Four in a row for Antonelli after victory in Canada

Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli continued his spectacular early-season romp on Sunday when he claimed his fourth straight win for Mercedes to extend his lead in the drivers world championship to 43 points in a thrilling Canadian Grand Prix.

His win made him the first driver in F1 history to secure his first four wins in succession thanks, in part, to the retirement of team-mate George Russell with a power failure after the pair had battled through the first half of the race.

The 19-year-old Italian came home 10.768 seconds clear of Ferrari’s seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.

The Briton secured his tenth Canadian podium and the 204th of his career after resisting four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who claimed his first podium of the season.

“It was a really fun battle with George,” said Antonelli.

“We were pretty much on the limit. It was not easy today. It was a shame for George to have the failure because it would have been a very cool battle, but I’ll take it.”

Hamilton, who took his maiden victory in Montreal in 2007 and shares the record of seven wins there with Michael Schumacher, was delighted and hugged Antonelli who succeeded him at Mercedes.

“Finally, we found our sweet spot and had a good weekend. It’s amazing to be back up here and I got to have a battle with Max, which was great. I am so happy, I love this track,” said Hamilton.

“I had some cool battles,” said Verstappen. “It is better to race up front. And it is really cool to have our first podium and to battle with Lewis. All really positive.”

Charles Leclerc came home fourth for Ferrari ahead of Isack Hadjar in the second Red Bull, Franco Colapinto of Alpine and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson. Pierre Gasly was eighth for Alpine ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman of Haas.

– McLaren misery –

It was a dismal day for champions McLaren who made an error in tyre selection pre-race and then saw Oscar Piastri finish 11th while world champion Lando Norris retired with a gearbox failure.

The race began in cold, damp and drizzly conditions with a temperature of 12 degrees and the teams divided on tyre choice.

Both McLarens and five others gambled on intermediates while Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and five others chose softs and four picked mediums.

At the start, Arvid Lindblad failed to find a gear, leading to an aborted start and two extra formation laps before the lights went out — and Norris from third flew past a cautious-starting Russell on pole to snatch the lead.

Norris led and then pitted to ditch his ‘inters’ as did Piastri and the rest while Antonelli inherited the lead, chased by a recovered Russell and Hamilton.

Russell forced his way past Antonelli at the back chicane on lap six, where the young Italian skated across a run-off to rejoin. It set up a thrilling battle at the head of the field.

At the front, Antonelli regained the lead on lap 12, briefly, but it was clear the young Italian had the pace to hound, if not pass, the Briton as they delivered a riveting spectacle of wheel-to-wheel racing.

Antonelli tried to pass Russell on lap 19, but was rebuffed. They scrapped again on lap 21 before Antonelli retook the lead on lap 22 at the chicane.

Two laps later, he locked up and Russell regained the lead before they banged wheels again, the precocious Italian stealing in front at the hairpin, but he went off. He handed the place back.

As they scrapped, Piastri was handed a 10-second penalty for colliding with Alex Albon’s Williams, another blow on a wretched weekend for McLaren before, on lap 30, Russell pulled up and retired with a power-unit failure.

It was Russell’s first ‘did not finish’ in 38 races since the 2024 British Grand Prix.

“Everything went off, the engine and the electronics. The lot,” said Russell. “I’m lost for words.”

A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed with Antonelli back in the lead before pitting, like the rest, for mediums. On resumption, he led from Verstappen by 4.5 seconds with Hamilton third ahead of Hadjar and Leclerc.

With Russell gone, it was back to ‘normal’ racing – and Hamilton’s pursuit of a podium – spiced up by Leclerc taking fourth and more McLaren misery on lap 40 when Norris retired with a gearbox issue.

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