Antonelli takes a decisive step in Montreal's all-action thriller

Relentless. Breathless, to the point of suffocation. Prognostications of chaos were shared between the Formula 1 drivers in the event that rain affected proceedings in Montreal, yet the heavier downpours had concluded long before the race was due to begin. The Canadian Grand Prix stayed dry, but pandemonium nonetheless persisted. 

Where one battle ended, another popped up somewhere else. An enthralling fight for the lead, one that carried shades of the tete-a-tete between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg back in 2014, was cut down in its prime when George Russell's powertrain decided that the excitement was too much for one day. No fear; Hamilton was scything away at the gap between he and Max Verstappen's Red Bull, as the Dutchman struggled for pace with cold tyres in a chilly Canadian afternoon. 

If that's not pure racing, what is?

Kimi Antonelli's duel with Russell was a scintillating battle of wits, one that ebbed and flowed as both drivers succumbed to pressure and sought to capitalise on their team-mate's momentary lapses at will. It seemed that Antonelli had learned something from Saturday's sprint race, where his attempt at a one-and-done move on Russell at Turn 1 came to nought; although he maintained that he was entitled to a bit more breathing room at that corner, he might have wagered that discretion was the better part of valour in retrospect. He had the chance to do it all again.

That's not to say that the battle between the Silver Arrows didn't get occasionally tetchy. One such side-by-side play, when Russell was looking to retake the lead at the end of the 24th lap, almost ended in tears as the two touched wheels at the final chicane to prompt Antonelli into taking to the run-off. He duly had to hand the place back to Russell, who then proceeded to weather the storm for the next few laps.

Understandably, there were squeaky bums on the Mercedes pit wall as they watched the two cars get far too close for comfort. Both drivers had to be read a milder version of the riot act over the radio and were told to tone it down, lest the next piece of contact take a more sinister turn. It never got to that point; by the time Antonelli had charged up his battery, cooled his tyres, and prepared for the next assault, Russell's engine died. 

"I loved [the battle]. I thought it was great," Russell reflected in the aftermath. "And, you know, I've not had a battle like this in years. I haven't seen a battle like this probably since Lewis and Nico in Bahrain 2014. And these new cars allow you to do that. These new engines allow you to do that. I don't know why anybody wants to change them, because we had amazing battles in Melbourne. We had great battles in China. Kimi and I have had a great battle today and yesterday, and that's only possible because of how these power units are. So, yeah, that's my viewpoint.

Hip and shoulder: Antonelli and Russell battled valiantly for the lead

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"We know how we need to race and, as I said, I think we both had it under control and it was great. I really enjoyed it, personally. It was exceptionally difficult, this circuit, to break that one second overtake mode. You were gaining about half a second, about six tenths, probably, including the slipstream on the lap, so it was very difficult to break. But the setup of the overtake mode, the boost, it works and that's great."

Antonelli concurred. "Yeah, it was a tough fight. I think a couple of times was maybe a little bit on the edge, but we were going at each other. We were going at each other. We were both pushing and we both wanted to win.

"I think for everyone watching it was pretty entertaining. So definitely, I think the stint was a lot of fun because we were both pushing on the limit and going for it."

"I haven't seen a battle like this probably since Lewis and Nico in Bahrain 2014. And these new cars allow you to do that"
George Russell

Even without rain, the elements left an indelible mark on the race; the wind had picked up, with gusts around Turn 10 that made it very difficult for the drivers to brake predictably. Russell might have drawn the short straw a bit here, coming off worst with a couple of moments at the hairpin that opened the door for Antonelli. Yet, the Italian had his own shortcomings here, facilitating the continued push-me-pull-you fight for supremacy. 

It also helped that the tow down the back straight, augmented with the overtake mode, was also incredibly strong. Verstappen and Hamilton discussed the phenomenon in the cooldown room, in which Verstappen's advantage was hoovered up by Hamilton, but the Red Bull managed to stick with the Ferrari in the dying stages of the race. The leader attempted to deploy energy in the first half of the lap to build a gap but, if they hadn't crept beyond the one-second buffer, could be susceptible to a fight-back on the back straight. 

"I think at the end of that stint I had a little bit of the upper hand because I had a little bit more pace, I think," Antonelli contended. "He had a bit more pace initially, but then he degraded a little bit more, but it would have been very close. And of course, it was not good to see him having the failure because as I said, it would have been a very intense fight all the way until the end."

With the unrelenting skirmish at the front of the field, it had become a mere footnote that Antonelli had overlapped Russell at the start. The two were arguably blindsided by the emergence of a fast-starting Lando Norris, who had been deigned to continue with the intermediate tyres at the start. Threats of rain before lights-out were nothing short of empty, and McLaren had put all of its chips on having a go with the inter despite protestations from the drivers on the trio of formation laps - the loss of two laps prompted by Arvid Lindblad's stranded Racing Bulls car on the grid.

McLaren's choice of intermediates helped at the start...but hurt its afternoon tremendously

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It was as if McLaren wished for the lead on the monkey's paw. Norris had given the Mercedes pair a real run for their money in qualifying, and had matched them for pace across Saturday's sprint race; with the softer intermediate tyre, Norris leapfrogged the pair of them and fired up his treaded Pirellis much faster than the cars behind. Yet, it was inevitable that he and Oscar Piastri, who had ceded a place to Hamilton at the start, would have to pit sharpish. And thus, McLaren's miserable afternoon was set into motion.

