Canadian Grand Prix: Formula 1 Teams & Drivers Report from Montreal

Kimi Antonelli claimed his fourth consecutive Formula 1 victory at the Canadian Grand Prix after Mercedes teammate and title rival George Russell retired with a power unit failure while battling for the lead. Defying the BizBet platform odds.

The 19-year-old Italian inherited control after an intense wheel to wheel duel with Russell, who stopped on Lap 30 after suddenly losing power and electronics.

Antonelli admitted afterwards: “Not the way I wanted to win. It was meant to be a good fight with George but we will take it.”

Lewis Hamilton finished second for Ferrari, his best grand prix result with the team so far, while Max Verstappen secured Red Bull’s first podium of the season in third. Betting outlets such as https://africa-bizbet.com/en/registration platform now have Antonelli outtright favourite for the 2026 Formula 1 title.

Kimi Antonelli: First of all, massive commiserations to George. I feel very sorry for him as he was leading the race and was super strong. We were having a great battle in that first stint and very close on pace. I am sure it would have gone right until the end of the Grand Prix, and I am disappointed we didn't get the chance to continue that. It was not an easy race for us. The wind was very tricky and with the low temperatures, it was hard to get the tyres working. We had several lock-ups, particularly in the early stages, but fortunately were able to keep it on the track and get to the chequered flag first. It is of course not how we want to win but we will take it. We now get ready for the European portion of the season and six races in eight weekends leading up to shutdown. It will be an intense period, but we are looking forward to it.

George Russell: I am proud of my weekend, no matter that it ended in a retirement today. I took pole for the Sprint, won that race, took pole for the Grand Prix and was leading before we had the Power Unit issue that finished our race. I know there is nothing more I could have done this weekend to perform and that fills me with confidence moving forward into the rest of the season. It is of course a painful way to finish our Canadian Grand Prix weekend, but I will leave here satisfied that I did my best. Up until lap 30, I was thoroughly enjoying the race. I loved the battle with Kimi, and I am sure he did too. It was like going back to karting days where you are racing wheel-to-wheel, swapping the lead multiple times. I hope everyone enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed being in it. I just wish we could have continued it until the end of the Grand Prix.

Toto Wolff: It is always a bittersweet feeling when you win the Grand Prix with one car but the other retires through no fault of the driver. We are very happy as a team to take our fifth victory in a row to start the season. Congratulations to Kimi on his fourth win too; that is no easy feat and shows how much he has progressed this season. Commiserations to George though who put together a superb weekend. He took pole for both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, and won the Sprint itself yesterday, and was leading the race when he had his Power Unit issue. He has had some bad luck so far this year, but we know how resilient he is and how he will bounce back from this. It is a very long season, and we are only at the start of the year. It is not always easy to watch your cars battling as they were in the early stages, but it was great racing. It was maybe a little too close for our comfort at times but both George and Kimi raced hard but fair. We had the pace advantage that we were still able to maintain the gap over the chasing pack and that was important. I am sure we will see many more exciting races like this over the year ahead.

Andrew Shovlin: We come away from Montreal with mixed feelings. Well done to Kimi and the team for the win, our fifth to start this year and Kimi's fourth, but the failure on George's car is bitterly disappointing. We will work hard to make sure we understand the cause as it's been very costly for him and the team in terms of points. The cold and windy conditions made the race challenging today. We didn't have any idea how the tyres would behave with such a low ambient and track temperature. The warm-up was certainly difficult but once up to temperature the tyres were working quite nicely. We were also able to quickly identify that the one stop strategy was the best option. It wasn't particularly relaxing watching our pair race in the first stint; the advantage of the overtake mode meant the cars could not separate so they were locked in a dual for the first 30 laps. Whilst it was close, they gave each other room. It did cost them both race time but the advantage over their competitors was enough for them not to be threatened. That fight was brought to an abrupt halt with George's car coming to a stop with an issue in the battery pack. We don't have any more information on that at the moment, but it goes without saying we'll be doing everything we can do understand that ahead of the next race. Thereafter, Kimi's run to the finish was quite straightforward. We seemed to have a bit of a pace advantage over our competitors, although the margins are small and everyone is developing at such a rate that we will be trying to bring every bit of performance we can to the upcoming races.

