How Russell absorbed Verstappen pressure – on- and off-track – to rise in the True North

Inevitable? McLaren thought so. Formula 1’s rich tapestry of days of yore is punctuated by moments of clashes between title-hunting team-mates, and McLaren certainly has its own subsection devoted to that very problem. Senna-Prost, Hakkinen-Coulthard, Hamilton-Alonso… it’s no wonder that Zak Brown and Andrea Stella surmised that their current charges would invariably come to blows on-track.

So it came to pass on the 67th lap of the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix. Lando Norris put his nose somewhere it didn’t belong: between Oscar Piastri and the outside of the pitwall. It was, as was remarked by race winner George Russell in the cooldown room, starkly reminiscent of the time McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button encountered the same issue back in 2011.

Unlike that year's rain-affected race in Montreal, it did not precipitate the survivor’s unlikely victory. Instead, it merely cemented Russell’s first win of 2025, one where the Mercedes driver soaked up more than a few token volleys from the chasing Max Verstappen – he had to face a series of barrages as the four-time champion chomped at the bit to take control of the race.

And even when Russell had things sewn up, crossed the finish line, and collected his winner’s trophy, Verstappen and Red Bull offered one final obstacle by protesting the Briton’s victory for two apparent incidents behind the late-race safety car. And yet, as the stewards’ document demonstrated, Russell had an answer for that too – nothing was going to stop him from clinching victory in Canada.

First stint: Verstappen fades after all-in opening laps

Attempting to gazump Russell off the line wasn’t Verstappen’s opening salvo, as the polesitter got the stronger start. Instead, his opening gambit was subsequently unleashed in the initial flurry of laps to put Russell’s early lead under significant pressure.

Where the Briton might have preferred to sit out in front and clear his early race management duties, Verstappen wanted to ensure that his sparring partner wasn’t simply going to slink off down the road with the requisite one-second DRS buffer. Instead, he turned the screw to test Russell’s resolve. In the opening four laps, Verstappen coerced Russell into taking more out of his tyres and attempted to employ the Red Bull’s straightline speed, aiming to make use of the back straight as an overtaking zone.

The Dutchman had praised the efficiency of the RB21 after qualifying as the Red Bull team trimmed out the rear wing to gather extra pace; it might have compromised the car in the corners, and this was where Russell had crucially made ground in qualifying, but the top-end speed and acceleration was marginally stronger on Verstappen’s car.

All the attention of Russell vs Verstappen into Turn 1 came to nothing - but the battle focus quickly turned to the long game

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An initial difference of six tenths became five after those four tours, but Russell managed his corner exits well to gather enough traction to stall out the DRS progress. This did for Verstappen after the end of lap five, and he had to call for a retreat as he’d burned up too much of the medium tyres’ life.

And the tyre degradation had ensured that the strategies were borderline. Pirelli predicted pre-race that it would be more prudent to pursue the two-stopper, although the chance of DRS trains in the midfield did lend credence to the idea of a one-stop in the interests of gaining track position. But this was not an arena that the leaders wished to duel in, hence Verstappen’s profligacy with his tyre life early on.

Russell weathered the early storm, leading Verstappen to begin slipping back into the clutches of Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Italian teenager, in his first weekend racing at the Montreal circuit, looked like a seasoned veteran in the opening lap in brushing championship leader Piastri aside.

It was aggressive from Red Bull to pit so early, but it was the move that later ratified his second place; his stop forced Russell to respond a lap later, and two-laps' worth of an undercut on the brand new hards made sure he’d got the jump on Antonelli

Having maintained the outside into Turn 1 and converted that for Turn 2’s inside line, Antonelli stayed alongside Piastri – who'd hung on around the outside – and picked a later braking point for Turn 3 to muscle past for third.

And, while he’d been more circumspect in the opening approach as Verstappen pushed Russell along, it was starting to pay dividends as he started to catch the back of the Red Bull.

