2026 Canadian Grand Prix Race Review

Linus O'Howell
May 25
4 min read

Antonelli Wins Again as Russell Retires

After a brilliant scrap in the first half of the Race, a reliability failure for George Russell allowed Mercedes teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli to romp away with his 4th-straight victory! Lewis Hamilton returned to form with a P2 finish in Canada, whilst Max Verstappen rounded out the Podium for the first time this season!

The Biggest Talking Points

Before the Race even began, there was a lot of talk as to which tyre was the best one to be on, with the threat of rain looming around basically every corner! Most of the main players decided to start on the softs, unless your name is McLaren, who opted for intermediate tyres for both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri! In fairness, this did work at the Race start, with Lando Norris getting a good enough launch to jump into the lead at Turn 1, whilst Andrea Kimi Antonelli was able to overtake George Russell for second! An unimpressed Piastri was then in for a switch to dry tyres at the end of the opening lap, whilst Norris would soon follow, leaving both McLaren’s out of the points in the very early stages! Basically, the entire first part of this Grand Prix was all about the two Mercedes, with more fierce battling between Russell and Antonelli! These two swapped positions on multiple occasions, with neither driver seemingly able to stop their car at the Turn 10 hairpin, and that wasn’t the only thing going on as George and Kimi were both very lucky that they didn’t wipe each other out! In fact, I think even Toto Wolff was starting to get worried, with both Peter Bonnington and Marcus Dudley having to tell their drivers not to go over the limit! Eventually, though, the battle would come to a screeching halt as George Russell’s Mercedes conked out, meaning that all of the Brit’s hard work was for nothing! I know that we’re only 5 rounds into the 2026 Season, but this feels like an absolute killer for Russell!

Basically, what this did was allow Andrea Kimi Antonelli to control the pace out front, meaning we don’t really need to talk about him again in this part of the article! So instead, we’re going to talk about McLaren… again! See, Oscar Piastri received a 10-second time penalty for wiping out Alex Albon on Lap 11, whilst Lando Norris had to pit to clear some grass from his car after making a mistake earlier on in the Grand Prix! Things would then only get worse for Lando, with his McLaren shutting down completely, whilst Oscar couldn’t even make it back into the points! Elsewhere, Sergio Perez’s suspension had decided that it’d had enough; completely snapping his front-right tyre, whilst Nico Hulkenberg went spinning off from P11 (his favourite place in the world)! Isack Hadjar was getting plenty aggressive with Charles Leclerc, resulting in multiple penalties, but it didn’t really matter for Isack as he was miles clear of Franco Colapinto in P6! The focus towards the end of the Race then turned to the battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, with Lewis catching Max at a rate of knots as each lap went by! Eventually, Hamilton was able to pull off a great move to overtake Verstappen into Turn 1, before the 7-time World Champion was able to fend off the 4-time World Champion to the line!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve given out two 10’s for the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix, and the first one is actually for Franco Colapinto! We said coming into the weekend that it’s going to be very interesting to see whether or not Miami was a one-off for Franco, but on the evidence of this weekend, that clearly isn’t the case! Mega job from Colapinto, P6! The other driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Liam Lawson, and whilst I could’ve easily given him a 9, I think finishing ahead of the other Alpine of Pierre Gasly is worthy of Liam getting the recognition that he deserves! Elsewhere, I don’t feel like I can give Andrea Kimi Antonelli a 10, despite winning the Race, whilst Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are both borderline 10’s, so I would understand if people gave them one! Also, shout out to both Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman for scoring more points for their teams, with Bearman doing particularly well given Haas’ struggles this weekend!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; until somebody crashes out (like Isack Hadjar did last time out in Miami), it’s very hard to give anyone a 1 in the 2026 Formula 1 Season! McLaren as a team deserve a 1, with their strategy department once again proving to be incompetent as both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri suffered further issues, whilst Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas both managed to somehow finish 4 laps, yes 4 LAPS down! This is a new level of bad in terms of car performance, but I’m not exactly sure how much of the blame can go to the drivers! Also, I do want to mention the reliability of Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls, as I’m sure that Arvid could’ve scored major points in this Race had his car not stopped working before the start, whilst I wonder what’s going through the head of George Russell right now!