The 2026 Canadian Grand Prix delivered everything the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve usually promises: tyre drama, an intra-team scrap, a mechanical retirement that changed everything, Lewis Hamilton on the podium for Ferrari, and a groundhog that will now be the most discussed animal in Formula One since that seagull at the 2015 Mexican Grand Prix. Kimi Antonelli won. The championship lead is now 43 points. George Russell is furious somewhere in Montreal.
Right. Before we get to the race, we need to address the groundhog. During practice at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Friday, a groundhog — a small, rotund, entirely road-legal Canadian rodent — ran across the track and directly into the front of Alex Albon’s Williams. This sent Albon into the barrier, destroyed the car, forced him to miss sprint qualifying, and began what The Race correctly identified as one of the most brutal weekends of Albon’s Formula One career. The groundhog was reportedly unhurt and has not been available for comment. Formula One has seen many things in its seventy-six years. A groundhog writing off an F1 car in practice is, we can confirm, a new one.
The actual race, which also contained a significant amount of drama, was won by Kimi Antonelli. His fourth victory of the season, delivered in Montreal with the kind of composed authority that is becoming his signature and the kind of good fortune that is also, increasingly, seeming like a pattern. His Mercedes teammate George Russell had the faster car, had qualified on pole, had won the Sprint, and was leading the grand prix when his power unit simply stopped working on lap 30. Russell climbed out of his car at the side of the track, stood there in the way that Formula One drivers stand when something has happened that they cannot quite believe, and watched Antonelli inherit the lead. The championship gap is now 43 points. Montreal gave Russell nothing. Absolutely nothing.
“It was a really fun battle to be fair with George. We were pretty much at the limit and it was not easy today with the wind.”
— KIMI ANTONELLI. WINNING HIS FOURTH RACE OF THE SEASON AND BEING TERRIFYINGLY RELAXED ABOUT IT.
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
The start was immediately interesting because Lando Norris chose intermediate tyres for a damp but not entirely wet circuit, jumped off the line on cold rubber that suited the conditions for approximately four corners, and briefly led before the decision unravelled completely. Norris pitted for slicks almost immediately, lost a significant amount of time, and spent the rest of the afternoon in a race that did not go the way McLaren wanted it to. He did not finish. The reigning champion, making tyre decisions in the wet, found a way to have a very ordinary Sunday in a place where he is usually extraordinary.
With Norris out of contention, the front of the race settled into the Russell versus Antonelli show that everyone in the paddock had suspected was coming for some time. The two Mercedes drivers swapped positions multiple times, the duel involving a moment where Antonelli ran wide while trying to pass, briefly gave the position back, and attacked again with an aggression that tells you everything about where the 19-year-old’s head is right now. Russell looked composed, according to The Race, but Antonelli looked faster. Those are two different things, and in Formula One, faster is the one that matters.
Then, on lap 30, Russell’s Mercedes lost power. Not gradually. Not with any warning that suggested a recoverable situation. Suddenly, completely, finally. He pulled over and stopped, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed, much of the field pitted under it, and Antonelli emerged with a lead he never surrendered. Behind him, two of the most experienced drivers on the grid spent the rest of the afternoon providing the second story of the race.
HAMILTON, VERSTAPPEN AND WHAT IT MEANS
Lewis Hamilton took second place for Ferrari. His best result since joining the team, a fact that itself tells you something about how the Ferrari season has gone, and a podium that was earned cleanly, maintained with precision, and defended against a late charge from Max Verstappen who spent the final laps half a second behind and could not find a way through. Hamilton held. Verstappen finished third, his first podium of 2026, a result that Red Bull and Verstappen desperately needed given a season that has offered almost nothing to celebrate. His car was clearly fast enough to challenge. Getting it there consistently has been the ongoing problem.
The rest of the points were distributed through Leclerc in fourth, a very solid Hadjar in fifth despite two penalties served during the race, and Franco Colapinto in sixth with his second consecutive points finish and the best result of his Formula One career so far. Liam Lawson seventh, Gasly eighth, Carlos Sainz ninth and Oliver Bearman tenth completed the points. Oscar Piastri finished eleventh on a difficult day for McLaren. Albon, whose Friday had been ruined by an animal, was torpedoed out of the race at the hairpin by Piastri. The universe, on this particular Sunday in Montreal, had decided Alex Albon was having a bad weekend and was committed to seeing that through.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP PICTURE
Antonelli leads Russell by 43 points after five races. Five rounds into a season and a 19-year-old is nearly two race wins clear of his more experienced teammate, who is himself one of the better drivers on the grid. This is either a generational talent announcing himself ahead of schedule or a situation that gets very interesting when Russell finds a weekend where his car and his luck align simultaneously. Possibly both. The Race noted that the real headache for Russell is not just the points gap, though that is significant enough. It is that Antonelli was faster all weekend, in Montreal, on one of the circuits where Russell has historically been strongest. That is the number Russell needs to solve. A points deficit can be recovered. Being consistently outpaced by your teammate is a different kind of problem.
Mercedes leads the constructors’ championship by 77 points. Next up is Monaco, where the circuit’s specific demands will reshuffle the order in ways that are impossible to predict and entertaining to watch. Ferrari, on the evidence of Hamilton’s second place, will be competitive. Antonelli has never raced at Monaco as an F1 driver. This will be interesting.
REVMAG VERDICT
Montreal delivered exactly what the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve usually delivers: drama at the front, surprising results in the middle, at least one retirement that changes everything, and a moment that nobody will forget. The intra-Mercedes battle before Russell’s retirement was the best racing of the 2026 season so far, two teammates genuinely pushing each other to the absolute limit on a circuit where one mistake costs everything. That Russell’s race ended through no fault of his own is the particular cruelty that motorsport occasionally inflicts, and it does not make the championship picture any easier for him. Antonelli is four wins into his debut season and behaving as though this is the most natural thing in the world. It probably is. Monaco is next. Bring a coat and significantly lower your expectations of an Antonelli Monaco debut being straightforward. Also: the groundhog is fine.
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