By Mark Gero
Geroge Russell came into this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix weekend needing to regain his composure against his Mercedes teammate, and on Saturday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the Briton held off both second place McLaren and defending world champion Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli to take his second sprint win of the season.
“It was a cool race. It was difficult to get a gap, the slipstream was quite powerful. Good battle with Kimi, glad we are both standing here after the race,”
Lewis Hamilton managed to stay strong in fourth place until his Ferrari was passed by the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth, and then was edged out at the finish line by teammate Charles Leclerc for fifth. Hamilton ended up taking sixth. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had a quiet race to take seventh, while the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad picked up the last point.
Russell jumped out in front of Antonelli, who had a poor start, and continued to lead halfway through the event, until the Italian began to close in and it began to be a battle between the two Mercedes drivers. It came to the point where the two touched at the first corner, putting Antonelli wide after the 19-year-old tried to pass from the outside. All this fighting between the two gave Norris the advantage of closing in, and with Antonelli’s tyres going nearly worn and flat-spotted from already not once but twice going off the circuit after tussling with not only Russell but Norris, that finally gave Norris the chance to pass Antonelli and take second.
Russell, with only a few laps remaining, opened the gap and went on to take the checkered flag to pick up eight points with still the race to be run on Sunday, not to mention later Saturday, the chance to take pole position, for qualifying, on a circuit that the Briton can do well on.
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