George Russell won the Canadian Grand Prix, his fourth Formula 1 victory, a third in the Americas. Russell’s maiden win came in Brazil in 2022 and before today, his most recent was in Las Vegas last year, while in between was a 2024 victory in Austria. The Englishman also secured his first career hat-trick, (the win, pole position and the fastest race lap). For Mercedes, this was win number 130, the fifth in the Canadian Grand Prix. A great day for Mercedes was completed by Andrea Kimi Antonelli finishing third, the first time an Italian has stood on the podium since the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix, when Jarno Trulli finished second for Toyota.
Max Verstappen finished second to record his fifth Montreal podium finish, while for the first time this year, there was no McLaren driver on the podium. In fact, the previous time that happened was at last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
On the starting grid and indeed in pit lane, as Lawson and Gasly started from there, the teams were almost equally split between Medium (11 drivers) and Hard (nine). The two hardest compounds were the outright protagonists today and it was only right at the end, when the Safety Car came out that a few drivers, namely Piastri, Stroll, Bearman and Hadjar, fitted a set of Softs, but they got virtually no use out of them as the race finished behind the Safety Car.
The longest stints overall were completed by Ocon (Haas) and Sainz (Williams), who did 57 laps from the start on Hards. As for the Medium, Albon (Williams) covered the greatest distance, running 23 laps on the set of C5s he used from the start.
George Russell – P1
“I am really pleased to take the team’s first victory of the season. I felt in control throughout and was able to manage the race to bring home the win. With the slightly higher temperatures, we thought we may struggle a little more than we saw on Friday. We did a good job of managing the tyres though and had the pace to hold off the chasing pack. A big well done and thank you to everyone at Brackley and Brixworth and a massive congratulations to Kimi on taking his first of what I am sure will be many podiums.
“We look to have made a step forward with our car in recent races. We have typically gone well in Montreal though and we knew this race would likely suit us a little more than others. We can’t get ahead of ourselves as there is still plenty of work for us to do to get into the fight for victories more regularly. I am looking forward to trying to do that next time out in Austria.”
Max Verstappen – P2
“Today we definitely maximised everything that we had available. We drove quite a defensive race today and it was quite tough out there. The tyre degradation was quite high and in the first two stints we were going through the tyres quite quickly. We were quite aggressive with our strategy to stay ahead and during the last pit stop I thought it might be difficult to make it to the end. The last stint helped us a bit with the lighter fuel load and we were a bit more kind on the tyres which was positive. If you look at the whole race this was the maximum result possible. We didn’t really have the pace to fight upfront and had a bit too much degradation to be in the fight for the win, so I’m happy to be P2. The gap wasn’t big to George but didn’t think I had the pace to fight for the win. There are lots of positives from the weekend: as a Team we did the best performance possible, got it right and our car was in a decent window. Looking to the next race we have a bit of work to do with our tyre management and the degradation but lots of positives to take forward.”
Kimi Antonelli – P3
“That was a very intense and stressful race! I am really happy to take my first podium in F1 though. The start was the key to achieving that. I managed to get track position on Piastri and that enabled us to show our pace. At moments I was able to catch Verstappen and put him under pressure. In the final stint, I think I pushed a little too hard in the early stages and that made it difficult near the end. I was able to defend from the McLarens though and bring the car home in P3.
“I want to say thank you to everyone at Brackley and Brixworth. They have been working so hard to improve the car and I am glad to be able to get a result like this and have both our cars on the podium. It is a special moment for me personally and I am looking forward to building on it in the coming races.”
Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport
“A very closely contested race from start to finish, as can be understood from the fact that when the Safety Car came out, the top five drivers were separated by less than seven seconds, with just four laps to go to the chequered flag.
“In terms of strategy, the two-stop proved to be fastest with the Hard compound being the most effective. Making one stop was possible but, honestly, it was really only an option for those starting from the back half of the grid who therefore had less to lose. Those starting from the front rows were able to push in all stints thus giving rise to a very hard fought race, with notable differences in stint length and in the sequence of compound use. The most effective tyre was the Hard, even if we had little data on it available, given that during Friday free practice only Sauber used it. The Medium probably suffered a bit because of the temperatures being higher than on the first day.
“This was the third event of the year which featured the C6. Clearly, we will now carefully analyse all the data gathered here to work out if and how to use it again this season after the summer break. Here too we saw that the difference in outright performance between the newcomer and the C5 is relatively small – one to one and half tenths – but, as we predicted yesterday, having a wider range of compounds allowed the team a greater range of strategic options. Honestly, if we did not have the C6, we would have had to bring the same trio as last year, namely C3, C4 and C5, and it’s probable that would have produced a more linear race with just the one pit stop.
“Finally, let me say that, as an Italian, I was very happy to see one of our compatriots on the podium. It’s the first time it’s happened since Pirelli returned to Formula 1 in 2011 and interestingly, the last time an Italian driver finished in the top three in a car running our tyres was also here in Montreal in 1991, when Stefano Modena in a Tyrrell-Honda finished second, behind winner Nelson Piquet in a Benetton-Ford, also fitted with Pirellis.
“Our work continues next week with an important test for 2026 wet weather tyre development. Working with Ferrari, we will be using their Fiorano track where Zhou Guanyu will drive on 19 June, followed by Charles Leclerc on 20th.”
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