Russell Dominates 2026 Canadian Sprint

George Russell dominated the 2026 Canadian Sprint Race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to trim his title deficit. 

Russell led from lights to checkered flag amidst two near-collisions with Andrea Kimi Antonelli who ran wide twice on Lap 6, of which the latter error saw him drop to third behind Lando Norris but couldn’t recover second.

Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc both cleared Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to finish fourth and fifth respectively ahead of the Brit, whilst Max Verstappen and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top eight finishers.

Antonelli’s title lead was trimmed slightly to 18 points over Russell, whilst Leclerc remain third but now five points clear of Norris.

At lights out, Russell led Antonelli and Norris but Piastri was passed by Hamilton for fourth on the outside of Turn 2 whilst the rest of the top ten held position.

Hadjar however suffered a brief power unit issue on lap 5 which dropped him to last position in the order.

Up front, Antonelli tried to pass Russell round the outside of Turn 1 on lap 6 but got nudged wide across the inside gravel trap, which caused him to slide across Turn 2 but Russell timed his braking into the latter corner to avoid contact.

Antonelli then got nudged wide by Russell at Turn 8 and lost second on the exit of Turn 9 to Norris as a consequence, which led him to request a penalty for Russell and led Mercedes’ Team Principal – Toto Wolff to get onto the team radio to tell him to focus and stop complaining.

Russell eventually kept Norris at bay in a British one-two finish ahead of Antonelli whilst Piastri and Leclerc passed Hamilton on the final lap, whilst Verstappen and Lindblad completed the top eight finishers.