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Lewis Hamilton delivered a breakthrough performance for Ferrari at the Canadian Grand Prix, finishing second after deliberately avoiding Ferrari’s Maranello simulator and staging a dramatic late outside pass on Max Verstappen at Turn 1. Hamilton started fifth, passed Oscar Piastri at the first corner and was overtaken by Verstappen earlier in the race, but strong pace on the medium tyre and careful use of overtake mode and battery power let him close from about seven seconds back to within a second with 13 laps remaining. He completed the decisive move on Lap 62, held off Verstappen to the chequered flag and described the chase as something he “loved,” calling the overall result “awesome.”

The FIA stewards handed George Russell a suspended €5,000 fine after he threw his car’s headrest onto the track following his retirement from the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The stewards said Russell breached ISC Article 12.2.1.h, and the fine will remain suspended for 12 months provided he commits no similar breach during that period. Stewards reviewed video evidence, heard from Russell, accepted his apology, noted he was embarrassed and recorded that he offered to apologise publicly.

Russell had been leading the race when a sudden power unit failure forced him to stop around the mid-point, with accounts placing the stoppage on lap 30 and at various locations including Turn 8, Turn 9 and the second chicane on the grass. Witnesses reported Russell angrily threw his headrest and slammed his gloves as he left the cockpit. Mercedes later confirmed the issue was a power unit/module or battery failure, with team principal Toto Wolff citing an electrical/module problem.

Russell had earlier taken the Sprint win at the event and had been engaged in a tight intra-team duel with teammate Kimi Antonelli in the Grand Prix. Antonelli inherited the lead after Russell’s retirement and went on to win the race, extending his championship advantage to 43 points. The stewards also opened procedures over formation-lap concerns involving Liam Lawson and Nico Hülkenberg, considering stop-and-go penalties that they judged disproportionate and suspended under ISC Article 12.4.6, with both drivers starting from their correct grid positions.

McLaren’s decision to start both cars on intermediate tyres at the Canadian Grand Prix backfired when rain eased during the formation laps, undermining the call and prompting early pit stops and complaints from both drivers. Lando Norris briefly led into Turn 1 from his starting position but pitted for slicks on Lap 2 after the formation-lap rain eased, while Oscar Piastri pitted at the end of Lap 1. Piastri later locked up and collided with Alex Albon, ending Albon’s race and damaging Piastri’s front wing; he was handed a 10-second penalty and was classified 11th. Norris stopped on Lap 40 with an apparent gearbox failure after an earlier pit stop on Lap 15 for a suspected reliability issue. Both McLaren cars finished out of the points, leaving the team scoreless in Montreal.

McLaren made a late decision to revert to its previous-spec front wing for sprint qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix after the updated front-wing design failed to deliver the expected gains in practice. Technical director Neil Houldey said the new wing “wasn’t quite delivering,” and that switching back to the prior wing restored driver confidence and unlocked better performance. Team principal Andrea Stella described the U-turn as a conservative, data-driven choice to avoid introducing an unproven element mid-weekend and said the team needed more time to evaluate the wing’s behavior, adding that McLaren remained “three tenths off” pole while Mercedes had brought meaningful upgrades.

Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had tested the new front wing in Free Practice 1, with Norris running it early and Piastri trying it later, but Friday running was limited after both drivers had excursions onto the grass under braking and posted P6 and P7 in FP1 respectively. McLaren elected to run the older front-wing specification for the sprint session to keep the car predictable for the short-format event; Norris qualified third in the sprint ahead of Piastri in fourth, behind sprint pole-sitter George Russell. Norris described the new front wing as “a bit more questionable,” and warned Miami-derived parts might be track-specific, while Piastri said more work was needed to match Mercedes, who remained the benchmark.

The reverted wing formed part of a broader second-phase upgrade programme that began in Miami, with McLaren bringing a seven-part package to Montreal that included a new front wing, a reprofiled engine cover with different cooling exits, a new halo fairing, revised suspension fairing and rear wing endplates, and tweaks to the floor-edge wing. McLaren framed the changes as an iterative technical progression intended to build on Miami momentum rather than a one-off tweak, and said some elements of the new wing might be reintroduced either next weekend or at the Barcelona round after further assessment and more running.

On Tuesday morning, Alain Prost, 71, the four-time F1 world champion, suffered a minor head injury during an armed home robbery at his villa in Nyon, near Lake Geneva. Masked intruders in balaclavas entered the house, threatened family members and forced a family member — reported to be Prost’s son — to open a safe at gunpoint before fleeing with stolen goods. Swiss tabloid Blick and prosecutors said Prost was visibly shaken; he has since left the lakeside residence and traveled to Dubai.

