Canadian Grand Prix: Russell on pole with Verstappen alongside
Update:
Date: 18:06 BST
Title: Hadjar hit with three-place grid penalty
Content: Carlos Sainz was furious with his Q1 exit on Saturday and instantly flagged to his Williams team he had been the victim of "massive impeding" during the scrap to make it through to Q2.
The offending car was Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar, who was given misinformation by his pit wall that Spaniard Sainz had already aborted his lap when the two cars came across each other in the first sector.
After qualifying, the stewards found Hadjar guilty of impeding so the Frenchman will now drop down the order from P9 to P12, promoting Alex Albon, Franco Colapinto and Nico Hulkenberg.
Update:
Date: 18:03 BST
Title: Get Involved - celebrate your F1 dad
Content: WhatsApp on 03301231826, #bbcf1 on X or email f1@bbc.co.uk
Happy Father's Day to all the dads who got us into Formula 1. We love you and we're glad you picked this sport and not [insert sport you dislike here].
If you want to give your dad a mention on the page, send us your messages via WhatsApp on 03301231826, use #bbcf1 on X or email f1@bbc.co.uk.
And if today is a tough one for you, first of all, here's a big virtual hug. But if you would like to send us your memories of why your F1 dad was so great, please do.
Update:
Date: 18:00 BST
Title: Canada: Race day
Content: Lorraine McKennaBBC Sport Journalist
Hello, folks. Montreal is buzzing for round 10 and what a day we could have in store.
George Russell and Max Verstappen have had their differences on and off the track and now the two drivers are starting side by side on the front row at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve for today's 70 lap race.
The Canadian Grand Prix gets underway at 19:00 BST.
Qualifying was a thrilling fight for pole position on Saturday with Russell snatching glory out of the hands of world champion Verstappen. Behind the pair, title leader Oscar Piastri lines up in third and the other Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli gets to show off his rookie talent from fourth place.
Harry Benjamin and McLaren Formula E driver Sam Bird are breaking down the big talking points from yesterday's session on the Chequered Flag podcast, so listen below as we go along.
This video can not be played
Harry Benjamin & Sam Bird reflect on qualifying at the Canadian GP.
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BBC News
16 minutes ago
- BBC News
Norris 'made a fool' of himself in Piastri collision
Lando Norris said he "made a fool" of himself in colliding with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in the Canadian Grand 25-year-old Briton ran into the back of Piastri as they battled in the closing stages of the race, and Norris' mistake has left him 22 points behind the Australian in their fight for the with use of the DRS overtaking aid giving him a straight-line speed advantage, clipped the back of Piastri's car as he tried to grab the inside line into Turn Piastri had not left the space for the move to come off. Norris' front wing and right-front wheel hit the back of the rival McLaren and broke his suspension. Piastri was able to continue without said: "I didn't expect to pass Oscar on the outside into Turn One. It's just, I should never have gone for it, I guess is my complete hindsight thing."I thought he was starting to drift a little bit to the right, so I thought I had a small opportunity to go to the left. But it was way too much risk, especially on my team-mate."So, happy nothing happened to him. I paid the price for my mistake."The incident followed more than a kilometre of close racing between the team-mates, which McLaren have pledged to allow to continue this season. Norris has 'a lot of regret' Norris had dived for the inside at the hairpin and briefly grabbed the position as both were challenging Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli for the final podium position behind winner George Russell's Mercedes and Max Verstappen's Red cut back on the exit, and they ran side by side down the long back straight, with the Australian on the inside. Norris braked earlier on the outside for the final chicane, to give himself a cleaner run through the corner and faster exit on to the pit was terrific, clean, respectful racing, of the kind McLaren have been demanding from their drivers this season. Until it went said: "Our rule number one is to not make contact with your team-mate and it's what I did. McLaren is my family. I race for them, you know, every single weekend. I try and do well for them, more than I often try and do well for myself."So, when I let them down like this and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, yeah, I have a lot of regret."I've let down the team. So, that's going to stay with me for a little while. But at the same time, part of moving on is trying to put it behind you and crack on with the next weekend."Norris had no realistic option but to accept fault, but that does not always make a difference with racing drivers. And his decision to do so immediately defused any tension there might have been as a result of the said: "Lando is a very good guy, and it's in his character and in his personality to say exactly what he thinks. And if that's detrimental to himself, or if it's about himself, then it doesn't matter for him. And I think that's a great quality of Lando."It's good for the whole team going forward that we can have these conversations and go racing like this and have things not go the way we want, and get through them."Both men minimised the importance of the difference this had made to the gap between them in the championship, which is more than double what it was going into the race, but still with 14 races left and only 10 said: "Plenty more races left. I don't expect it to be easy. I don't expect to catch him easily. But I have to work hard for it and make less mistakes than I did this weekend." 'No doubt' McLaren support Norris McLaren are taking a mature, sporting and open approach to the fight between their drivers, based on a philosophy of fair competition. They have been saying all year that they considered it a question of when not if they were involved in an was in this spirit that team principal Andrea Stella took the situation."We never want to see two McLarens having contact," he said. "This is part of our principles. We saw it today."This is just a result of a miscalculation, a misjudgment from a racing point of view, which obviously should not happen, but at the same time is part of racing."And we did appreciate the fact that Lando immediately owned the situation. He raised his hand, he took responsibility for the accident, and he apologised immediately to the team. He came to apologise to me as team principal in order to apologise to the entire team."On this one I want to be completely clear; it's full support to Lando. We will have conversations and the conversations may be even tough."But there's no doubt over the support we give to Lando and over the fact that we will preserve our parity and equality in terms of how we go racing at McLaren between our two drivers."The situation would be different if Lando had not taken responsibility and