‘We were lucky not to crash’: Sparks fly in Russell and Antonelli clashes

George Russell won the Canadian Grand Prix sprint race from lights to flag to put his championship challenge back on track, but that barely tells the story of a scintillating 23 laps of racing.

The first quarter indicated a dull Mercedes procession, as within five laps Russell and his team-mate Kimi Antonelli were already three seconds clear of the next best. It had all the early indicators that Mercedes might run away not just with a Montreal one-two but with the championship courtesy of their impressive upgrades this weekend.

And yet what followed was a race which lit the first real sparks in the pair’s inter-team battle as well as hinting at Mercedes frailties which suggested McLaren, at the very least, might take the fight to them after a difficult start to their title defence.

This Montreal sprint may yet prove a key chapter in how the 2026 championship is remembered. Twice in quick succession, Antonelli tried to make a move on Russell on lap six, both times coming off the track and coming off ­second best.

First, the Italian teenager attempted to go around the outside into turn one but Russell closed the door, the pair banged wheels and Antonelli went off moments later decrying it as “very naughty” over the team radio.

There was a repeat at turn eight with something of a carbon copy of the first incident, thereby igniting the inter-team title fight and suggesting Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff may now have a job on his hands in how he navigates his drivers’ relationship.

Antonelli laughably called for a penalty against his team-mate, which clearly rankled among the team’s hierarchy, and when effectively told to calm down by his race engineer Pete “Bono” Bonington he simply said: “I don’t care, he pushed me off”.

That brought Wolff, acting like a school headmaster, on to the airwaves to tell his young charge to “concentrate on the driving and not the radio moaning”. It was the F1 equivalent of a slap on the wrist.

Up to this race, Antonelli has been something of the team’s and sport’s golden child, winning the last three races and suggesting he was a genuine championship challenger with recently acquired superior pace.

And yet this shortened race, in which he went off track for a third time late on in trying to wrestle second place from McLaren’s Lando Norris, highlighted both his inexperience and the exuberance of youth. He even came on the radio again during the slowing-down lap to complain, prompting another intervention from Wolff, who said: “Kimi, we talk about this privately, not on the radio.”

Following the race, Antonelli had appeared to calm down somewhat, striking a conciliatory tone: “To be fair, I was quite well alongside, and there was definitely contact, so I need to recheck that. It was hard racing,” he said, before adding in less placatory spirit: “Of course, we’re both lucky not to crash, but at the end of the day, it was still a very fun race.”

The Mercedes team debrief would clearly have been the place to be last night where the team would have aired their laundry less publicly.

For Russell, the result was vital. He has seen his position as team leader and championship favourite threatened by his young and hugely talented pretender. And he showed all his maturity in the way he navigated both the threat of his teammate and latterly from Norris.

He did his best to play down any rancour by calling it “a cool battle with Kimi” while observing he was pleased both had made it to the end of the race in one piece. Having faced a challenge that he was about to be usurped by a teenager, he said he was “never really concerned” and, while that didn’t feel entirely true, he drove like it.

After their tussle with Antonelli dropping away, Russell might have expected to cruise to the line in his upgraded Mercedes with a revised front wing and floor among other developments – a race later than most of their rivals – but that never materialised. Instead, he struggled to get the required heat into his front tyres so struggled initially for grip and with graining on his rear left.

For a time, it felt like Norris might even pull off a surprise win with a late passing manoeuvre, but Russell held firm.

And the way it all played out paves the way for a captivating full grand prix on Sunday.

Photograph by Mark Sutton – Formula 1 via Getty Images