Buckle up: The Mercedes intra-team battle for the Formula 1 drivers’ world championship just kicked into high gear.
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Kimi Antonelli won a wet-to-dry Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday after a race weekend that featured intense clashes with teammate and rival George Russell, spicing up their fight for the title.
It is the fourth Grand Prix win in a row for the 19-year-old Italian, who opens up a 43-point lead over Russell.
Russell, 28, retired from the lead on lap 30 with what Mercedes called a power unit failure, looking shell-shocked and shaking his head after he got out of the car.
“Not the way I wanted to win,” Antonelli said by team radio after he took the checkered flag. “Was going to be a good fight with George. But yeah, we’ll take it.”
Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari finished second, fending off Max Verstappen of Red Bull in third.
Russell was on course for a perfect weekend before his car broke down Sunday. He beat Antonelli to pole position by exactly 0.068 seconds for both the sprint race and the Grand Prix, a number that Antonelli quipped he would remember for a long time. Russell also won the sprint race Saturday and narrowly led Antonelli on Sunday before his mechanical failure.
“A bit lost for words right now,” Russell told Sky F1 on the live broadcast. “From my side, I don’t feel like there’s anything more I could have done this weekend, so I’ll leave satisfied. Of course, I’m really damn frustrated with what’s happened.”
Russell began this year as the championship favorite. But just five contests into the 22-race season, Antonelli has shown his killer instinct and established himself as a serious contender for the 2026 title. It represents a turnaround from his rookie season last year, when he was no match for the faster Russell.
The two drivers gave fans a thrilling battle Sunday in Montreal.
Antonelli overtook Russell at the start, but Russell retook the position on lap 6 on the back straight before the final chicane. Antonelli made another attempt on Russell, passing him on lap 12, only to be overtaken again on the straight.
Both drivers continued to battle each other and trade places, even locking their tires and running wide, a sign of how aggressively they were racing.
The tension began Saturday in the “sprint” race as Russell was running first and Antonelli was second.
Antonelli tried an overtake in the opening corners of the lap but ran out of road and went on the grass. Antonelli was furious, accusing Russell of “naughty” tactics and pushing him off track, and he even called for a penalty for his teammate on team radio. Team boss Toto Wolff later chastised him for litigating the team’s internal disputes publicly.
Russell won the sprint, with Antonelli falling to third.
Saturday was the first time Russell and Antonelli clashed on track as they battle each other for the 2026 drivers’ championship in the strongest car under F1’s new regulations.
It was a weekend to forget for McLaren, the reigning champs.
Starting third, Lando Norris jumped both Mercedes to take the lead at the start. But McLaren’s fortunes rapidly took a nosedive Sunday. Norris and Oscar Piastri gambled on intermediate tires, which didn’t work out on the drying track. Both pitted early on for slick tires, falling far behind the leaders. And both had to pit a second time amid reliability concerns. Norris later retired after his car broke down. Piastri finished 11th.
The next F1 race is June 7 on the streets of Monaco.
It “could be a tricky one,” Antonelli said after the race. “But we’ll try to be ready for anything. And I’ll do my best.”
