McLaren Teammates Tangle Late in Canadian Grand Prix, George Russell Wins Behind Safety Car

Yahoo

8 hours ago

George Russell and Mercedes captured their first win of the 2025 season Sunday afternoon in Montreal under the safety car following a late crash between McLaren teammates battling outside of a podium finish. Russell was leading Max Verstappen at the time of the incident.
This is Russell's first win in Canada and fourth of his career.
Russell and Verstappen entered this race weekend on shaky ground after their collision in the Spanish Grand Prix, which led to Verstappen's three penalty points putting him one point away from a race ban.
'George suddenly, just aggressively braked,' Verstappen said.
Russell told the Mercedes pit wall that Verstappen had overtaken him under the safety car with two laps to go, and the stewards ruled that Russell was ahead before the caution flag waived.
"It's now showing Russell winning, pretty basic," Christian Horner told Max Verstappen. "Just don't fall for the gamesmanship, thank you."
With Verstappen on the verge of a ban, the Red Bull team principal wants to keep his driver as cool as possible, with just one race remaining.
Kimi Antonielli captured his first podium of his career after starting fourth and staying competitive with the best racers in F1 throughout a tightly battled grand prix. Antonielli becomes the third youngest podium finisher in F1.
While the tension between Russell and Verstappen has been building over races, the same can be said about Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, as much as they deny it as the two teammates closely battle for the top spot in the WDC.
With four laps remaining in the Canadian Grand Prix, Piastri and Norris were battling for fourth. Coming to the first turn, Norris made a bold attempt to pass, putting himself into the wall.
Norris quickly went to his radio to claim the blame for the incident with his teammate.
'Yep, I'm sorry it's all my bad, all my fault. Unlucky, scary, stupid from me,' Norris said over his team radio following his collision with Piastri.
The F1TV booth made comparisons between the crash between McLaren teammates and one of the infamous incidents between Will Buxton and Lewis Hamilton at the same track in 2016.
With Piastri holding on to his fourth place running order and Norris falling to 18th due to causing the crash, he loses 10 points in the championship standings.
The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and sixth behind Piastri.
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