Piastri in tense talk with team over botched gamble as McLaren implode<\/a><\/p>\n“Looked like idiots” Piastri on messy GP | 01:34<\/p>\n
NO SILVER PAPAYA RULES AT MERCEDES<\/p>\n
Thankfully for those who were counting on rain to spice up the Canadian Grand Prix, Mercedes allowed the second chapter of its drivers\u2019 unfolding rivalry to go ahead without restriction.<\/p>\n
We got the taster in the sprint, with Russell all but pushing Antonelli onto the grass at the first turn. The defence was a legal, as was Antonelli\u2019s around-the-outside attempt, but both drivers strayed into the grey area of expected behaviour for battling teammates.<\/p>\n
They continued in that slightly antagonistic spirit in the grand prix.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a tough fight,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cI think a couple of times was maybe a little bit on the edge, but we were going at each other. We were both pushing and we both wanted to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Sky Sports he highlighted one moment in particular, when he was forced to yield from the outside line at the final chicane despite being ahead at the apex.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit borderline,\u201d he said. \u201cI was ahead going into the corner, but I had to open up, otherwise we would\u2019ve collided. For sure it was a little bit on the edge, but it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The drivers were told to behave themselves, but the pit wall resisted intervening.<\/p>\n
It was a refreshing change for those who remember with mixed emotions some of the battles between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris last season, when the heavy hand of the so-called papaya rules was never far away, warning and admonishing and judging over the radio and occasionally out of the car too.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s early days, and Mercedes may yet find a need to more strictly regulate its drivers, but team boss Toto Wolff said he was happy to trust his drivers so long as they didn\u2019t jeopardise their one-two finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time when we thought about saying, \u2018We\u2019ve had enough for the moment\u2019 because we were losing time to Verstappen behind us, the next two laps were fast again,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as we maintained that gap, it was okay watching it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a luxury problem. I would hope we go like this for much longer in the season, but you can\u2019t discount the others.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it was closer behind us, if we were threatened to lose position, then we would definitely jump in and say, \u2018Let\u2019s not lose so much time with each other\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Antonelli didn\u2019t claim victory by prevailing in the duel, it allowed him to demonstrate that the win wasn\u2019t simply circumstantial but thoroughly deserved.<\/p>\n
Russell RAGES! Brutal blow ends his race | 01:08<\/p>\n
RUSSELL\u2019S NUMBERS GAME<\/p>\n
Russell was understandably angry when he parked his car at the exit of the turn 8-9 chicane.<\/p>\n
It was the lost victory. It was the lost points. It was the massive deficit to his teammate, who was able to cruise to victory in his stead.<\/p>\n
When the anger subsided, there was just despondency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s his to lose,\u201d Russell said, per The Race, reflecting on the new 43-point margin to his title-leading teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so many points ahead. It feels like the gods don\u2019t want me to be in this fight \u2014 when I look at the safety car timing in Japan, breaking down in China Q3 [while] fighting for pole, breaking down from the lead here today.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut pressure\u2019s off. Go out, enjoy every single race, try and win every single race \u2014 and I\u2019ve got nothing to lose, so I don\u2019t want to be stood here talking like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is of course frustrating, and I want to be in that fight. Hopefully the luck turns.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are two ways of looking at this, and both would have been in play in those pessimistic post-race remarks.<\/p>\n
The first is the hard truth: that Antonelli\u2019s lead is massive.<\/p>\n
At 43 points, Antonelli could finish second to Russell for the next six grands prix \u2014 sprints aside \u2014 in succession without losing the title lead, taking him all the way to the mid-season break without losing top spot.<\/p>\n
If you were to assume \u2014 though it is a big and almost meaningless assumption \u2014 that Mercedes can finish first and second at every grand prix, Russell would have to end the season with at least 13 wins to clinch the championship.<\/p>\n
Only three drivers have won 13 or more times in a season: Max Verstappen (twice), Michael Schumcaher and Sebastian Vettel.<\/p>\n
