Max Verstappen takes first podium after a nice battle with Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli wins after engine trouble with teammate | Sport

A fiery battle between the two Mercedes drivers was smothered far too early by a defective car from George Russell. For example, Kimi Antonelli had a huge lead in the World Championship, but Max Verstappen also benefited with his first podium of the year: Although he still had to give up P2 to Lewis Hamilton. Four things that struck your reporter.

We’ve been waiting all season for that one hit. That clash between the two Mercedes drivers à la Barcelona 2016, when Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton bounced off the track together. Things seemed to be getting serious in Canada.

While George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were already at each other’s throats during the sprint race, things went wild in the first half of the Canadian GP. “We will let them race, hard but fair,” team boss Toto Wolff had promised. And that happened, because on several occasions things went very wrong and the Mercedes pit wall did not intervene.

Russell and Kimi Antonelli, they didn’t avoid each other at all. Then another braking error by the Brit before the hairpin, which the Italian was able to take advantage of. Then the other way around. This is how it went for rounds, in Montreal, where the director didn’t even pay attention to other things on the asphalt for several minutes. Side by side, the tires against each other. Yes, it was crazy, what happened at the front. Until it was suddenly over.

A broken down car belonging to Russell, which suddenly stopped working. He got out with the plague in his body. He threw away a lot of points through no fault of his own. Antonelli, who, freed from Russell, had nothing to fear from anyone, did golden business in the World Cup at the end of a tough weekend, with his fourth victory in a row. “Not the way I would have wanted to win, because it was a nice fight with George. But we will take it as it comes.”

Yet Antonelli provides a unique victory. He is the first driver in the history of the sport to record his first four victories in a row. In addition, it probably won’t really matter to him how he strings together his victories.

He did not get further than P6 in qualifying and seemed unable to do much in the race itself. But that was without the misery of others. Verstappen first saw the McLarens disappear in front of him, because they made a major miscalculation by starting there intermediates.

And then there was Russell’s failure. This is how Verstappen rose from P6 to P2. Which ultimately became P3, because Hamilton could no longer be held off after five rounds of defending at the end of the race.

All in all, it was a welcome boost after a weekend in which he had plenty to complain about. He announced that – if the rules are actually adjusted slightly – he still wants to continue with F1 in 2027. But at Red Bull Racing? Then significant progress must be made there. Because you cannot continue to build impossible new successes on other people’s misery. Although he took his first podium of 2026 in Montreal, he did achieve a podium with quite a story. And of course Verstappen wants more than a supporting role.

Miezeren, that’s what he did in Montreal, on the morning of the race. However, the fact that all the cars around the McLarens were not on intermediates on the grid must have set off some alarms on the pit wall at McLaren. “I don’t know if we are doing this smartly,” Oscar Piastri shouted after the first of three (!) warm-up laps (Arvid Lindblad’s broken car).

No, it wasn’t smart. Lando Norris shot from P3 to the lead, because he had much more grip than both Mercedes at the start. But that benefit was soon over. While Piastri immediately went for slicks after one lap, Norris followed a lap later. The rise of a lost Sunday.

While they thought that the gap with Mercedes had already been considerably reduced in the sprint race, the McLarens threw away a lot in the main race, where they no longer played a significant role from the back. Piastri finished outside the top 10 and Norris even dropped out with a defective car.

With a 40 percent chance of rain, the FIA ​​had already sounded the weather alarm. The world once sat wringing its hands before the Canadian GP. But in the end, hardly a drop fell during the race and the asphalt was dry. That does not alter the fact that Canada still offered plenty of chaos, which started before the start with a stalled car by Alexander Albon. A wonderful battle between the Mercedes.

World champion Norris who had to return to the pit lane through the crowd after being stranded. A bizarre safe from Charles Leclerc. Russell’s costly exit. Rubbish on the track and marshals clearing rubbish. A tasty final duel between Hamilton and Verstappen for P2. Yes, the direction sometimes lacked eyes and ears. And so does the viewer.