Formula 1 News: Russell wins 2025 GP of Canada from pole (Update)
The Red Bull Formula 1 team has lodged a protest against the Canadian Grand Prix winner George Russell over his driving behind the late safety car.
As the drivers cruised behind the safety car, Russell slammed on his brakes, forcing the world champion briefly past while approaching the final chicane. He may have been trying to get Verstappen to rear-end him and get another penalty point and get suspended.
Verstappen flagged the issue, saying Russell had slowed suddenly, and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said they would check for erratic driving.
Lambiase later warned Verstappen: “That incident with Russell now being shown on the feeds, Max, it’s pretty blatant. Just don’t fall for the gamesmanship, OK? Thank you.”
Red Bull also protested against Russell allegedly leaving more than 10 car lengths behind the safety car.
“There have been two protests that we’ve put to the stewards,” Red Bull Team boss Christian Horner explained.
“Firstly relating to the erratic driving behind the safety car, where George very heavily braked, obviously looking at his mirror for Max.
“The second one is very clearly the distance that was left behind the safety car, that was at least three times in excess of the permitted distance.
“So, we’ve lodged the protest, it’s with the stewards now, and we’ll see what they say.
“It’s certainly not personal [against] George. The regulations are very clear about the safety car. If you remember Checo [Perez] back in Singapore ’22 got two penalties for it, so there were very clear precedents.”
Editor’s Note: The protests were rejected by the pro-British Race Stewards
June 15, 2025
George Russell, starting from pole in his #63 Mercedes, drove a clean race and held off the Red Bull of Max Verstappen to win the 2025 GP of Canada at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
–by Mark Cipolloni–
Russell was able to ease away from Verstappen over the final 10 laps, but then won behind the Safety Car by just 0.228s.
“It is amazing to be back on the top step,” said Russell.
“I felt last year was a victory lost, so to get the victory and see Kimi on the podium too is an amazing day for the team.
“I think the strength of our car is in the cooler conditions, so let’s see in the coming races, but let’s enjoy this for now. Good day, good day!”
Verstappen collected an important 18 points for 2nd and closed slightly on leaders, 43 behind Oscar Piastri and 21 behind Lando Norris.
“Was quite a good race, even though in the first two stints we were struggling with the tires,” said Verstappen.
“We hung in there in the final stint, and the tires were better under lower fuel loads. That was the maximum we could have achieved today.”
Oscar Piastri collided with his McLaren teammate with three laps to go when Norris tried to pass. Norris ran into the back of Piastri, then hit the pit wall and crashed out of the race. That brought out the Safety Car and the field was frozen the rest of the way.
Wow. Lando Norris just crashed out after hitting Oscar Piastri#F1 pic.twitter.com/4XBkWQl7Xm
— Hickey (@Hickey93) June 15, 2025
Rookie Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes held off immense pressure from the McLaren to get his first podium position in third.
“I mean, it was so stressful! But super happy,” said Antonelli.
“I had a good start, managed to jump into P3 and managed to stay there. In the last stint I pushed a bit too hard, killed the front left so I was happy to bring the podium home.
“I had a good launch, managed to get alongside and in the first corner tried to stay alongside as much as possible. I was really happy to stick that!”
Piastri finished 4th and increased his point lead over Norris, who threw away a sure 10 points with his bone headed move.
Charles Leclerc rounded out the top-5 in the #16 Ferrari, 3.442s behind Russell while Lewis Hamilton was a mile behind in 6th, but closed to 10.7s behind Russell behind the Safety Car.
Fernando Alonso gets more points in seventh, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber in 8th.
The Race Stewards have two open investigations here. Oliver Bearman for not using an escape road correctly, and then Carlos Sainz and Ocon for driving erratically late on.
“We never want to see a McLaren involved in an accident, and definitely we never want to see the two McLarens touching each other.
We need to review, as this is a clear principle, at the same time it is an incident from a misjudgment, Lando misjudged the distance to the car ahead and owned it immediately, which we appreciate.
“Our drivers will learn, and we go racing again. It is a misjudgment that cost Lando quite a lot in the Championship.”–McLaren Team Boss Andrea Stella
“No one to blame but myself, so I apologize to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something a bit silly. I’m glad I didn’t ruin his whole race. This was more silly, it wasn’t like – that’s racing, yeah. Just silly from my part. I go to bed tonight, apologize to everyone and then crack on.” –Lando Norris
“Obviously it is not ideal for anyone, but I haven’t seen the incident so I don’t know exactly what happened. If Lando has taken full responsibility, that’s how it goes I guess. A tricky race in general, and a not ideal finish.
“He made a large move into Turn 10, held my own into the chicane. it was a tough battle but a clean one and I think it was just unfortunate really. We are both fighting for a World Championship, and I am thankful to the team that they allow us to race and I don’t expect anything to change on that.” —Oscar Piastri
Today belonged to Mercedes – the win for Russell, and a first podium for Antonelli. A well deserved one too, as the teenager continues to deliver.
