Russell wins Canadian Grand Prix as Norris retires after collision with Piastri

F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Mercedes driver George Russell took his first victory of the year at the Canadian Grand Prix while Lando Norris crashed out after a collision with his team-mate Oscar Piastri. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the Montreal race.

Starting from the pole position, George Russell had a great start while Max Verstappen could also hang on to his second place.

However, Andrea Kimi Antonelli overtook championship leader Oscar Piastri on the inside lide into Turn 3.

On Lap 3, Verstappen was within a second of Russell while Antonelli started to drop back slightly. The next laps saw the reigning champion hang in the dirty air, forcing Russell to push harder than he wanted to.

Further back, Hulkenberg was ninth and looked very competitive in his Sauber that was heavily upgraded for the Spanish Grand Prix.

By Lap 8, Verstappen started to drop back as his tyres screamed for some fresh air. He was 1.3s back on Russell, but an undercut move was still on the table for the Dutchman.

Starting from P6 on the grid, Alonso looked very strong in the opening stages of the race, but he slowly started to struggle for rear grip by Lap 10.

By Lap 12, Antonelli was all over the back of Verstappen, but the reigning champion elected to pit for fresh tyres. The Red Bull man switched to hards and came back in P9 behind Hulkenberg.

Two laps later, Russell responded as he pitted for new tyres to cover off Verstappen. He managed to rejoin in front of Hulkenberg while the Dutchman was still behind the German driver.

On the next tour, Antonelli also pitted, with Mercedes completing his stop within 2.4s. Ferrari’s seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton also pitted a lap later.

With Russell, Verstappen, Piastri and Antonelli having completed their first stop, Norris and Leclerc found themselves at the front of the field.

In the meantime, Hamilton was the big loser of the first stops as he rejoined the track behind Esteban Ocon and Alexander Albon and lost over ten seconds compared to Piastri, who was directly in front of him before the first four of stops.

On Lap 27, Russell blasted past Leclerc down the back straight. The Monegasque elected to dive into the pits two laps later to take another set of hard tyres while Norris pitted a lap later.

Russell found himself at the lead again, with Verstappen 2.2s adrift of the Mercedes driver. The Dutchman dropped back as he struggled on his tyres and he elected to pit for a second set of fresh hard tyres on Lap 38.

Mercedes decided to bring Antonelli in on the next tour, and he came back just behind the Dutchman.

In the meantime, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Gabriel Bortoleto, Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda started on hards, and they were yet to pit.
On Lap 42, Russell pitted for new tyres in order to avoid a gaggle of six backmarkers. His pit stop took 3.3s, but he still came back ahead of Verstappen.

After Russell and Verstappen’s second stop, Piastri led from Norris while Leclerc was in third place. The next laps saw Norris and Piastri come in for new tyres which handed the lead to Leclerc.

On Lap 49, Albon retired his Williams, having been nursing a power unit issue from the start of the race. The Thai driver managed to park up his car in a safe place, so the action could continue without any interruptions.

With 20 laps left, Leclerc pitted for new mediums and rejoined the action down in P6 ahead of Hamilton, who was compromised by a damage he picked up at the start of the race.

With seven laps to go, Piastri closed in on Antonelli, but Norris also joined the duo on his fresher tyres.

In the meantime, Verstappen had breathing room. While he was struggling earlier in the race, he managed to stay close to Russell on his last stint. On Lap 66, Norris made a move on his team-mate into the hairpin, albeit Piastri managed to fight back.

Piastri was back ahead into Turn 13, but then the two collided as Norris was just too aggressive when the pair exited the last corner and touched the back of his team-mate’s McLaren.

The Briton parked up on the grass into Turn 1 and was out of the race while the Safety Car was called.

The race ended under safety car conditions, which meant that Russell got his first win of the year ahead of Verstappen. Mercedes got a double podium with Antonelli finishing third while Piastri limped home in fourth.

Ferrari driver Leclerc and Hamilton finished fifth and sixth respectively while Alonso secured more points in seventh, ahead of Hulkenberg, Ocon and Sainz.