Lewis Hamilton: It’s been a really positive weekend on my side. I felt at one with the car from the first laps in practice, and while qualifying didn’t quite go our way, the pace was there. Today is a testament to the work that’s been put in, both here at the track and back at the factory, so a huge ‘Grazie’ to everyone involved. I’m really grateful for the way the team has supported me and welcomed me from day one. It means a lot. To come away with a strong points finish is important, and there are plenty of positives to take forward. The fight with Max was intense and enjoyable, that’s why we race and it shows the progress we’re making. The upgrades we brought in Miami worked well and we’ll keep building on this momentum and stay focused on the journey ahead.

Charles Leclerc: It has been a difficult weekend for me, starting from FP, I just didn’t get the right feeling in the car and struggled to put the tyres in the right window. Lewis on the other hand had a great weekend in the same car, so I have to look into his data and understand what he did differently to make it work.  Next up is my home race in Monaco. I look forward to racing there, and I hope that our car will give us an advantage on that track.

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: Overall, it has been a strong weekend for the team and the result reflects the work everyone has put in. Lewis was competitive throughout the entire weekend, from his first lap in free practice to the final one of the race. He immediately felt confident in the car and, in these very cold and low-grip conditions, confidence is key to being able to build tyre temperature and extract performance consistently. It was a bit more difficult on Charles’ side as, unlike his team-mate he never felt completely comfortable with the car from the beginning of the weekend. However, he still did a very good job today, recovering to fourth place and scoring important points for the team. We were expecting a difficult weekend in Montreal because several of our competitors brought upgrades while we did not, so this result is definitely encouraging.

Max Verstappen: It’s great to be back on the podium. It was a little bit of a surprise, but we made the right calls and didn’t leave anything on the table. We had a very good first stint on the Soft tyre, and that gave us the gap we needed. The Medium tyre was more difficult because managing the temperatures, combined with going in and out of Virtual Safety Cars, made things more challenging. I enjoyed the last few laps battling with Lewis, and I pushed hard to take the position back. Over the last two weekends, we’ve been a lot closer, and there have been positive steps forward. It’s also our first podium with our own powertrain, which is a great milestone for the Team, so credit to everyone for getting us here.”

Isack Hadjar: I started off with a very good launch but struggled a lot with pace during the race. The car was very fast but hard to drive compared to yesterday when I felt more comfortable, so I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted. I think we could have secured fourth place, but had to settle for fifth in the end. The overall car performance this weekend was very positive – we took a big step forward since Miami and made the most of the weekend. I hope we can keep the same momentum for Monaco.

Laurent Mekies, CEO and Team Principal: Firstly, congratulations to everyone at Red Bull Ford Powertrains. To claim our very first podium with our own PU, in only its fifth race, is truly a historic moment, especially when you consider the pedigree and experience of our competitors. A PU on its own is not enough and of course this result is also down to the hard work of everyone back on campus in Milton Keynes and here at the track. Overall, maybe we have closed the gap a little bit more to those ahead of us and this confirms we are moving in the right direction, but we are well aware that the next three to five tenths that we need to find are always the hardest ones. Max was as strong as always, very fast and very consistent, knowing the right time to apply pressure. Isack was on the pace and got into the right rhythm from the start of the weekend and he delivered an impressive performance, also having to deal with a couple of penalties. It was important for the championship to have both cars scoring good points. We still have a lot to learn about how to extract everything out of the package we have, while at the same time, everyone in Milton Keynes is working flat out to bring our next development to the fight at the race track.

Oscar Piastri: That wasn’t the day we were hoping for. We made the decision to start on Inters as the ground was quite wet between the anthem and getting in the car, but ultimately it was the wrong call. I then got some damage in the collision with Albon. Apologies to him and to the Williams team. After that, we did what we could to try and catch up but it was just very difficult out there. There are still positives to take from this weekend. I feel like I made progress in some areas and we have made a step forward in closing the gap to Mercedes. We now reset, review and shift our focus to Monaco.”

