George Russell won his first race of the 2025 season at the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday (June 15). Russell made a strong start from pole, kept Max Verstappen in check, then drove a mistake-free race to score the victory. Verstappen finished second, with Kimi Antonelli becoming the third-youngest podium finisher in Formula 1 history by taking third.
Russell’s race win will be overshadowed by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris going at it in the last ten laps, with Norris ultimately being the architect of his own undoing, putting him from fifth to out of the race in 18th. Piastri, meanwhile, held on to finish fourth.
Charles Leclerc looked like he had the pace to challenge the leaders, but never managed to threaten them and wound up fifth. Lewis Hamilton took sixth after another race with questionable Ferrari strategy. Fernando Alonso earned points for the second consecutive race by finishing seventh.
Nico Hulkenberg again showed out, following his fifth in Spain, by taking eighth. Esteban Ocon looked solid in crossing the line in ninth, in what was Haas F1’s 200th race. Carlos Sainz earned the final points-paying position for Williams by slotting into tenth.
The race began with an amazingly, surprisingly clean getaway,
The Mercedes duo looked strong with Russell holding first and Antonelli pipping Piastri for third at the jump. Albon took a tour through the grass and lost two spots sliding into 12th.
Norris drove past Alonso on lap 12, moving him into sixth while the rest of the field held steady in their positions. Antonelli began hounding Verstappen for the second position, but rather than going wheel to wheel, Verstappen bowed out by making an early pit stop.
Verstappen’s stop encouraged Russell to pit to cover the undercut, with Antonelli following suit.
Further back, Esteban Ocon looked on the charge, gaining two spots in three laps and moving into 11th by lap 15. Piastri pitted from the lead on lap 17th, allowing Norris and Leclerc, who had started on the hard tires, to take over the top two spots, respectively.
By lap 31, with everyone having made at least one stop in the pits, Russell again sat in first with Verstappen and Antonelli following. The biggest loser of the stops looked to be Hamilton, as he had been fifth but fell back to seventh after being placed in a mess of traffic after his visit to the pits. Hamilton’s dejected message, “Yeah, I’m nowhere in this race, man. I don’t know what happened,” seemed to sum things up well.
A second go round of pit stops closed the gap between Verstappen and Antonelli, but did nothing to deter Russell’s charge. By lap 43, the question that remained was when Piastri, Norris, and Leclerc would pit. What had become apparent, however, was that the top seven saw no reason to push or had no ability to overtake. The back half of the grid had other ideas, as they continued going for it, through battles like Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly. Stroll grabbed a 10-second penalty for his efforts of edging Gasly off the track, adding to a forgettable weekend at Stroll’s home event.
Given essentially a free pitstop, Hamilton stopped by for fresh tires on lap 46. Three laps later, Albon pulled off the track with a power-unit issue that the team had been monitoring since the early laps. Liam Lawson found himself parked for the same reason on lap 57.
At the front, six seconds separated the top five drivers, with Norris moving into DRS range on Piastri, as they challenged each other for fourth.
The battle came to the fore on lap 67 when Norris tried to pass Piastri in a gap that did not exist, with Norris punching the wall and losing his front wing. Norris responded by saying, “Yep, I’m sorry. It’s all my bad. All my fault. Unlucky. Sorry. Stupid from me.”
Because of the Norris error and the ensuing safety car, Russell crossed under the checkered flag without a challenge.
Russell seemed coy about the performance of his Mercedes, stating that it performs well in cooler conditions. “We’ll enjoy it for the time being. We did have high expectations, and it worked out as we thought,” Russell stated. He ended with a jubilant, “Good day, good day.”
The win is the fourth of his career, and he sits in fourth in the drivers standings with 136 points. Piastri leads with 198, Norris maintains second with 176, while Verstappen sits in third with 155.
The first and third finishes for Mercedes pushed them past Ferrari and into second in the constructors standings, with 199, as McLaren holds the lead with a mighty 373. Ferrari now slides into third with 183.
As a writer and editor, Ava anchors the Formula 1 coverage for the site, while working through many of its biggest columns. Ava earned a Masters in Sports Studies at UGA and a PhD in American Studies from UH-Mānoa. Her dissertation Chased Women, NASCAR Dads, and Southern Inhospitality: How NASCAR Exports The South is in the process of becoming a book.