apologised."In the heat of the moment, that looks like the worst disaster ever. But in reality, the strength of being racers comes from having a strong culture." Where does Norris go from here? Taking a step back from the immediacy of the drama, the bigger concern may be what it says about Norris and his state of mind - and raise questions as to what to do about has not been an easy season for Norris so far. He was very much McLaren's leading driver last year. He was the one who took a semblance of a title fight to Verstappen in the closing stages of the the expectation that McLaren would continue their strong form in the second half of last year into this, Norris was the championship favourite going into the the form between the two McLaren drivers has switched. Piastri has been the more convincing. He has five wins to Norris' two. He is ahead 8-4 on their qualifying head-to-head. And Norris has been making mistakes, particularly in has been saying all year that a lack of feel from the front axle of the car has been affecting his ability to predict its behaviour when taking it to the limit on one Canada, McLaren introduced a small tweak to the suspension geometry, around where the upper wishbone meets the front wheel, in an attempt increase feel. Stella said there were "no downsides from Lando's point of view", and Norris ran it all weekend. Piastri felt he didn't need it and continued with the original was probably the quicker McLaren driver in Montreal - he did a stunning lap on used tyres to progress beyond the first part of qualifying. But he again over-drove when it mattered, making mistakes on both of his laps in the final session, and ending up seventh on the said after qualifying that Norris had "just tried too hard", and pointed out that on his final lap he was on target for pole before brushing the wall at Turn Seven."The speed is there," Stella said on Saturday evening. "We just have to polish the fact that sometimes you sort of have to accept that you can't always go 100%, especially when a little mistake can be so costly."Stella has emphasised that McLaren have been working with Norris on his difficulties this the race, he was asked what more they could do to get him into the right headspace, if that was indeed the problem. But he said he did not see a connection between Norris' wider issues and the specifics of the collision in Canada."At the moment I wouldn't say that that's the reason why there was a misjudgment today," Stella said. "I think this is too long a shot in terms of correlating these two events."Definitely there will be good conversations, but they will happen once we are all rested and calm."Lando himself will have to show his character to overcome this kind of episode, make sure that he only takes the learnings, he only takes what will make him a stronger driver."
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Canada winner Russell 'driving better than ever'
George Russell says he feels like he's "driving better than ever" after winning his first race of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver, who started on pole, held the lead from Max Verstappen at the start and controlled the race from that point. It was the Briton's first victory since Las Vegas in November and fifth podium of the 2025 season. Verstappen's Red Bull team have lodged a protest over Russell's driving behind the safety car in the final stages, following Lando Norris' collision with McLaren team-mate Oscar 27, also started on pole in Montreal last year but could only finish third."It feels a bit of a redemption compared to last year because I was really disappointed with my performance last year and we should have won," he told Sky Sports."It was my mistakes that let the team down but I'm in a different place right now and I feel like I'm driving better than ever. I felt pretty chilled throughout the whole race."Russell has been with Mercedes since the 2022 season and is out of his contract come the end of the season. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff suggested it was only a matter of time before a new deal is said: "The ambience in the team is great and we've agreed on some kind of timeline when we want to settle these things, with triple headers getting out of the way and one race after the other in June and July but we're going to get there." Antonelli becomes third-youngest podium finisher It was a successful day all round for Mercedes with 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli finishing third for his first podium in Formula – at 18 years and 294 days old – becomes the third-youngest podium finisher of all time behind Max Verstappen and Lance fourth, he overtook championship leader Oscar Piastri at the start and dealt with pressure from the Australian in the closing stages of the race."It was so stressful but super happy," Antonelli said. "The last stint I pushed a bit too hard behind Max and I killed a bit of the front left and I struggled a bit at the end, but I'm really happy to bring the podium home.""This track has been good for us and the car has been incredible all weekend. Hopefully we can carry the same momentum into the next few races."Russell said Mercedes performed so strongly at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve because a "smooth" track and "low-speed" corners suited the characteristics of the on the calendar is Austria from 27-29 June and the Red Bull Ring will be a very different challenge to Montreal."It's going to be on old tarmac, more high-speed corners and it's going to be hot as well," Russell said."We've got three things working against us. I'm not going to sit here and say Mercedes is back because we were the quickest team here last year but we didn't win the championship. We know where we need to improve."
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Hamilton lost performance after hitting groundhog
MONTREAL, June 15 (Reuters) - Ferrari blamed a groundhog strike for wrecking Lewis Hamilton's Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, with the seven times Formula One world champion saying he was devastated to have killed the animal. Hamilton finished sixth at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc, and complained over the radio at one point that he was "nowhere in the race". Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur confirmed the car had hit a groundhog after about eight or nine laps and suffered floor damage equating to about 20 points of downforce, or half a second a lap. Hamilton was some 22 seconds behind Leclerc before a safety car at the end bunched up the field again. "We will send flowers to the marmot (groundhog)," said Vasseur. Hamilton, a vegan and the sport's most successful driver of all time, was more upset. "I was managing the tyres well. I was feeling optimistic. I didn't see it happen but I heard I hit a groundhog," he told reporters. "That's devastating because I love animals and I'm so sad about it," he said. "That's horrible. It's never happened to me before. "The right side of the floor has a hole on it and all the vanes are done." Groundhogs are a regular hazard at the Montreal track, which is on an artificial island in the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
