Russell converts pole to win after Piastri and Norris clash
- Meghana Sree
- Jun 15
- 7 min read
Written by Meghana Sree
George Russell kept it clean to claim his first 2025 win ahead of Max Verstappen and teammate Kimi Antonelli, who secured a historic maiden podium. Meanwhile, McLaren lost out after a dramatic late-race clash between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Fresh after a controversial Spanish Grand Prix, the stage was set for an exciting Canadian Grand Prix with last race’s rivals George Russell and Max Verstappen sharing the front row.
After an exhilarating Qualifying, polesitter Russell had quipped, “I’ve got a few more points on my licence to play with,” teasing fans and setting expectations for a thrilling race start.
Yet when the moment arrived, Russell and Verstappen took it cleanly through the opening lap, with the only moments of drama saved for the airwaves and the Grand Prix’s final moments after McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris made contact — the tension that had long been brewing between the two finally erupting.
Race Report
The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was bright and sunny ahead of the race start, as 18 cars lined up on the grid with Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson starting from the pitlane.
Verstappen had evidently angled his car intentionally, making a statement and putting to rest any questions of him being more conservative at Turn 1 owing to his race ban risk. As the five lights went out, Russell had a perfect launch, leaving Verstappen unable to execute the move he’d planned.
While the top two remained intact, Kimi Antonelli lunged to the inside line of Turn 3 ahead of Piastri with a committed overtake to inherit a crucial third place early in the race. Piastri then had no opportunity to fight back for the position, leaving him in fourth, followed by Lewis Hamilton.
Further down the order, Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto found themselves involved in a scuffle, sending Albon’s Williams bouncing over the grass and rejoining the track amid a melee of cars.
Nico Hülkenberg immediately capitalised on the Williams-Alpine incident and sailed past into ninth after starting 11th. Meanwhile ahead of him, Charles Leclerc and Norris were firing up the hard tyres they’d elected to start on, while most of their rivals were on the mediums.
It quickly became clear that the hard compound was the more beneficial tyre choice, as Verstappen began to struggle on his mediums and Piastri too noted his low confidence with them.
By Lap 9, Russell easily started to pull away from Verstappen to build a gap, while the Red Bull driver now had to switch focus from chasing to defending, with Antonelli applying the pressure and within four tenths.
Red Bull took a swift strategy call and decided to bring Verstappen in on Lap 12, triggering the first round of stops for the frontrunners. Mercedes reacted to Verstappen’s stop and bolted on a fresh set of hard tyres for both Russell and Antonelli, promoting Piastri to the lead.
Meanwhile, down in the final points positions, the Haas pair of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were locked in a tight battle, eventually won by Ocon. Carlos Sainz soon joined the mix too after climbing up from 16th to 12th by Lap 17, but was held up by Hamilton who had just stopped for fresher rubber.
However, Hamilton’s Ferrari woes continued this weekend as he was nursing aerodynamic damage from running over a groundhog, costing him 20 points of downforce.
Meanwhile, another driver with uncompetitive lap times was Albon, who was stuck on used mediums in eighth. As he called out his team for placing him in this compromising position, he was quickly overtaken by cars left and right, dropping him down in the order.
Albon’s Sunday went from bad to worse soon after, as a PU issue took him out of running, making it a second retirement in a row for the Thai driver.
Williams wasn’t the only team with poor communication between the pit wall and driver. Ferrari once again made baffling strategic decisions after overruling Leclerc’s preference for presumably a one-stop, with the Ferrari driver then stating, “I don’t understand this choice,” as he put on a second set of hards on Lap 28.
Leclerc’s nearest rival at that point was Norris, who had to respond to the Ferrari’s stop. Fitting on mediums instead, Norris prepared to make more moves up the field and potentially challenge for a podium.
The next couple of laps were punctuated by overtakes further down the pack, with one incident of note between Gasly and Lance Stroll at Turn 13, as Stroll forced Gasly onto the grass and collected a ten-second time penalty for the same.
Meanwhile, the final round of stops shuffled the order once more and from Lap 50 onwards, the key battle was for P3 between the Mercedes rookie chasing history and the championship leader eager to extend his points advantage — Piastri constantly keeping the pressure on Antonelli.
