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Motorsport

Filip Cleeren

Winners and losers from dramatic F1 Canadian Grand Prix

George Russell Kimi Antonelli F1 Franco Colapinto Alex Albon Lewis Hamilton Oscar Piastri McLaren Alpine Lando Norris

F1's annual visit to Quebec is rarely free of drama or controversy, but by bringing the Montreal race forward in the year May put the race's fate in the laps of Canada's weather gods more than ever. But despite the cold conditions and the threat of rain which never really materialised, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve served up an absorbing spectacle with duels across the top six, and a costly retirement which may change the face of the 2026 title battle.

Loser - McLaren

The prospect of F1 2026's first wet-weather race kept several teams up at night, but as drizzle persisted throughout race morning, the skies cleared up right at the start of the race. That caught out several teams, with McLaren the main offender as its advantageous starting position meant the choice for intermediate tyres on both cars was quite the gamble.

While capitalising on a grip advantage at the start to leap into the leader, third-starting Lando Norris soon had to put, as did Oscar Piastri, who already had misgivings about the team's choice in the formation lap.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and the two extra formation laps didn't help McLaren as they further negated any early advantage the team could have had. But then things went from bad to worse when Piastri clattered into Alex Albon and Norris disappeared from the race with a mechanical failure, ensuring McLaren would finish outside the points. A weekend to forget, although the team will have been somewhat encouraged by its performance relative to Mercedes.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren (Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images)

Winner - Kimi Antonelli

Antonelli keeps prompting revisions to the history books after being the first-ever driver to open his win account with four consecutive grand prix wins. The 19-year-old continues to impress this year with his maturity, you don't need us to tell you that. But what's especially intriguing is to see that process take place in real-time.

This week's class in his crash course on how to become a world champion taught the teenager what it will be like racing his team-mate wheel-to-wheel this year. In Saturday's sprint, Antonelli appeared surprised at how forcefully Russell defended his position, which after the streak Antonelli is on should not be a surprise. There was no such naivety on Sunday as he and Russell traded the lead in an absorbing duel, only for Russell to drop out with engine trouble.

Loser - George Russell

That now opens up a 43-point gap in the standings, which shifts the tide toward Antonelli on a circuit that is one of Russell's favourites. It's still very early with 17 rounds to go, as last season's title battle showed us. But 43 points is starting to exceed the "nice to have" bracket and feels significant as early as May.

Russell did what he had to do by winning the sprint, and he was leading Antonelli when he disappeared from Sunday's race. So, given the momentum that had been swinging towards his younger team-mate, you can understand his crestfallen response as he threw away his headrest, an action he apologised for and for which he was handed a suspended 5,000 euro fine.

George Russell, Mercedes (Photo by: Brett Farmer / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Winner - Lewis Hamilton

Amid all the hoopla around how much simulator work Lewis Hamilton does or doesn't do, it turns out his best two results of the year have come in China and Canada - two weekends Hamilton decided to forgo a virtual prep round. That doesn't mean Hamilton doesn't do any sim work at all, as he often heads in post-weekend to review what he could have done better, such as after Japan where he wasn't deploying his energy as well as team-mate Charles Leclerc.

A man with two decades of F1 experience and seven world titles probably knows what works for him by now, and he certainly figured out what worked in Montreal as he came out on top what he hailed as an enjoyable cat-and-mouse game with Max Verstappen.

This is probably the best - and the happiest - Hamilton has looked in red.

Loser - Alex Albon

When your season has been derailed by a troubled development and production schedule that left the team on the back foot, you sometimes just need a lucky break. In Canada, the opposite happened with Alex Albon, who suffered an unfortunate encounter with a groundhog on Friday and was taken out of the race by Oscar Piastri at the hairpin.

Given the high attrition in Montreal, that robbed Albon of a clear-cut scoring opportunity to add to his two points collected in Melbourne and Miami.

Albon's 2026 season feels cursed right now, but the silver lining is that he's going through it while the Williams team is struggling for pace before planned aero development and weight savings arrive to improve the car.

Franco Colapinto, Alpine (Photo by: Andrej Ivanov / AFP via Getty Images)

Winner - Franco Colapinto

Whether it is down to Alpine's upgrades or not, whatever team Enstone has done to make Franco Colapinto more comfortable in the 2026 car has worked, as he backed up a career-best seventh in Miami with another career-best sixth in Montreal.

Team-mate Pierre Gasly struggled, for reasons which Alpine is still looking into, although attrition still allowed him to bank points on Sunday. In contrast, Colapinto has been firing on all cylinders and that's despite only doing one lap of free practice in Canada's sprint weekend, which put the Argentine on the back foot. Having said that, the 22-year-old was lucky to get away with going off at pit exit on cold hard tyres and tapping the barriers.

Coming into the year, it felt like Colapinto was going to be on a short leash with team advisor Flavio Briatore. Over the month of May he has built up some much needed credit heading into the European part of the season.

Speaking to us after the race, team boss Steve Nielsen summed it up best: "I can't pretend I know what's changed with Franco, but whatever it is, let's keep going..."