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George Russell took his first pole position since Australia in Montreal and looked set to finally end Kimi Antonelli's winning run — until a battery failure on lap 30 ended his race. Antonelli inherited the lead and drove serenely to his fourth consecutive victory, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a superb second for Ferrari and Max Verstappen completing the podium.
For three laps short of halfway around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, George Russell had looked destined to stop Kimi Antonelli's extraordinary streak. The Briton had taken his first pole of the season with a brilliant 1:12.578, jumped into the lead cleanly from the start, and was managing the race with the authority of a man who understood that patience, not aggression, was the key to winning in Montreal. Then, on lap 30, everything changed.
A sudden battery failure robbed Russell of drive, and the car coasted silently to the barriers. The retirement — Russell's first mechanical failure since the 2024 British Grand Prix — triggered a Virtual Safety Car that reshuffled the pack and handed Antonelli, who had been running in a controlled second place, the lead he had been unable to seize on the circuit itself.
Ahead of Russell's retirement, the race had been dominated by an early incident between Oscar Piastri and Alexander Albon on lap 13. Contact between the two cars forced Albon's immediate retirement and compromised Piastri's McLaren sufficiently to drop the Australian out of contention for the podium. Sergio Pérez added to Red Bull's woes when suspension failure ended his afternoon on lap 39.
Once Antonelli inherited the lead, the outcome was never seriously in doubt. The Mercedes was the class of the field in clean air, and the 19-year-old managed his tyres flawlessly across the final 38 laps to come home 10.768 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who produced one of his finest drives of the season to claim second place for Ferrari.
Hamilton's runner-up finish — coming after a race-long battle with Verstappen, who finished just 0.508 seconds behind in third — was the Ferrari's best result since the Briton's debut podium in China. The two-car battle for second and third in the closing stages was a reminder of what the championship might look like if Mercedes' advantage were ever significantly narrowed.
Isack Hadjar's race was undone by multiple penalties: the RB driver received sanctions for defensive driving and for ignoring yellow flag conditions, dropping what would have been a points-scoring position to tenth and then beyond. The stewards had an active afternoon in Montreal, with several incidents and track limit violations filling their in-tray across the 68-lap distance.
Antonelli's fastest lap (1:14.210, set on lap 68 — the final tour) added the bonus point and extended a record that was now attracting comparisons to some of the sport's greatest dominant stretches. Four consecutive wins, 131 championship points, a 43-point lead over Russell — and still only Round 5. The question being asked in the paddock was no longer whether Antonelli could be caught, but how soon he might clinch.
Antonelli's fourth consecutive win pushed him to 131 championship points — a 43-point lead over Russell (88), who ended the day without adding to his tally after the lap 30 retirement. Leclerc (75 pts) and Hamilton's second place moved Ferrari up in third and fourth. Verstappen (43 pts) remained fifth but increasingly distant. Russell's retirement proved the season's real turning point: the gap was now deep enough that even two retirements for Antonelli would not restore parity.
Kimi Antonelli won the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix driving for Mercedes. Race time: 1:28:15.758 over 68 laps.
1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) — 1:28:15.758; 2. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +10.768s; 3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +11.276s.
George Russell (Mercedes) took pole position at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal.
