George Russell schooled by Mercedes teammate, as rivalry heats up

Life is often about learning lessons. Some come the hard way. And on a circuit on which he has hitherto been dominant, George Russell came away not with a bunch of crucial World Championship points but some very painful “learnings” after a gripping Canadian Grand Prix on Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

In the Sprint Race on May 23 he learnt that his upstart teammate Kimi Antonelli may be only 19, but he is a very fast and feisty young man. And that he doesn’t shut up when he is unhappy with the on-track treatment meted out to him, especially by a teammate.

But Russell won that one. And he believed that he could win the Grand Prix on May 24 too, even though it would start on a track that was still slightly damp in places after morning rain. But he learnt first-hand that an assumption he had made after turning across Antonelli in the Sprint, that you cannot overtake on the outside of the left-handed Turn 1, prior to the right-handed Turn 2 that swiftly follows was, in fact, erroneous. You can. And fittingly it was Antonelli who demonstrated that.

Once McLaren’s folly in starting on intermediate Pirelli rain tyres had been exposed as Lando Norris fell from a stunning first-lap lead and made an early pit stop to switch to the soft dry-road rubber the Mercedes had started on, Antonelli led Russell. Then he overshot Turn 14 on lap six, handing Russell the lead. But on lap 21, in an electric race, Antonelli slipstreamed his teammate all the way past the pits before pulling off the outside overtake in Turn 1 that had been thwarted the previous day.

Later, when he had regained lead but been forced into retirement by a battery pack problem on lap 30, Russell may also have witnessed second-hand that such a move was indeed possible, assuming his red mist had evaporated.

Just as it seemed the dramatic pep had gone out of the best race so far in the 2026 season, when misfortune had struck the Englishman, leaving Antonelli to score a fourth consecutive win, Act Two began. Lewis Hamilton, delighted with the work he and his new race engineer Cedric Michel-Grosjean had done on his Ferrari’s chassis set-up, grabbed an early third place but later lost it to hungry nemesis Max Verstappen in his improved Red Bull.

On the soft rubber in which both teams had started, the Dutchman had the advantage. But after they switched to the medium tyres, Hamilton began to come back hard against the man who had so controversially prevented him from winning an eighth World Championship in Abu Dhabi in 2021. Another dramatic battle ensued, which saw Hamilton overtake Verstappen on the 62nd lap by repeating Antonelli’s move on Russell.

And though Verstappen came back and hassled him all the way to the chequered flag, Hamilton’s most convincing performance since joining Ferrari in 2025 saw him score his first podium for the Scuderia on a day when teammate Charles Leclerc was left a whopping 32.8sec behind the Red Bull, having been challenged by Frenchman Isack Hadjar.

It’s relatively rare that a Grand Prix’s main action is up the front to quite such an extent with such passing and repassing and that’s what made this far and away the best race so far under the controversial 2026 regulations. Undoubtedly it has truly ignited the Antonelli-Russell rivalry that threatens to make Hamilton versus Nico Rosberg look mild.

I’m reliably informed that Mercedes’ management was looking at means of separating their drivers a little while trying not to disadvantage either, but having nobly let them race, team boss Toto Wolff said later: “It’s not always easy to watch your cars battling as they were in the early stages, but it was great racing. It was maybe a little too close for our comfort at times but both George and Kimi raced hard but fair.

“We had the pace advantage that we were still able to maintain the gap over the chasing pack and that was important. I am sure we will see many more exciting races like this over the year ahead.”

If so the FIA may want to mandate that a supply of oxygen or smelling salts should be on hand for the faint-hearted, because this one was a genuine humdinger and the next time both Mercedes are likely to go the full distance, running wheel-to-wheel. And that’s a truly mouth-watering prospect.