16th June 2025

2025 Canadian Grand Prix: Troubles For McLaren as Mercedes Take a Double Podium

A third of the way through the 2025 Formula One season, we headed to the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. It was the home Grand Prix of Aston Martin’s driver, Lance Stroll.

From Saturday’s qualifying, Mercedes driver George Russell grabbed pole position from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who held second place on the grid. This was just like last year, where both drivers were in the exact same position with the exact same time. Alpine driver Pierre Gasly and VCARB driver Liam Lawson, both started from the Pit Lane. Their teams charged their Power Unit Components under Park Ferme conditions.

On the opening lap, Russell maintained his lead, whilst his teammate Kimi Antonelli overtook McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, to take third place. From lap two, Verstappen kept Russell in his eye sight to try and get first place, whilst some of the drivers decided to be in management mode, thinking of their tyres and fuel levels.

On lap 11, Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso and Mclaren driver Lando Norris were frighting for sixth place, which Norris got in the end. Verstappen was the first driver to go to the pits on lap 13, as he knew that Antonelli was going to overtake him eventually and had already got close. Verstappen emerged from the pits in ninth. Russell pitted on lap 14 in reaction to Verstappen’s pitstop. Antonelli pitted just after this, attempting to keep the gap to Verstappen at bay.

Some drivers were trying to do a one stop strategy, while others kept the two stop strategy normal for this track.

Image Credit: formula1.com

The yellow flag came out on lap 49, for Williams driver Alex Albon who was suffering from a Power Unit issue. He retired from the race due to this issue. Lawson, also having Power Unit trouble retired on lap 56. Stroll was given a ten second time penalty for pushing another driver off the circuit.

On lap 67, Norris was told he could fight Piastri for fourth, and overtake where able. Both cars had DRS so this was a tight battle. The McLaren’s touched, causing Norris to lose his front wing. He retired from the race due to this, and triggered a Safety Car due to the debris from the crash. Some drivers took a ‘free’ pit stop during the Safety Car. The race finished under the Safety Car, with Russell, Verstappen and Antonelli making up the podium. Antonelli became the third youngest driver to get a podium in Formula One.