Norris had an off at Turn 3 when attempting to close down Alex Albon, clipping a hunk of grass into his radiators and causing his engine temperatures to spike. He'd carved his way into the top 10 by the time the first virtual safety car appeared (produced by his team-mate's clumsy clash with Albon), had to pit for an impromptu radiator clear-out and took another set of tyres in the process, but was slowly working his way towards rescuing something from the weekend. Not having to stop under the Russell-induced VSC helped, but there was one more - terminal - twist in the tale: Norris' gearbox emitted its dying breath, a visceral crunch, and his car limped to rest behind the marshal's post at the Turn 10 hairpin. 

In the meantime, Piastri picked up a 10-second penalty for his contact with Albon. In attempting to make speedy progress in Norris' wake, the Australian found himself having to contend with a midfield scrap between Pierre Gasly, Albon, and Oliver Bearman. At the end of the 12th lap, Piastri outbraked himself and stabbed Albon's sidepod with his nose, ending the Williams driver's day on the spot and costing the McLaren driver a nosecone. By the time he served his penalty late on, even the most distant hopes of a point had since evaporated. 

McLaren might have looked at the battle between the Mercedes pair and wondered if it may have interloped; instead, the call for intermediates was a complete waste of time. Even with Russell out of the picture, Antonelli might have come under pressure from Norris to pick up from their Miami duel. But that's ifs and buts; it's just as likely that the brace of orange cars might have been left behind.

At the time of his demise, Russell was leading. This is where the retirement stung; having been on-track to whittle seven more points out of Antonelli's championship lead, his non-score now puts him 43 points behind his team-mate after just five rounds. Bigger championship leads have been closed down, just ask Verstappen, but the Briton has significant ground to make up on his younger team-mate. 

Antonelli sits in the pound seats, then, but is understandably refusing to give the championship a second thought. "I'm not thinking about the championship. I'm just focusing on race by race. I think it's still very, very early to talk about that.

"And of course, now I have this gap, but that doesn't mean that I can relax and just take it easier. Instead, I need to keep levelling up and keep raising the bar because it's not going to be easy and competitors are getting closer and also George is super, super quick. And so definitely, I'm just going to try to focus on myself and enjoy the driving and trying to really drive as fast as possible."

Past and future: Hamilton congratulates his Mercedes successor on a fourth straight win

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While there were ragged moments in Montreal, the Italian teen tidied up his driving when it mattered most. There's a very real difference between him and Russell; Antonelli might have a small edge in outright pace, but he's a bit more raw compared with his more polished team-mate. How Antonelli develops, and how Russell responds, will be a significant point of interest across the next few rounds.

The majority of the field used the Russell VSC to get their pitstops done which, in previous races, had killed the momentum; Australia's season opener, for example, had developed into a more prosaic affair when the Mercedes pair employed the hiatus in green-flag running to get their stops in.

If anything, it livened the race up once again in Canada. The battle for the lead was over, granted, but the top five's shift to the medium tyres changed the dynamic once more - due in part to the cold conditions. Verstappen struggled to warm up his tyres, owing to the lack of high-load corners around the Ile Notre-Dame island, which allowed Hamilton to cut the 7.7-second arrears post-stop as his Ferrari had been able to maintain the critical temperatures in its mediums. Antonelli spoke about the "weird" behaviour with the tyres - again, a function of a very unique circuit; the Ferrari seemed to have the right amount of mechanical load for Montreal. 

"I have this gap, but that doesn't mean that I can relax and just take it easier. Instead, I need to keep levelling up and keep raising the bar"
Kimi Antonelli

The eventual overtake was splendid, Hamilton pulling out a vintage move on Verstappen at Turn 1 as a topper for a very strong weekend in Montreal. Although the Dutchman did not rest in his attempts to reclaim second, hoping that Hamilton would hit strife with traffic (and very nearly did with Gabriel Bortoleto at Turn 10), the Ferrari just about had enough in reserve to deliver Hamilton's best result in Rosso Corsa. 

Hamilton put this down to the preparation beforehand, in which he revealed on Thursday that he chose to avoid driving in the simulator entirely. "I chose a different setup this weekend through just cyphering through the data, working really well with my engineer [Carlo Santi]. He's absolutely awesome, and I'm really loving working with him. And my number two did a fantastic job this weekend and helped me really pull more performance out of the car, getting into a much sweeter place, and I was able to attack all the corners finally.

"And as I said, there's a lot of changes that I've had to ask for, and Fred [Vasseur]'s been super supportive in also moving mountains in order to make me comfortable, and it's finally starting to show in my performance."

And so, there was an opportunity to take a breath after 68 laps of relentless, no-holds-barred racing. If you just put the engine chatter to the back of your mind and take F1 at face value, this had everything: it tested driver skill, commitment, and tickled the right neural receptors when it came to the visual spectacle. One might ask for more, but Monaco's next...

Hamilton and Verstappen enjoyed their battle for second

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