Will Mercedes remain in the mix for Austria? We will find out in a couple of weeks.
How the Race Unfolded
At the start, Russell got away well from pole to take the lead ahead of Verstappen who also made a good start. Behind them, Piastri came under heavy pressure from Antonelli, and the Italian rookie was able to power past on the run to Turn 3 to steal P3.
Over the opening 10 laps, Verstappen began to lose ground to Russell and the Dutchman reported that his tires “were very fragile”. On lap 12 he opted to shed his starting Mediums and Mercedes reacted to cover the potential undercut. Russell pitted at the end of the following lap and stayed ahead of the Dutchman.
Antonelli was next in on lap 15, and he rejoined behind Verstappen. Piastri then made his first stop and that vaulted Hard-tire starter Norris, who was told he needed to put in “one of those amazing races”, into the lead ahead of fellow Hard-tire runner Charles Leclerc.
Russell and Verstappen slowly began to reel in Leclerc and Norris and on lap 26 the Mercedes driver swept past the Monegasque racer on the run to the final chicane. Verstappen then closed up to the back of the Ferrari but on lap 29 Leclerc backed out of the battle and pitted for a second set of Hard tires.
Norris made his first stop on lap 30 and he shed his Hard tires for a set of yellow-banded Mediums. That promoted Russell and Verstappen back to top two positions and at half distance the Mercedes driver held a four-second lead over the Red Bull, with Verstappen just two seconds clear of Antonelli and a further two clear of Piastri. Norris, meanwhile, rejoined in fifth place, seven seconds behind his team-mate.
Verstappen, losing time and with Antonelli powering into DRS range, made his second stop on lap 38, taking on a final set of Hard tires. The champion rejoined in sixth place, ahead of Hamilton. Mercedes covered the move by swiftly pitting Antonelli and though it was tight, the Dutchman emerged just ahead of the Italian.
Running into a train of squabbling backmarkers, and facing a potentially frustrating battle to clear them, Russell pitted on lap 43. The Mercedes driver emerged in P4, three seconds ahead of Verstappen. Piastri then headed in on lap 46 for another set of Hard tires and he rejoined in fifth place behind the out of sequence pair of Norris and Leclerc who were promoted to the front for a second time.
Norris pitted from the lead on lap 48 for a final set of Hard tires and Leclerc finally pitted for a set of quicker Mediums on lap 54. They emerged in fifth and sixth respectively as Russell took the lead ahead of Verstappen, Antonelli and Piastri, with 17 laps remaining.
Verstappen initially began to close on to Russell, but the Mercedes driver was able to respond, and the gap soon stabilized. The major battle became the one between the two McLaren drivers. Norris closed in and on lap 67 he made a dive down the inside into the hairpin.
It looked like the Briton had made the move stick, but Piastri fought back, and they went side-by-side along the straight. Norris backed out into the final chicane to set up a move under DRS on the pit straight. Norris went for a move on the inside, but the space didn’t exist, and he slammed into the wall and out of the race.
The Safety Car was released and the field filed through the pit lane to queue up behind the FIA vehicle. However, with Norris’ car needing to be recovered and with just three laps remaining, the race ended under the caution.
2025 GP of Canada Race Results – 70 Laps
| Pos | No | Nat | Driver | Car | Laps | Behind |
| 1 | 63 | GBR | George Russell | Mercedes | 70 | +0.000s |
| 2 | 1 | NED | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 70 | +0.228s |
| 3 | 12 | ITA | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 70 | +1.014s |
| 4 | 81 | AUS | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | 70 | +2.109s |
| 5 | 16 | MON | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 70 | +3.442s |
| 6 | 44 | GBR | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 70 | +10.713s |
| 7 | 14 | ESP | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 70 | +10.972s |
| 8 | 27 | GER | Nico Hulkenberg | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 70 | +15.364s |
| 9 | 31 | FRA | Esteban Ocon | Haas Ferrari | 69 | +1 lap |
| 10 | 55 | ESP | Carlos Sainz | Williams Mercedes | 69 | +1 lap |
| 11 | 87 | GBR | Oliver Bearman | Haas Ferrari | 69 | +1 lap |
| 12 | 22 | JPN | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 69 | +1 lap |
| 13 | 43 | ARG | Franco Colapinto | Alpine Renault | 69 | +1 lap |
| 14 | 5 | BRA | Gabriel Bortoleto | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 69 | +1 lap |
| 15 | 10 | FRA | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | 69 | +1 lap |
| 16 | 6 | FRA | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls Honda RBPT | 69 | +1 lap |
| 17 | 18 | CAN | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 69 | +1 lap |
| 18 | 4 | GBR | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 66 | DNF |
| NC | 30 | NZL | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls Honda RBPT | 53 | DNF |
| NC | 23 | THA | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 46 | DNF |
* Provisional results.