Lando Norris: Today was tough. We made the decision to start on Intermediates because it was still spitting on the grid, and while the start was fantastic, the rain eased and that choice proved wrong beyond the first lap. That’s racing. Sometimes those decisions win you a race, sometimes they don’t and I take my share of responsibility for that decision. We also had to deal with a couple of early stops and, in the end, a mechanical failure that put us out of the race. In the cold conditions we couldn’t get the fronts up to temperature, which made the car hard to handle, but even so I think we were on for decent points. There are still plenty of positives to take from the weekend. Our pace was strong, we fought the Mercedes, and the support from the fans was brilliant. We’ll investigate the failure, work on tyre warm-up in cooler conditions, and come back stronger. We learn from the calls we made today and aim to turn that speed into a clean finish and points next time.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: It’s been a Sprint event weekend of two halves. We were competitive in qualifying and the sprint, but the race didn’t go our way. We opted for intermediates five minutes before the start because the track was greasy and it was still raining; unfortunately, the rain stopped as soon as the tyres went on, the track dried quickly, and two extra formation laps took away any advantage. With Lando we faced a car issue, had to stop to clean the radiators, and then suffered a terminal gearbox problem. On Oscar’s side, the collision with Albon damaged the car and led to a penalty, and even in free air we struggled to generate the tyre temperatures needed for strong race pace. This is racing, and on difficult days you show character and learn the qualities that make you a champion. We’re grateful for the support, we’ll regroup and go again in Monaco.”

Pierre Gasly: Overall, it's a really good team result and strong points for the Championship. On my side, it's been a bit of a damage limitation result where we've recovered from a difficult weekend up to this stage to finish P8 and inside the points. In general, though, I have struggled with the car again and, as a team, we need to see why that is and aim to fix a few areas. There is a lot of work ahead of us to get the car into a good place again and that is our target between now and Monaco. In terms of today's race, we had a tough start on the Mediums which were quite cold and low grip to begin with but in the end we made some positions back and then into the fight against Liam [Lawson] at the end. It was tough to find anywhere to overtake him and we just could not get by, so we had to settle for P8. I am looking forward to Monaco now. It is my favourite place of the year so hopefully we can fix some of these limitations and go there with more confidence and more performance.

Franco Colapinto: From where we started the weekend to having a double points finish for the team, is a great result and a fantastic reward for everyone at the team who has been working so hard. I'm very proud of the work we've collectively been doing and it's a great team result today. It's also my best result in Formula One, which makes me very happy and builds on the performance we showed in Miami. We know we benefitted from others' misfortune, and it's never a nice feeling to benefit from their issues, but we maximised everything we could and brought the car home. It was extremely low grip out there and slippery, especially at the start in the opening laps on a harder compound tyre to those around us. I also had a scary moment exiting the pits after my stop, where I hit a wet patch, then went on the white line and drifted towards the wall. Thankfully I hit the wall side on and got away with a small amount of damage, which didn't require repairs or impact the performance. As we know, there's still more we need to do to be more competitive, bring more performance to the car and get closer to those ahead of us on merit.

Flavio Briatore: Congratulations to the entire team on this result where we have scored 12 points. We executed a good strategy, the drivers did an excellent job on track and we now extend our advantage in P5 in the Constructors' Championship. We had a difficult day on Friday, but the team has worked hard to understand a few things on the car and now we come away with a positive team result. I am happy for Franco for his best ever finish in Formula One in P6, so well done to him for his effort. On Pierre's side, it is a good recovery from P14 on the grid. There is a lot of hard work ahead if we are to improve our competitiveness. The drivers still share similar feedback on the car and there is much more performance for us to find going into Monaco next time.

Liam Lawson: After a difficult start to the weekend, finishing in P7 is definitely a good result for us, so it’s nice to bring home points for the team. Overall, it wasn’t an easy race. We made up some ground from where we started, but we also struggled with the balance of the car and lacked some speed throughout the race. The biggest challenge was to maintain the correct temperature on the tyres as we were only able to do it during the flat-out laps. The Alpines were faster than us today and Pierre didn’t give me an easy time at the end of the race when I was on the Soft tyres, so I'm happy to have defended my position. I’m excited to get back to racing in Monaco in a couple of weeks as we look ahead to the European stretch of the season.

