Five rounds in, four wins for Andrea Kimi Antonelli . He didn’t have the fastest car on Saturday and he didn’t lead the first half of the race, but he was the one who finished. Montreal was the most chaotic Sunday of 2026 - two pole-favourites out before half-distance, McLaren’s recovery weekend obliterated, a Ferrari second place and the first Red Bull podium of the season - and the championship leader simply collected what fell to him.
The race
George Russell had the weekend in hand. He won the sprint on Saturday, took pole on Saturday evening, and led the opening 29 laps of Sunday’s race from the front. Then the W17 stopped on the back straight without warning - Mercedes have not yet released a cause - and the lead passed to Andrea Kimi Antonelli , who had run second from lights out and never looked under pressure thereafter. Fastest lap on the final tour (1:14.210), 10.768s clear at the flag, his fourth win from five.
The race behind him reset twice. Lando Norris qualified third and was running third when the McLaren went silent on lap 38 - the second points-paying retirement of the day from a car that had been in contention on merit. Oscar Piastri started fourth and finished eleventh, a lap down, having spent the second half of the race trapped behind recovering midfielders he could not pass. Eight days after Miami suggested McLaren had turned the corner, Montreal said wait.
Lewis Hamilton took second from fifth on the grid - his best result for Ferrari, and the team’s first podium since his own in China. Max Verstappen was third from sixth, Red Bull’s first visit to the rostrum in 2026 and the kind of measured drive the championship leader of the last four seasons has built his career on. Charles Leclerc finished fourth from eighth, recovering from a poor Saturday but losing out to his teammate for the second weekend running.
The story of the midfield was Isack Hadjar , who finished fifth from seventh on the grid. The other Red Bull, two months into his second season, on the lead lap, ahead of both Ferraris on race pace through the middle stint. The car has clearly moved forward, but Montreal is also the first race where the other side of the Red Bull garage has answered the question of whether anyone but Verstappen can deliver in it.
Franco Colapinto took sixth - Alpine’s best result of the year - and Liam Lawson seventh after starting twelfth. Pierre Gasly , Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman filled out the points.
The DNFs
- Alexander Albon - lap 11, suspension after kerb contact at turn 9
- Fernando Alonso - lap 23, Aston Martin power unit
- George Russell - lap 29, mechanical failure while leading
- Lando Norris - lap 38, McLaren stopped on the pit straight
- Sergio Pérez - lap 39, contact with the Wall of Champions
The Wall got one. The preview promised a hit list and it claimed one car in 28 years of trying to claim a champion - fitting enough.
The championship
Constructors: Mercedes 199, Ferrari 126, McLaren 83, Red Bull 53.
The gap from Antonelli to Russell is now 49 points - nearly two race wins - and the second-place battle has compressed into a four-way tie within 22 points covering Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc and Norris. Red Bull have moved into fourth in the constructors on the back of one weekend; the upgrade worked, the question is whether they can keep it on the car at Barcelona.
Monaco next Sunday. The first true low-speed circuit of the year, the one where the 2026 active-aero rules have been quietly flagged as a question mark since pre-season, and the place championship leaders are historically allowed exactly one mistake.