Verstappen slipped back into a series of 1m16.5s-7s, at which point Antonelli halted a two-second gap and reversed the arrears. Caught in the black hole of fading tyres, Verstappen was sucked into a battle with Antonelli that he was unable to win; when passed by the Mercedes driver with DRS, he immediately took refuge in the pitlane to collect the hard tyre at the end of lap 12.

Stopping early proved beneficial for Verstappen keeping ahead of Antonelli and later lining up his pressure on Russell

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

It was perhaps aggressive from Red Bull’s strategy department to pit so early, but it was arguably the move that later ratified his second place; his stop forced Russell to respond a lap later, and two-laps' worth of an undercut on the brand new hards made sure he’d got the jump on Antonelli once their first round of stops was concluded.

Second stint: Russell builds a break over Verstappen

Once more, there was the inkling of a threat from Verstappen at the start of the stint, although Russell had enough in hand to overcome this as the Red Bull was less dainty on its rubber at higher fuel loads.

But Russell explained afterwards that he was largely unconcerned by the Red Bull slowly appearing microns larger in his mirrors with each passing lap; instead, he simply put this down to the effect of dirty air from Charles Leclerc who, like Norris, was running to an off-set strategy. After the two qualified out of position, they’d taken a chance on starting with the hard tyre – but were soon homing into Russell’s view.

“It was a bit challenging at points when you had Charles and Lando on the offset strategy,” Russell noted after the race, “and they were kind of getting in our way. But as soon as I had clear air, I could comfortably pull the gap out. It wasn't dead easy, but I felt confident in myself and the car.”

This was less of a problem at this juncture and, indeed, Verstappen had managed to close to ‘only’ within 1.5s of Russell before the Norfolk native rounded Leclerc. With a bit of respite from the reigning champion, now that there was a Ferrari between them, Russell reinstated a two-second gap – and then had the run of the place once Norris stopped on lap 29.

From here, the lead was able to swell; Russell had surpassed the five-second mark seven laps later, again throwing Verstappen to the sharks… or, at least, Antonelli.

Verstappen didn’t fancy being passed again, and knew hanging it out for another lap would be much more difficult to protect against given Antonelli’s pace; in the preceding three laps, the Bologna-born racer had been 0.6, 0.8, and 0.7s quicker per lap. Rather than allow himself to be overtaken, Verstappen pitted once more for his final set of hard tyres at the end of the 37th lap.

Once Russell was in clean air after Leclerc and Norris pitted, he was abl to pull away from Verstappen again

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This was a set that he ended up being much more comfortable on but, given Russell’s advantage at the top of the order, Mercedes had no reason to respond with its lead driver. Thus, Antonelli was brought in for his own final service afterwards – and a mighty in-lap to counter Verstappen’s swift out-lap brought the two neck-and-neck on the pit exit.

It was the warmer tyres on Verstappen’s car that nullified Antonelli’s bid to stay ahead into Turn 3, thus proving to be the culmination, and vindication, of Red Bull’s “attacking” pit strategy – per Verstappen.

Although Verstappen was reasonably speedy on his new boots, he knew he couldn’t afford to cane it with 30-odd laps still to go. This allowed Russell to prolong his stint for another four laps before eventually calling in. Although he'd lost a smidgen of time in the pits owing to a slow on-time for the left rear, he still had over three seconds in hand.

"The gap wasn't that big towards George, and I never really felt like I had the pace to do anything. It was more about just looking in the mirror, trying to maintain that gap" Max Verstappen

Third stint: Verstappen renews challenge, Norris commits racing’s cardinal sin

As traffic, the later-stopping Norris and Leclerc were of little concern as they’d made their final stops long before Russell was due to reel them in. Instead, other traffic had helped to nibble away at Russell’s advantage, something that had allowed Verstappen and Antonelli to close in – bringing Piastri with them. At the same time, Verstappen had turned up the wick and was soon into the low 1m14s, while Russell was at the higher end of that bracket.

Just as Russell had lost about half a second trying to lap Franco Colapinto, Verstappen was keen to take advantage and cut the gap to just 1.1 seconds, angling for a late-race change of fortune with DRS. But the traffic giveth, and the traffic taketh away; a recalcitrant Esteban Ocon helped Russell soak up the earlier damage and start to rebuild his advantage.