Arvid Lindblad: We had an issue with the clutch at the start of the Formation Lap today which meant I wasn’t able to take part in the race. I was really excited to get out there and drive in the mixed conditions, so not getting the chance is obviously disappointing. It’s such a shame because up until that point, the weekend had been really positive. The team worked flawlessly all weekend and the upgrades we brought were performing really well, so it’s frustrating not to come away with the result we felt we deserved today. There are still a lot of positives to take forward into the next race, and we have plenty of confidence heading into it. I’m already excited to get back out on track and drive a Formula One car in Monaco for the first time.

Alan Permane: There are lots of positives and learnings to take from today. Liam had a stunning race despite us not being as fast as Alpine. He showed a masterclass of defending against a clearly faster car, so it's great to have him finish in the points following a tricky start to the weekend. Unfortunately, Arvid had an issue with the clutch at the start of the Formation Lap, meaning he couldn't engage first gear on the grid. It's a shame as there was a great opportunity given the pace he's shown all weekend. After today's race we move to P6 in the Championship. With much of the season left to go, there are plenty of opportunities to secure points. The car has worked exceptionally well here with the low speed corners and we've certainly benefited from our upgrades to the car. With Monaco being only low speed corners, there's hope and confidence for a strong race.

Ollie Bearman: I don’t know if we deserved points today based on our performance, but we’ll take it as there’s been weekends where we definitely did and received nothing for it. In general, this has been a really challenging weekend for us, but to get points is good. We could’ve got more, but we had a slow pit stop, so we need to understand why that happened. It was very slippery and challenging out there, and I chose to start on the used soft as I thought that would help me on lap 1, but we ended up doing three more formation laps, so I don’t know if I benefited much. I don’t think we’re leaving with a big smile on our face, but we have a week before we need to come back strong in Monaco.

Esteban Ocon: It was tough, to say the least. There was something that didn’t work when we were braking, and I kept locking up, so we need to dig into that. We changed the car to the new update from qualifying, so I’d only done two proper laps, but as a team we’ll go back and study everything.

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: It was a very challenging race. Tire choice was really difficult at the start and very low grip conditions with misty rain, but at least we started the race on the correct tire – degradation was very low. With the balance issue we’ve been facing this weekend, it was very challenging for both drivers to keep the front tires alive and keep the brake locking under control. On that front, I think Ollie’s done a great job, while Esteban struggled a bit more, but I believe the fundamental cause of the issue is the same. We understand why we had a slow pit stop, so we need to improve it. At least we came away with one point, that’s a positive, and we know why we couldn’t perform this weekend, so the message is to stick together. The only thing that matters is how we go from here, find the solution, improve the car, improve the execution, and we can do it.

Allan McNish, Racing Director: Overall, the race was heavily influenced by the weather conditions and the tyre decisions at the start. It was a finely balanced call between compounds, and while we opted for the intermediate tyre, based on the information available at the time, in hindsightthe delayed start ultimately meant it was not the ideal strategy. From that point onwards, it was always going to be difficult to recover track position, and we ultimately finished P12 and P13. While there are some positives to take from the weekend in terms of reliability and completing every session cleanly, there is still work to do to convert our pace into stronger race results. That said, we do leave Montreal feeling that we’ve taken a step forward compared to Miami, particularly in terms of consistency and overall execution across the weekend. It was also great to see Emma secure a strong P2 finish in F1 Academy earlier in the day – another encouraging result that further highlights her continued development.

Nico Hulkenberg: It was a challenging race for us. Looking back, the conditions at the start evolved differently from what we expected: it was a risk worth taking with what we knew at the time, but in the end the opening phase didn’t really play out in our favour and that put us on the back foot quite early. Even after that, we didn’t quite have the pace to recover in the way we wanted. Others around us managed to move forward more quickly, so there are definitely things for us to understand and improve there as well. Overall, it’s been a demanding weekend with a lot to review. We’ll go through everything carefully, take the lessons from it and move on to Monaco!

Gabriel Bortoleto: It’s been a long race for us. We started on the intermediate tyres because we felt it could pay off, but the rain stopped pretty quickly and that ended up putting us on the back foot. The extra stop dropped us out of contention, and from there it became a race in free air, mainly focused on managing our own pace. Still, as a positive to take from today, we brought both cars home and collected important data for the team. It’s obviously a bit disappointing because with a clean weekend and a straightforward race, I think points could have been possible today, but that’s racing sometimes. Now, the focus shifts to Monaco.

