The winners and losers from F1’s 2025 Canadian Grand Prix

The site of many a spectacle in the past, the 44th running of F1’s Canadian Grand Prix wasn’t a blockbuster, with polesitter George Russell never looking like losing the race. But a frantic midfield battle offered plenty of talking points, as did Lando Norris. 

Winner: George Russell 

Mercedes still struggles in the heat, so it was hoping for a Canadian cold front to provide cooler conditions than the Catalan heat. The milder temperatures certainly helped as George Russell snared pole with the lap of his life, but even as track temperatures picked up on Sunday, Russell was as good as nailed on for his first win of 2025. 

Russell never really had to break a sweat to fend off any strategic challenges from Max Verstappen, and the win further extends an excellent and consistent run he has been having in 2025, mainly interrupted by less competitive weekends from the team that were beyond his own control.

The championship may be a three-way fight between the McLarens and Max Verstappen, but Russell is now closer to Verstappen than his Dutch rival is to Lando Norris.

Loser: Lando Norris

And that is despite Norris’ best efforts to keep the door open for Verstappen by wasting a fifth and potential fourth place by clumsily clattering into team-mate Oscar Piastri.

The seed for his ill-fated weekend was planted with seventh place in qualifying after making mistakes on his laps, which came despite having been more comfortable with the feel of his McLaren MCL39 in qualifying trim.

Norris had then been one of the quickest, if not the quickest, driver in the race, fighting his way back up on an alternate strategy that saw him start on the hard tyres. But all that work came undone by driving into the back of Piastri while chasing a gap that didn’t really exist in the first place, with Piastri fortunate to finish without damage.

Norris deserves credit for immediately owning up to his mistake, but he does need to stop making so many of them. Piastri isn’t making nearly as many errors, and it is looking more and more like that will be the deciding factor in this year’s championship.

Winner: Max Verstappen

You could forgive Max Verstappen for being driven mad by the incessant questions over his race ban threat, but it was a valid talking point ahead of the weekend. But the best response is always delivered behind the wheel, and Verstappen had a rock solid, clean weekend, beating both McLarens on a circuit that theoretically should have favoured the papaya team.

Verstappen’s Red Bull didn’t quite have enough performance to hang onto Russell, but he did beat the other Mercedes to stay in second, which was simply the best possible result on offer. Faultless stuff.

Loser: Ferrari

Never a dull moment in Ferrari land, with Fred Vasseur tackling the Italian media on Friday over rumours about his future before another weekend of mixed on-track fortunes. Charles Leclerc should have probably qualified near the front row but was only eighth, suffering a big twitch in dirty air that he took the blame for.

Leclerc then delivered a solid race, but disagreed with his team on strategy and felt confident he could pull of a one-stopper, before being pulled in early to put on another set of hards – consigning him to a nailed on two-stopper. It was a risk-averse move all but ensuring he would be stuck in sixth rather than throwing the dice to see if a bigger result was on the table.

Lewis Hamilton went in the other direction, qualifying a solid fifth, which lifted his spirits, before suffering another dreadful race. In his defence, Hamilton appears to have encountered a very unfortunate groundhog in his path, which the team says cost him at least 20 points of downforce worth of damage.

Not Hamilton’s fault, but the end result is yet another disappointing Sunday, which is starting to make his Ferrari tenure feel like Groundhog Day.

Winner: Andrea Kimi Antonelli 

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the third-youngest podium finisher in F1 history, and he did so in style. His qualifying lap wasn’t spectacular, but still good enough for fourth, which became third after a well-judged first lap melee that saw him move ahead of Piastri’s McLaren.

The 18-year-old Italian then kept the pressure on Verstappen for second, and momentarily edged ahead before the world champion’s pitstop, but pushed so hard trying to get the Dutchman that he started overcooking his tyres. That led to pressure from Piastri behind instead, but Antonelli held firm to secure his maiden podium. 

Yes, Mercedes’ upturn in form on the cooler Circuit Gilles Villeneuve played a big role, but Antonelli’s rock solid race performance was the perfect way to bounce back from a fraught triple-header during which the youngster clearly struggled. 

“I had massive goosebumps. That is definitely a moment I will remember for a very long time,” Antonelli said. Good lad. 

Loser: Williams 

If Spain was expected to be an off-kilter weekend for Williams, then Canada was one where the team should have been able to strike back. It did look on course to do so in practice, but took a massive step backwards in qualifying that puzzled its drivers, who wondered if the change in wind direction had upset the FW47’s delicate balance. 

The Williams cars looked quicker in the race but came undone in other ways. Alex Albon lost three positions on lap one when he went through the grass while fighting Franco Colapinto. Then, his team hung on too long to an ambitious one-stop attempt that saw him sink down the order, much to his displeasure. An engine failure capped a dreadful day. 

Sainz was eventually promoted into 10th after Norris’ exit, but had to come from too far back after being impeded in qualifying. Judging by the team’s flashes of race pace, this was a missed opportunity. 

Winner: Fernando Alonso 

Alonso and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg – the last remaining drivers on the lead lap – both deserve a mention. Hulkenberg opportunistically moved up after the seas parted in front of him on lap one, but at the end it was the 43-year-old veteran who landed the best of the rest spot in Canada with seventh. 

With Aston Martin’s upgraded performance over the triple-header, the real Alonso also re-emerged. While the Spaniard is not someone that will easily lose motivation, it’s amazing how much a small change in performance can lift his spirits, going from chippy responses over his car’s lack of performance in April to being his real combative self again, taking the fight to the other midfield teams. 

It’s a real contrast with his team-mate, who seemed disconnected with or without hand injuries and was ultimately just slow. 

Loser: Racing Bulls 

After a couple of excellent weekends, Racing Bulls found itself on the wrong side of the midfield again. That was largely down to its grid slots, with Isack Hadjar qualifying ninth but then receiving a grid penalty for slam dunk impeding. Team-mate Liam Lawson was out in Q1 after not being able to get the tyres in the operating window. 

After suffering from graining on the medium tyres, Hadjar allowed himself to be undercut by rivals and then got stuck in a DRS train, with the VCARB 02 simply not having enough pace to break free. Lawson started from the pitlane after adding a new power unit to his pool, but had to retire with overheating concerns. 

It was a weekend to forget for the team, as Aston Martin, Sauber and Haas all scored – the latter now equal on points with Racing Bulls. The team will now want to find out why it wasn’t competitive in Montreal this year compared to 2024, when it qualified fifth and finished eighth with Daniel Ricciardo.