{"id":19398,"date":"2026-05-24T22:45:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T22:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/19398\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T22:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T22:45:06","slug":"italys-antonelli-claims-canadian-grand-prix-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/19398\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s Antonelli claims Canadian Grand Prix victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Kimi Antonelli of Italy makes a turn during the Canadian Formula One Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on May 24.Adam Hunger\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Formula One leader Kimi Antonelli charged to victory in a wild Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, claiming his fourth-straight race win after teammate George Russell exited due to engine failure.<\/p>\n

The title-chasing Mercedes drivers put on a show in a thrilling battle through 30 laps, trading the lead several times and coming dangerously close to making contact, until disaster struck for Russell.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Brit threw his headrest across the track and slammed his fists into the front of the car before leaving the circuit, whipping his gloves to the ground in rage.<\/p>\n

That gave Antonelli a clear path to victory ahead of Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton, who overtook Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen for second with six laps to go under cold and windy conditions at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.<\/p>\n

Sports fever grips Montreal as Habs playoff run, Canadian Grand Prix converge<\/a><\/p>\n

A 19-year-old Italian sensation, Antonelli joined multi-time world champions Fernando Alonso, Hamilton and Verstappen as the only active drivers to win four consecutive races.<\/p>\n

He opened up a 43-point lead over Russell in the drivers\u2019 standings through five of 22 stops this season.<\/p>\n

Hamilton earned his best result since joining Ferrari last year, while Verstappen reached the podium for the first time this season.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s exit marked a nightmare end to an otherwise stellar weekend for last year\u2019s winner in Montreal, who took Saturday\u2019s sprint race for pole and also started first on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc finished fourth, followed by Red Bull\u2019s Isack Hadjar, Alpine\u2019s Franco Colapinto and Racing Bulls\u2019 Liam Lawson.<\/p>\n

Alpine\u2019s Pierre Gasly, Williams\u2019 Carlos Sainz Jr. and Haas\u2019 Oliver Bearman filled out the top 10.<\/p>\n

McLaren started with both drivers in the second row but Landon Norris was forced to retire from a gearbox issue on Lap 40. Teammate Oscar Piastri placed 11th after a team decision to start on intermediate tires backfired.<\/p>\n

It was spitting rain much of the day as temperatures hovered around 14 C, but the inclement weather subsided before the race.<\/p>\n

Norris flew from third to first off an exciting start on a drying track, only to switch tires three laps in. That ceded the lead to Antonelli, who\u2019d also moved past Russell following the pole-sitter\u2019s poor start.<\/p>\n

Russell regained the lead on the seventh lap with a clean overtake as Antonelli nearly hit his teammate from behind after his wheels locked up, rolling off the track.<\/p>\n

The fighting continued into Lap 12 as Antonelli advanced to first, only for Russell to re-take his position before fending off multiple overtake attempts on Lap 17.<\/p>\n

Antonelli successfully pulled it off on the 22nd lap, but Russell again charged back into the lead when Antonelli veered off course two laps later. The exchanges persisted until Russell\u2019s engine blew out.<\/p>\n

The Mercedes drivers had gone head-to-head all weekend in the fastest cars on the grid, with Russell edging Antonelli by 0.068 seconds in both the sprint and race qualifying sessions.<\/p>\n

Tensions reached a tipping point early in Saturday\u2019s sprint race when they made contact on Antonelli\u2019s overtake attempt, as Russell kept his line and forced Antonelli into the grass. Antonelli lost his cool over the team radio, calling the move \u201cvery naughty\u201d before demanding a penalty.<\/p>\n

Stewards did not investigate the incident, but Antonelli had the last laugh on Sunday and extended his championship lead.<\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s Lance Stroll, the lone Canadian on the 22-driver grid, finished a season\u2019s best 15th after starting the race from the pit lane as six drivers retired.<\/p>\n

The Canadian GP took place weeks earlier than its traditional mid-June slot as part of an F1 calendar designed to reduce travel.<\/p>\n

The race intersected with a Canadiens playoff run for the first time, with bleu-blanc-rouge colours blending with Ferrari red and McLaren orange downtown and across the paddock, creating an especially vibrant atmosphere in the city.<\/p>\n

Some 360,000 fans, including FIFA president Gianni Infantino in a Canadiens jersey, attended the three-day event, with spectators braving the rainy weather to fill the grandstands on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The prestigious Monaco Grand Prix, set for June 7, is next on the F1 circuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Kimi Antonelli of Italy makes a turn during the Canadian Formula One Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4293,4283,4294,1188,4276,1557,147,4275,4288,4289,4285,4277,4274,1131,4292,1294,4287,201,4305,4278,4279,3297,5,4284,1815,1333,4295,4281,4300,4301,4303,4298,4302,4296,4299,4280,3867,4291,356,4290,4297,3869,1138,614,4286,4282,243,4304],"class_list":["post-19398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-italy","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}