Just as this combat was gaining traction, Racing Bulls’ Lawson trundled into the pits in a second PU-related retirement of the day.
With under ten laps to go, Russell was comfortably in the lead followed by Verstappen and Antonelli. Piastri, still close with the Mercedes, was now joined by Norris too who showed promising pace to challenge the Australian for P4.
Matched with the same car and same tyre compound, the two McLaren drivers engaged in a nail-biting fight for position advantage, which although was not the podium, would be a decisive mark of precedence within the team.
Exchanging moves down the hairpin and into the final chicane, the two drivers were relentless in their charge, but the drama was only just beginning. Heading side-by-side into the start-finish straight, Norris lined up a move on Piastri, attempting to squeeze past his teammate through a narrow gap.
However, this resulted in an explosive moment of contact between the two teammates, which was eventually bound to happen over the course of the season. Norris then collided with the wall which ripped his front wing off, bringing his race to an end.
The Safety Car promptly neutralised the race and led the Grand Prix to a close, as Russell claimed his fourth F1 win ahead of Verstappen. Antonelli’s bold Lap 1 move sealed a remarkable rookie season podium for the young Italian, who now becomes the third youngest driver to stand on the podium in F1 history.
Piastri was left relatively unscathed by the incident with Norris and managed to finish in fourth, followed by the two Ferraris led by Leclerc.
Alonso made it a second points-finish in a row after a clean race from his end to add six more points to the board. Hülkenberg too had a positive weekend and collected four points, followed by Ocon in ninth after a successful one-stop race executed by Haas. The sole remaining Williams of Sainz completed the points, splitting the Haas drivers with Bearman in 11th.
Yuki Tsunoda managed to climb up to 12th from the back of the field, following his ten-place grid drop, while the two Alpines suffered a disappointing Sunday with Gasly in 15th and Colapinto, who had qualified 10th, dropping down to 13th.
The bottom of the pile was rounded out by Bortoleto in 14th and Hadjar and Stroll being the last of the classified drivers with three retirements.
Championship Standings
Piastri maintains a decent advantage over Norris, putting 22 points between them after his fourth place and Norris’ retirement.
While this weekend could have been an opportune moment for Norris to chip away at his teammate’s lead, given his more confident performance over Piastri throughout Free Practice, it fell apart not only on the Lap 66 incident, but also during Qualifying.
Meanwhile, Russell has made some gains with his win and is now just 19 points from Verstappen in third.
Over in the Constructors’ Championship, Ferrari have slipped down to third behind Mercedes, just one race after making it to second. A double podium for the Silver Arrows puts them 16 points ahead of Ferrari, as the teams compete to become the best of the rest behind McLaren’s secure lead.
Key Quotes
Norris and Piastri's contact was the key moment of tension from the Grand Prix, to which Norris took full ownership. Taking it on the chin, the Briton stated: "No one to blame but myself, so I apologise to the whole team and to Oscar [Piastri] as well for attempting something a bit silly.
"I'm glad I didn't ruin his whole race. This was more silly, it wasn't like - that's racing, yeah. Just silly from my part. I go to bed tonight, apologise to everyone and then crack on."
Meanwhile, understandably elated at having finally converted a pole to a win in Montreal after missing out in 2024, Russell said: "It is amazing to be back on the top step. I felt last year was a victory lost, so to get the victory and see Kimi [Antonelli] on the podium too is an amazing day for the team.
"I think the strength of our car is in the cooler conditions so let's see in the coming races, but let's enjoy this for now. Good day, good day!"
Antonelli shared in the jubilation on a memorable day for him, stating: "I had a good start, managed to jump into P3 and managed to stay there. In the last stint I pushed a bit too hard, killed the front left so I was happy to bring the podium home."
Up Next
F1 will make its next stop at Austria to resume the European leg of the 2025 season, where the Red Bull Ring is sure to bring more action across the field. Catch the race weekend from 27th to 29th June.
Canadian Grand Prix Results
1. George Russell (Mercedes)
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
3. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
8. Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber)
9. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
10. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
11. Oliver Bearman (Haas)
12. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
13. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
14. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
15. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
16. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
17. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
DNF Lando Norris (McLaren)
DNF Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
DNF Alex Albon (Williams)
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