But that discounts that this is just round 5 and that there are still 17 grands prix remaining.<\/p>\n
It discounts that Oscar Piastri lost a 34-point lead with only nine races to run last season.<\/p>\n
It also discounts a more direct historical parallel: that Lewis Hamilton trailed Nico Rosberg by exactly 43 points after five rounds in 2016 but was back in the lead just six weekends later and took the fight to the final round.<\/p>\n
Russell is doing what any driver lacking momentum and up against a far greener, far less experienced opponent is doing.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s trying to redirect his pressure onto Antonelli\u2019s shoulders hoping that the teenager will buckle.<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s saying that, actually, he should be leading the title but for circumstance.<\/p>\n
Russell is too clever to think he can\u2019t win the championship without luck \u2014 and too wily to think there\u2019s nothing he can do to arrest his teammate\u2019s momentum.<\/p>\n
“These inters were a mistake” – Piastri | 00:29<\/p>\n
McLAREN\u2019S CANADA CATASTROPHE<\/p>\n
Starting a dry race on wet tyres \u2014 how did it go so wrong for McLaren?<\/p>\n
Rain had soaked Circuit Gilles Villeneuve from early Monday morning but had eased almost completely before the race, so much so that even in frigid 13\u00b0C ambient conditions, much of the track \u2014 though not all of it \u2014 was dry.<\/p>\n
Drivers sampled a mix of intermediates and slicks on their reconnaissance laps. Piastri used a set of softs at first but found them \u201cnot easy\u201d for grip; Lando Norris, also on slicks, slid off the road at the hairpin.<\/p>\n
As the clock counted down to decision-making time \u2014 five minutes before the formation lap \u2014 light rain was still falling.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween the anthem and getting in the car, it was pretty wet on the ground,\u201d Piastri told Sky Sports. \u201cThere was definitely no standing water, but you could clearly tell where it was wet and where it was dry.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it stopped once he was buckled into the car, and the two additional formation laps ensured the race started fully dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust one of those things where had it rained a little bit more, we would\u2019ve looked like heroes, but it didn\u2019t, so we looked like idiots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McLaren felt it had been a lineball call as the track dried in those final crucial minutes of decision-making time, but Norris was convinced \u2014 based on his reconnaissance lap \u2014 that slicks would be unusable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made the decision as a team,\u201d he said. \u201cI also pushed for it \u2014 I take the responsibility for that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s remarkable, though, is that McLaren was debating it at all. Mercedes had no doubt<\/p>\n
\u201cNot close at all,\u201d Wolff told Sky Sports. \u201cWhen the tyre decision was taken, it was the worst of the rain that we had seen, and then it was clearing up behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only five other drivers started on intermediates, and all of them were wrong.<\/p>\n
Once it was clear a mistake had been made, however, McLaren had to try to make the most of it, and television viewers were treated to some excruciating team radio as the drivers expressed the painful realisation they were cooked.<\/p>\n
Piastri requested to pit off his \u201cmistake\u201d intermediates before the race started, but the team was right to leave him out on them for at least a lap or two. Had there been some sort of incident requiring a safety car, his losses could have been stemmed.<\/p>\n
Norris used a lap in the lead to his advantage to rejoin 14th, but Piastri, in fifth for the first lap, had no such luck, rejoining last.<\/p>\n
His race went from bad to worse with a clumsily misjudged move on Oliver Bearman that resulted in him T-boning Alex Albon at the hairpin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just so difficult out there,\u201d he explained. \u2018I felt like I was going into the corner pretty carefully, and I locked the front and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was far from the only driver to go long on cold tyres at the hairpin, but the carnage earned him a penalty.<\/p>\n
It was his first non-points grand prix finish since the 2024 Miami Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Norris\u2019s day went from worse to dire, with a precautionary stop to clear his radiators followed by a catastrophic gearbox failure that put him out of the race.<\/p>\n
Having left Miami as the topscoring team, McLaren left Canada with 12 points, its margin to Mercedes blown out to 113 points, and some serious debriefing to do.<\/p>\n
0.023! The closest Indy 500 finish EVER | 00:49<\/p>\n
IS THIS HAMILTON\u2019S TURNING POINT?<\/p>\n