Authorities described the incident as a serious burglary and assault and opened a criminal investigation. Vaud Cantonal Police launched a major search; investigators included canine, regional, security and forensic units, an ESU psychological support team, the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security and the French gendarmerie, notified amid concerns that suspects may have crossed the nearby border. Prosecutors compiled an inventory of items taken; the value or contents of the safe have not been confirmed, and no arrests have been announced. Authorities say the case fits a wider pattern of robberies targeting F1 figures and comes against a backdrop of increased home invasions in the Lake Geneva region — 18 similar incidents were recorded in Geneva in 2025. Investigations continue to identify and arrest the perpetrators.

Analysts concluded Mercedes’ W17 has exploited a loophole in the technical rules to produce a superior power unit and hybrid delivery. That has given Mercedes a straight-line and usable-energy advantage over Ferrari that has been apparent since Australia. Customer teams running Mercedes power units, notably McLaren, have also benefited.

Detailed Montreal telemetry showed how the advantage translated on track. In sprint qualifying George Russell set the pace with a 1:12.965 lap; Lewis Hamilton was 0.361 seconds slower at 1:13.326. Russell reached a top speed of 333 km/h versus Hamilton’s 330 km/h and hit 300 km/h about 11 metres earlier. Overlay and speed‑trace comparisons showed stronger exits and higher top speeds for Russell, while Ferrari kept the edge in medium‑speed cornering and chassis rotation. Hamilton suffered electrical deployment fade and battery depletion on his final runs and aborted a Q3 lap after the rear stepped out at Turn 9. Analysts estimated Ferrari’s usable‑energy deficit cost roughly 0.3 seconds of lap time; the pattern was visible in the Sprint as well.

The gap has already reshuffled the pecking order. McLaren moved ahead of Ferrari after its Miami upgrades, helped by the Mercedes power unit. Data reports and multiple outlets have focused on deployment and straight‑line power differences rather than driver error. Analysts say Ferrari will need hardware upgrades or clever strategy to recover if the trend continues; energy‑deployment management and setup/packaging trade‑offs are likely to be decisive. A wet‑race forecast for race day could still reshuffle the order.

Charles Leclerc endured what he called “one, if not the worst weekend of my career” at the Canadian Grand Prix after persistent tyre and brake problems left him unable to feel or trust his Ferrari. He said he had not had a single lap since FP1 where he could truly feel the SF-26, repeatedly failed to get the tyres into their operating window, was “really struggling” with brakes and warned over the radio he might “end up going straight” into corners or “put it in the wall.” Leclerc described sliding through qualifying, called the weekend a “nightmare” and said he would analyse how to better “switch those tires on.” He recovered in the Sprint to finish fifth.

Ferrari identified a persistent brake-balance issue and said engineers have a working hypothesis. The team said it would carry out a focused investigation into driver-specific and hardware factors, including operating temperature windows, pad material, migration settings and potential brake-by-wire inconsistencies. Engineers cautioned they were uncertain whether a fix could be applied before the Sprint and Grand Prix qualifying sessions and warned that unresolved brake problems could make it “a very long weekend.” Ferrari brought no upgrades to Montreal, with immediate fixes limited to setup compromises or part swaps and further updates targeted for Barcelona.

On track, Lewis Hamilton beat Leclerc in Sprint Qualifying and topped SQ1, and Hamilton qualified fifth for the Grand Prix while Leclerc qualified eighth. Leclerc was held up by a McLaren in the Sprint even as he showed stronger medium-tire pace, and team principal Frederic Vasseur pointed to colder track temperatures and a one-step harder compound as factors that made it harder to get brakes and tyres into the right window, an effect he said affected Leclerc more than Hamilton. The situation left Ferrari balancing urgent technical troubleshooting with preparing both cars for the remaining race sessions.

George Russell clinched pole position for the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, producing a decisive final-lap 1:12.578 in qualifying to edge Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 0.068 seconds and give Mercedes a front-row lockout. Russell had earlier topped sprint qualifying and won the 23-lap Sprint, finishing 1.272 seconds ahead of Lando Norris, with Antonelli third. McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will occupy the second row, Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth and Max Verstappen sixth. The 22-car starting grid released after qualifying is provisional and remains subject to FIA ratification and any penalties.

Mercedes arrived in Montreal with a large upgrade package and dominated the weekend running, topping practice, Sprint Qualifying and the main qualifying session as upgrades and setup changes reshaped the pecking order. Friday’s lone practice was heavily disrupted by red flags and incidents that limited clean running, including Alex Albon striking a groundhog and other stoppages, which compressed teams’ preparation time. Russell said setup tweaks made to cope with forecast rain initially unsettled the car before he produced his late Q3 lap, and Mercedes confirmed it had discussed rules of engagement between its drivers after the Sprint.

Rain is forecast for Sunday and teams warned it could complicate the Grand Prix. Max Verstappen said rain could create “chaos,” and officials and teams are considering measures to manage low-grip running because the new high-torque 2026 power units can spin rear wheels in wet conditions. The FIA has discussed possible restrictions on Straight Line Mode and Boost Mode in the wet, and only a handful of drivers have prior experience in 2026 cars in rainy conditions. Teams must adapt strategy, and changing weather and potential FIA interventions could be decisive for Sunday’s race.