Kimi Antonelli captured his fourth consecutive victory of the 2026 season on Sunday at the Canadian Grand Prix, officially securing first place for Mercedes while Lewis Hamilton took second for Ferrari and Max Verstappen finished third for Red Bull. The 19-year-old Italian driver crossed the finish line 10.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton with a final time of 1:28:15.758, solidifying his control over the Formula 1 World Championship.
The decisive shift in the race materialized on Lap 30 at Turn 8 of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Antonelli and his Mercedes teammate George Russell spent the early stages of the 68-lap contest locked in an aggressive wheel-to-wheel duel, trading the lead multiple times and briefly banging wheels on Lap 24. That intra-team fight abruptly collapsed when Russell suffered a sudden power unit failure while leading the field. The 28-year-old British driver pulled off the track and threw his headrest from the car in frustration, ending his race and dealing a severe blow to his title fight.
With Russell removed from contention, Antonelli controlled the remainder of the afternoon under cold and windy conditions. Following a Virtual Safety Car deployment, Antonelli maintained a clean pace at the front to cross the line untouched. Speaking to reporters after the race, Antonelli admitted the victory was “not really the way I wanted to win” because of the tight fight with Russell, though the result officially pushed his championship lead to 43 points over his teammate.
Behind the Mercedes leader, Hamilton delivered his strongest performance since joining Ferrari, executing a pass around the outside of Verstappen at Turn 1 on Lap 62 to claim second place. Verstappen finished third to secure his first podium appearance of the 2026 season, while Charles Leclerc took fourth for Ferrari and Isack Hadjar finished fifth for Red Bull.