Second-place finishes are historically irrelevant for Lewis Hamiton, but in Canada it meant a lot, representing his best grand prix result as a Ferrari driver \u2014 and his highest finish since the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
But the Hamilton we saw this weekend felt like it was from even longer ago than that.<\/p>\n
He had teammate Charles Leclerc\u2019s measure on pace all weekend, and in the race he was a constant forward threat, eventually catching and passing Verstappen after a memorable late-race battle to take second place on the rostrum.<\/p>\n
How did he do it? According to him, it\u2019s because he\u2019s given up on using the simulator to prepare for races, instead preferring an old-school data dive to choose his set-up options.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Will] I use it to prepare for another race? Probably not,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cThere are just too many risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the two best races I\u2019ve had, I didn\u2019t use a simulator, and that\u2019s honestly how it was pretty much all the championships before, except for probably 2008 \u2014 I didn\u2019t use the sim.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a necessity. It\u2019s a tool that can be powerful. But for me, I\u2019m old school. I\u2019m probably better without it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to Sky Sports, though, he hinted at some potentially more powerful changes to his general 2026 form improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many elements that have to come together to get the car in the right place, and I think I finally have that with the engineers that I\u2019ve got and the whole set-up within the team,\u201d he explained. \u201cI really hope that I can continue on with this performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m much happier and more comfortable in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of last year\u2019s story was the friction between his then race engineer, Riccardo Adami, and by the end of the year he was talking about more wholesale changes to the engineering set-up on his side of the garage.<\/p>\n
He appeared to get a lot of what he wanted during the off-season. Now things are starting to click.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been fooled by false dawns with Hamilton at Ferrari before. This, though, looks more convincing than any of them.<\/p>\n
Time will prove if it can be sustained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another race, another piece of history for runaway championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli. His victory at the Canadian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5476,991,14411,25782,366,1709,25758,25647,17,25761,25775,25247,25737,25748,19513,25735,25752,474,25745,14410,9952,25343,25751,19526,25736,384,17534,25734,25755,25750,25779,19531,25776,18414,1704,25760,25764,50,25741,25743,4408,7992,25774,25771,25740,25756,25753,25778,25746,25777,25762,25770,241,19551,25768,25763,25738,25757,19518,25742,25747,25769,25767,25765,25772,25759,25754,25783,25781,25784,25766,25780,25739,25744,25773,7973,25749],"class_list":["post-59311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-around-the-outside-attempt","tag-asia","tag-ayrton-senna","tag-battling-teammates","tag-brutal-blow","tag-canada","tag-canadian-grand","tag-catastrophic-gearbox-failure","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-cold-tyres","tag-decision-making-time","tag-eastern-asia","tag-engineering-set-up","tag-final-chicane","tag-florida","tag-formation-laps","tag-george-russell","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gilles-villeneuve","tag-grand-prix","tag-grands-prix","tag-italian-teenager","tag-japan","tag-lando-norris","tag-lewis-hamiton","tag-lineball-call","tag-luck-turns","tag-luxury-problem","tag-max-verstappen","tag-meaningless-assumption","tag-miami","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-mid-season-break","tag-minas-panagiotakis","tag-montreal","tag-no-score-disaster","tag-non-points-grand-prix","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-numbers-game","tag-one-two-finish","tag-painful-realisation","tag-papaya-rules","tag-pessimistic-post-race-remarks","tag-pit-wall","tag-podium-finishes","tag-pole-positions","tag-positions-multiple-times","tag-power-unit-failure","tag-quebec","tag-race-engineer","tag-reconnaissance-laps","tag-riccardo-adami","tag-runaway-championship-leader","tag-russell-ragesformula","tag-safety-car","tag-safety-car-timing","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-second-place-finishes","tag-set-up-options","tag-silver-papaya-rules","tag-single-race","tag-sky-sports","tag-so-called-papaya-rules","tag-straight-race-victory","tag-sudden-stop","tag-teenage-gun","tag-television-viewers","tag-title-lead","tag-title-leading-teammate","tag-topscoring-team","tag-tyre-decision","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-world-championship-hopes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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