Lance Stroll: It’s been a difficult weekend in Montreal.  We couldn’t get the temperatures we needed into the tyres and we were struggling for grip throughout the race. We didn’t have the pace we needed on the straights either. The car performance isn’t where we need it to be and there’s still a lot of work to do to get us there.

Fernando Alonso: We had a good start and we were fighting into the top ten positions. We made the right call starting on the Soft tyres, with a few others opting for Intermediates and then having to pit early. Unfortunately, we had an issue with the seat in the race, so we decided to retire the car. We seemed to be faster here than we were in Miami with the same package. We need to wait for performance to come with our upgrades around the summer break, but we will look to keep optimising this package until then.”

Mike Krack: We made a decent start to the race with both drivers making up ground in the opening laps. But it was difficult to stay there, especially with the threat of rain reducing. Fernando’s race ended early due to a seat problem, making things uncomfortable in the cockpit, so we chose to retire the car on lap 24. Lance’s race was a conventional two-stop race [Soft, Soft, Medium] finishing in P15 ahead of Bottas. Unfortunately, we do not have more pace at the moment and this is our position. Separately, I would like to congratulate our colleagues at Honda for the pole position and win in the Indy 500.

Shintaro Orihara, Honda Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer: We haven’t had any major power unit issues again on both cars today, with Lance completing full distance at his home grand prix. Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish the race on Fernando’s side, but everything was going smoothly from a power unit perspective. Overall, during the Canadian Grand Prix, we have confirmed positive signs on driveability so that is a good thing to take forward to the next race in Monaco as this is a key characteristic there. Still, there is a gap between driver demand and our achievements, so we will keep working to improve driveability for the season now we know the direction to go in.

Checo Perez:  It was going well! Obviously at the start we got it wrong with the intermediate tires, but it was 50-50 which way to go. We were recovering and in contention, battling with Esteban [Ocon] and then I got ahead of the Haas and we had some good pace. Then unfortunately we had a suspension failure and had to retire. We’ve done a massive step in the right direction this weekend and it has been our most competitive weekend since the start of the season, so plenty of positives. We just need to clean up operationally now to capitalize on the progress we’ve made.

Valtteri Bottas: A long and tough day out there. We really struggled with the balance. We couldn't cure the oversteer in anyway throughout the race, which was the biggest issue and something we need to investigate. Result wise, we maybe sometimes can't see that much progress, but it's not only the pace of the car as we’ve been continuing to make improvements everywhere else. We're getting there step by step and always knew it would take time. The next race is in two weeks, so hopefully we can take another step forward.

Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal: Even challenging races can yield useful learnings, and that’s what we can take away from this weekend. Overall, it’s been our most competitive weekend to date. We introduced some further upgrades, which have given us another step up in performance and we were able to race on pace in the midfield. Operationally we know where we need to improve, but everything we do is being done for the first time. We’ll address as we go into the European season. Monaco represents a very different challenge to anything we’ve seen before so we will debrief, regroup and come back even stronger.

Dario Marrafuschi, Motorsport Director: It did not rain during the Canadian Grand Prix, but in the end rain was still, in some respects, a key factor in the race, at least as far as the start was concerned. The decision by four teams, including McLaren, to fit Intermediates in anticipation of a sudden change in the weather was a gamble that did not pay off, as it became immediately clear once the lights went out that the race would be run on a dry track. The low temperatures pushed the remaining teams to rely on the softest compound which, thanks to its greater grip, helped the tyres reach their operating window, despite the additional difficulties caused by the two extra formation laps. As we described yesterday, the C5 was the joker of this Sunday thanks to its consistency, which allowed drivers to run until the first neutralisation, but the theoretically quickest strategy nevertheless confirmed its effectiveness. This is demonstrated by the positions gained by the two Alpine drivers, who started on the Medium and finished the race in the points on the Hard. Graining, despite the cold conditions, was very limited and did not affect tyre performance over a stint, allowing the drivers to focus on on-track battles, which once again delivered an entertaining Grand Prix. The fastest lap today, set by race winner Kimi Antonelli, was less than a tenth of a second slower than the quickest race lap recorded in 2025 by his team-mate Russell, a sign that car development is progressing at full speed and in the right direction.