George Russell clashed with Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli to win a dramatic Canadian Grand Prix dash race from the pole Saturday and ignite a battle for the System One title.
Russell fended off a pair of assaults from Antonelli, the present championship chief, on the sixth of 23 laps because the drivers made contact on Flip 1 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, forcing the 19-year-old Italian into the grass.
“That was very naughty,” a livid Antonelli stated in one in all a number of complaints as feelings boiled over on the crew radio.
The teenage sensation then snapped, accusing Russell of pushing him off earlier than demanding a penalty.
Mercedes crew principal Toto Wolff instructed Antonelli to “think about the driving, please, not on the radio moaning.”
“I must recheck. Feelings had been very excessive within the second, and clearly I used to be very aggravated,” a extra subdued Antonelli stated in an ensuing press convention, moments after a frosty finish-line handshake with Russell.
“We simply want a little bit of readability after which as soon as it’s clear, then it’s all going to be advantageous,” he added. “The primary factor for the crew is that there’s no contact, that we don’t stress one another, which as we speak on the finish was very shut.”
From Russell’s perspective, he’d executed nothing unsuitable, chalking up the fireworks merely to arduous racing.
“I wasn’t investigated, so I suppose the race administrators and stewards thought the identical,” stated the 28-year-old Brit, sitting subsequent to Antonelli. “As children in karting, we all know that overtaking on the surface, there’s a sure ingredient of threat that comes with that. They’re superb overtakes after they come off, however the chances are high fairly slim.
“There was just one course I used to be going and I used to be gonna shut the road as a result of that’s my proper to take action. Respect to him for giving it a go. Feelings are at all times excessive for all of us within the cockpit, however I’m positive we’ll each discuss it after.”
Antonelli rolled off track once more on a second try a number of corners later, shedding his place to McLaren’s Lando Norris within the course of.
Norris, the reigning F1 world champion, challenged Russell the remainder of the race however finally held on to second as Antonelli veered off monitor a 3rd time in an overtake try on the final lap.
Antonelli completed third, as Russell reduce his championship result in 18 factors heading into qualifying later Saturday for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Russell additionally received a dash race in China earlier this season.
“It’s clear that between teammates we race arduous and truthful and no contact, and that’s at all times the target,” Russell stated. “I wasn’t racing Kimi any more durable than I’d have raced Lando in the identical place. We’re each right here preventing to win, and as at all times previously, even final 12 months once we battled, I at all times gave Kimi a bit extra room in comparison with anybody else.
“It wasn’t even investigated, so I believe that claims sufficient.”
F1 launched sprints in 2021. The shortened races cowl roughly 100 kilometres, about one-third the gap of a Grand Prix, for a most of eight factors. For reference, a Grand Prix victory is value 25.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri positioned fourth, adopted by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in fifth and sixth, respectively. Crimson Bull’s Max Verstappen was seventh and Arvid Lindblad of Racing Bulls completed eighth.
Montreal’s Lando Norris, the lone Canadian on the 22-driver grid, positioned sixteenth for Aston Martin.
The Canadian Grand Prix is the fifth of twenty-two stops on the F1 calendar after the Iran conflict compelled cancellations in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April.
Russell, final 12 months’s winner in Montreal, entered the weekend underneath stress after Antonelli received the previous three races.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Could 23, 2026.
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