian Grand Prix 2026 Recap: Antonelli picks up yet another win as Russell suffers retirement

Kimi Antonelli picked up his fourth win of the season as he eased to a relatively comfortable win in Montréal to win the 2026 Formula One Canadian Grand Prix.

Pole-sitter George Russell had an afternoon to forget and had to retire after being involved in an intense battle with his teammate. Once he retired, there was no catching the young Italian, who was in a league of his own. Lewis Hamilton gave Ferrari a second-place finish, with Max Verstappen finishing third to round out the podium places.

Antonelli’s win has taken him 43 points clear of teammate Russell in the Drivers’ Standings, while Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have also made ground on Russell in second.

This was Verstappen’s first podium finish of the season, while for Antonelli this was his first win of the season without starting on pole, with this also being the first race of the season where the pole-sitter did not win.

With Arvid Lindblad facing gear issues, the grid needed to do an extra formation lap before the race could get underway. The delayed start seemingly caught pole-sitter George Russell off the line, as once the lights went out it was Lando Norris storming into the lead, overtaking the Mercedes duo heading into Turn 1.

Russell dropped from the lead to fourth as Kimi Antonelli, Oscar Piastri, and Lewis Hamilton got past him on the opening lap. He then saw off the chaotic start and got going again, and by Lap 3 he had managed to pass Hamilton and the McLaren cars to go P2 behind his teammate, while Max Verstappen was pushing Hamilton for the third spot, having started strong.

Piastri and Norris started on intermediate tyres, which proved to be instantly regrettable as, by Lap 6, the McLaren duo had been forced to make an early pit stop. Norris rejoined in P14, while Piastri joined the track a couple of places behind, making his way back up the field.

By Lap 5, Russell was making moves on the track. He and Antonelli had their first on-track battle of the race when the Brit tried to overtake his teammate by going around his outside at the final chicane. Antonelli in turn locked up as a result of Russell’s move and went off track, but he managed to avoid hitting the wall and carried on, although he lost some time to Russell.

Verstappen, meanwhile, made a move of his own the next lap, picking off Hamilton for third place as he went on the inside of his Ferrari at Turn 1 and made the move stick. While there were overtakes at the front of the field, Norris and Piastri were slowly making their way back through the midfield into the points and were up to P11 and P13, respectively, by Lap 10.

Antonelli and Russell swapped the top spot again on Lap 13. Russell lost the lead heading into Turn 1 but went on the inside of his teammate to take back the lead, leading to an intense scrap. Piastri, meanwhile, had a moment of his own as he went deep into the hairpin and ended up hitting Alex Albon and dropping to the back of the field, to P19.

On Lap 17, McLaren called in Norris for a second stop due to a reliability issue, and he rejoined in P14. At the front, Russell went wide at the hairpin, which saw Antonelli get all over him; just as it looked like Russell would lose the lead, he managed to hold on along the main straight to keep his lead.

Antonelli finally made his move stick on Lap 23 as he went around the outside of Russell moving out of Turn 13 to retake the lead. A couple of laps later, Antonelli had a massive lock-up at the hairpin that saw Russell momentarily take the lead of the race before Antonelli retook the lead, though he had to give it back as he came agonisingly close to Russell and had to cut the track to take the lead while being pushed wide by his teammate.

In an anti-climactic end to the fight for the lead, Russell’s F1 W17 gave up and stopped on the track at Turn 9 on Lap 30, which brought out the Virtual Safety Car. A flurry of cars dove into the pits for a cheap stop, including the top five, but slow stops for Ferrari saw them take a step back as Isack Hadjar overtook Leclerc for P4.

Racing resumed on Lap 33, with Verstappen being 4.5s behind race leader Antonelli, while Hamilton was almost eight seconds behind the Red Bull driver. Leclerc and Hadjar almost came together on Lap 35, as a late move from Hadjar nearly caught the Ferrari driver out. But Leclerc managed to avoid contact as the two battled for P4.

Leclerc finally got Hadjar for P4 on Lap 39. The next lap saw another retiree as Norris’ MCL40 went into the run-off area at Turn 10, with a mechanical issue costing the reigning world champion. Cadillac’s Sergio Pérez came into the pits on Lap 43 with a broken front-right suspension and also had to retire.

On Lap 53, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed again, which saw Hadjar and Piastri dive into the pits, the former also serving his ten-second penalty for a dangerous move earlier during his battle with Leclerc. Hadjar rejoined in P5, while Piastri, who also served his penalty for his clash with Albon, rejoined in P13.

Racing resumed a lap later, and it was Hamilton catching Verstappen and cutting the gap to under a second by Lap 55. Verstappen brought out his incredible defensive driving heading into the final ten laps of the race, keeping Hamilton at bay. However, after almost seven laps of fighting, the veteran Brit picked off the Dutchman for P2 with a stunning overtake, going around his outside at Turn 1.

After Russell’s retirement, Antonelli was left untouched and finished over ten seconds clear of Hamilton, with Verstappen unable to catch the latter and finishing in P3. Leclerc finished fourth, with Hadjar, Franco Colapinto, Liam Lawson, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz, and Ollie Bearman rounding out the points in that order.

Alpine leave Montréal with a big double points finish, even though it’s not a lot of points. Williams and Haas, meanwhile, also picked up crucial points as far as the lower-midfield battle is concerned.

Racing will be back in two weeks as the grid heads to the Principality for the iconic Monaco Grand Prix, with Kimi Antonelli, having now won four on the trot, almost two race wins clear of his teammate and title contender, George Russell.