Despite that, Verstappen maintained that he was more concerned about Antonelli, who had got to within two seconds of his tail. “I think the last pitstop, I was a bit worried if I was going to make it to the end competitively because on the hard tyre in the second stint, I was already struggling as well,” he said.

Antonelli was full value for his maiden grand prix podium, and kept Verstappen under constant pressure

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

“I think just a lighter fuel load helped a bit. But the gap wasn't that big towards George, and I never really felt like I had the pace to do anything. It was more about just looking in the mirror, trying to maintain that gap, try to look after my tyres to not overstress them.”

In chasing Verstappen, Antonelli had perhaps overcooked his tyres, which left him incredibly susceptible to Piastri behind. A few tilts with DRS did not aid Piastri’s cause, however, and their own experiences with traffic rather brought Norris into the mix.

Russell had escaped from Verstappen, but there was still a race on for third – much to Antonelli’s chagrin. But did a masterful job of scything his way through the lapped runners, also perhaps fortunate with their positioning over the lap, while Piastri’s encounters with the midfielders rather came at the wrong time.

This ensured that Antonelli could spend a few laps without Piastri bearing down on him with his rear wing open, giving Norris the opportunity to put a statement move on his team-mate.

Norris, initially, tried to be circumspect; hence his reluctance to lob a move down the inside of Piastri at Turn 13 with DRS. Thus, he couldn’t make the incisive pass happen, and the Australian soon had DRS again once Verstappen had permanently dropped Antonelli, the Mercedes’ tyres now distinctly second-hand.

In stark contrast to his meek approach at Turn 13, Norris dropped the divebomb on Piastri at the end of lap 66 at the hairpin, bringing the two side-by-side along the back straight – and, thanks to Antonelli’s position up the road, both with DRS.

Norris had the outside for the chicane, the less favourable line, and tried to hook the car through the last corner to get another run on his team-mate. This was the moment that proved terminal; he opted for the inside line along the start/finish straight, one Piastri was defending, and left his nose in. Grass, contact, gasps ensued; Norris was out on the spot.

Norris misjudged his move on Piastri and was out on the spot

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Epilogue: Safety car shenanigans spark Red Bull's 'inadmissible' protest

Usually, that’s where the story would end, and we’d drink our cup of Ovaltine and go to bed. The race finished under the safety car, thus locking in Russell’s win.

But it was not so. Behind the safety car, Russell backed off slightly to warm his brakes and this caught Verstappen – who was jockeying behind him – unaware. As such, Verstappen very briefly overtook Russell, before normal service was resumed. Nothing was heard of that incident immediately after the race, nor did it appear on the race directors’ notices that it was of sufficient interest to review.

Red Bull then submitted a protest; firstly, on the grounds that Russell was indulging in gamesmanship to effectively get Verstappen sent off, and secondly with the suggestion that Russell was too far behind the safety car.

Russell contended that slowing down to get temperature into the brakes was normal, that he’d looked in his mirrors (Red Bull contended this was part of Russell’s dastardly scheming) to check Verstappen wasn’t immediately behind, and that he was also having to juggle the delta on his steering wheel

A lengthy wait had begun for the verdict, as the FIA cleared out a backlog of investigations that amounted to naught – except, humorously, by adding five seconds to Norris's DNF time for avoidable contact.

After hours of waiting, the protest was deemed inadmissible by the stewards. Russell had contended that slowing down to get temperature into the brakes was normal, that he’d looked in his mirrors (Red Bull contended this was part of Russell’s dastardly scheming) to check Verstappen wasn’t immediately behind, and that he was also having to juggle the delta on his steering wheel.

Russell’s team radio corroborated this, and the final kicker was the telemetry that showed both drivers were using similar levels of braking to keep their discs up to temperature.

And so, we had confirmation of a result we’d seen about five hours before. Now, who at Red Bull do we bill for the hours of sleep we’ve lost?

It was taken to the stewards' room, but Russell successfully kept hold of his Canadian GP win

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images