MONTREAL: George Russell celebrated Mercedes’ first win of the Formula One season in Canada on Sunday while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri went 22 points clear in the championship after team-mate Lando Norris smashed into him and retired.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who had hoped to win for a record fourth year in a row at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, had to settle for second after a challenge fizzed out behind the safety car.

Russell’s 18-year-old rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli finished third for his first F1 podium and the first by an Italian since 2009.

Piastri was fourth, with the safety car leading the final lap before peeling off to clear the way for Russell to take the chequered flag.

“Well done team. That made up for last year,” said Russell, who also started on pole in 2024 but finished third. His last win before Sunday was in Las Vegas in November.

“It’s amazing to be back on the top step. I felt last year was a victory lost and probably got the victory today due to the incredible pole lap yesterday.”

Piastri now has 198 points ahead of Norris on 176, with Verstappen on 155 and Russell on 136.

In the constructors’ standings Mercedes moved up to second, ahead of Ferrari and 175 points behind McLaren.

An uneventful afternoon erupted in headline drama when Norris hit the rear of Piastri’s car three laps from the end — a clash long predicted in the title battle between the pair — while trying to overtake.

The Briton, whose broken car stopped by the side of the track, was quick to blame himself when it all went wrong after they had earlier gone side by side.

“I’m sorry. All my bad. All my fault. Stupid from me,” Norris said over the team radio.

Piastri pitted as the safety car was deployed and rejoined with a tyre advantage over Antonelli that he could not use as the racing never resumed.

“Glad I didn’t ruin his race. In the end apologies to the team,” Norris told Sky Sports television. “This wasn’t even like a ‘that’s racing’, it was just silly from my part.”

Stewards ruled he was solely to blame and handed him a meaningless five-second penalty.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and sixth, respectively, the latter with a damaged car after hitting a groundhog.

Fernando Alonso was seventh for Aston Martin and Nico Hulkenberg brought in more solid points for Sauber in eighth place. Esteban Ocon was ninth for Haas in their 200th race with Carlos Sainz 10th for Williams.

A post-race protest by Red Bull was rejected by stewards five and a half hours after the race ended.

Third place, after passing Piastri on the opening lap, made Antonelli the third-youngest driver ever to stand on the F1 podium.

“I was just hoping for the race to finish, to be honest,” he said.

Russell led away cleanly from pole, with Verstappen slotting in behind.

Behind them, Williams’ Alex Albon tracked across the grass after starting ninth, with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto moving briefly up from 10th before losing out to Hulkenberg and then falling down the order.

Norris started on the hard tyres to go longer in the opening stint and was leading by lap 16 after others who started on mediums came in for pitstops. He then pitted on lap 29 and came out fifth, behind Piastri in fourth.

Leclerc also came in on that lap but then questioned why Ferrari had made the call, with his hard tyres still in reasonable shape.

Hamilton was behind his team-mate and wondering out loud where the performance had gone.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2025