Antonelli wins fourth straight at Canadian GP, leads by 43

Kimi Antonelli extended his championship lead with a fourth consecutive victory at the Canadian Grand Prix. The win — his fourth straight from the start of his F1 career — left him 43 points clear after five races, making him the first driver to win his opening four Grands Prix in succession. The result underlined Mercedes’ strong pace and points advantage in the constructors’ battle but heightened pressure inside the team over intra‑team battles and mechanical reliability, issues that could decide the title fight. The weekend featured tense wheel‑to‑wheel duels between Antonelli and team‑mate George Russell. Russell had sprint pole and won the Sprint, but Antonelli clipped him in that Sprint, forcing Russell onto the grass. In the Grand Prix the pair swapped the lead repeatedly in a roughly 30‑lap scrap. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff intervened over the radio during the weekend and again in the race, ordering the drivers to “tidy up” and warning the team would step in if intra‑team battles threatened results. Antonelli said maintaining “respect” and handling borderline incidents internally was vital for a title fight and cited the 2016 Hamilton–Rosberg feud as an example he did not want repeated. Russell acknowledged Antonelli’s advantage, saying, “Right now, it’s [Antonelli’s] to lose,” and that he had “nothing to lose.” The duel ended when Russell stopped on lap 30 with a mechanical failure variously described as a power‑unit, battery or engine problem, removing him as an immediate challenger and clearing the way for Antonelli to run untroubled to the flag. Antonelli finished 10.7 seconds ahead, with Lewis Hamilton second for Ferrari and Max Verstappen third — Verstappen’s first podium of the season. With 17 race weekends and 449 championship points still available, Mercedes’ pace gives them the upper hand in the constructors’ battle, but mechanical reliability and tight team management will be decisive as the season continues.