F1 Canada GP Review: George Triumphs for the first time in 2025 as Piastri and Norris collide!
It was an entertaining race to say the least in Montreal for the Canadian GP which was won by the Mercedes of George Russell who wins his first race this season
George Russell came home to clinch his first race win of the season as Mercedes came home with a double podium finish. Andrea Kimi Antonelli clinched his first podium of the season by fending off pressure from championship leader Oscar Piastri who himself didn’t have the cleanest of races, having a collision with his championship rival Lando Norris.
Come the end of the season, we could look back at Canada and see it as the race which was a huge turning point for the 2025 Season as Norris falls further back from Piastri in the championship with a 22 point deficit.
Canada Redemption for Russell
After he missed out on a Grand Prix win this time last year here at Canada, George Russell has returned the favor and clinches his 4th win of his career. ‘Mr Consistency’ has been in the form of his life this season.
After taking the mantle as team leader after Hamilton’s departure at Mercedes, the man from King’s Lynn has never looked back. Many had doubts he had what it took to perform at the sharp end of the field and lead a top team like Mercedes considering the high profile mistakes he’s had in the past such as: Crashing on the last lap in Singapore 2023 trying to win, Crashing in Canada 2023 running 4th and losing the race win last year in Canada after clinching pole and finishing 3rd. 10 Rounds into this season, he seems to have put all of that to rest as he’s now surprisingly only 19 points behind 3rd in the drivers’ standings.
Diamond in the rough
This is exactly the weekend Antonelli needed to bounce back after what was an absolute nightmare of a triple header from Imola to Spain where he scored no points. Finishing 3rd wasn’t even the most impressive part of his weekend, it was the fact he was matching George Russell’s pace for the entirety of the race. Before the Mclaren’s collided and caused a safety car, he was only 5 seconds off Russell in the lead.
It’s clear to see he’s made some serious steps forward in performance after the triple header, but his glaring weakness seems to be his qualifying deficit to Russell as he was almost half a second slower in Qualifying. As he racks up more races and experience under his belt, he’s sure to close that gap to Russell and be a serious force to be reckoned with.
Collision between the Championship protagonists
The biggest talking point to come out of this was the two Mclaren’s crashing into each other towards the end of the race. The entire weekend looked like it was set to be Lando’s race to win, he looked quicker than Piastri in all Free practice sessions, Q1 and Q2 until he once again made mistakes under pressure when it matters most. With him starting P7 and his teammate up in 3rd, he had it all to do.
For the first time this season, we saw both McLaren’s go wheel to wheel…
And the only time we saw them go wheel to wheel, they made contact. Lando made a misjudgment of the gap Piastri had to the wall resulting in him clipping the back of Piastri and ending his race prematurely with Piastri very lucky to come out unscathed from the incident.
With Lando’s lapse of judgement in wheel to wheel combat, it now means he has even more ground to recover in the championship when he could’ve easily gained 2 points on Piastri after the race.
Norris was extremely self-critical as he usually is, scolding himself and saying “I made a fool of myself”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella had badged the collision as “Not acceptable” but has come to Lando’s defense of having the maturity to immediately own up to the mistake.
“If Lando had a different reaction, then there would have been certainly serious conversations to have, but I think he immediately realized that he simply miscalculated, this caused a problem for himself, for the team, and it was very close to causing a problem for Oscar.” - Stella
Championship leader Piastri acknowledges the fact the incident was certainly not ideal for anyone at McLaren and puts to bed any bad intentions that Lando could’ve had during the crash.
He also added:
“If Lando has taken full responsibility then that's how it goes I guess. Just a bit of a tricky race in general and not an ideal finish."
After the race, Lando was seen apologizing to Oscar in the media pen clearly showing there’s no bad blood between the two.
In other news:
Charles Leclerc rues missed opportunity of fight for Canada race win after pole slipped away
Nico Hulkenberg bags even more points for Sauber in an impressive P8, accumulating 20 points altogether after 10 rounds
FIA reject Red Bulls protest for Russell safety car infringement, Russell keeps his win
No penalties for any drivers who committed safety car infringements at the end of the race
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