Mark Hughes: The fastest Mercedes F1 driver? It was too close to call in Canada

“Is this how we’re going to race?” asked an angry Kimi Antonelli on the slow-down lap of the sprint in which he’d been shown the Turn 2 grass by winning Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Actually, yes. It was. Toto Wolff got his drivers together in the sprint aftermath and essentially told Antonelli he couldn’t expect presents from his team mate, that a 50/50 move around Turn 1-2 in Montreal didn’t entitle him to anything.

What followed in the grand prix the next day was truly mesmerising for the first 30 laps as the pair brawled no-holds-barred even while leaving the rest of the field behind.

Who was quicker? Too close to call. Who won his fourth consecutive race? Antonelli. Who dropped 43 points behind after a power unit failure while leading? Russell. Antonelli is just walking on water at the moment. Sprint aside, things just keep going right for him.

Mercedes’ superiority was probably exaggerated in the grand prix by the choice of McLaren to start both its cars — which occupied the second row — on inters on a dry track with just the lightest of drizzle. Had it rained just a little more they’d have conceivably won the race. Instead, it was a disaster. There was a Lando Norris cameo — he used the better warm-up of the inters on a frigidly cold track to scorch into the lead at the start before being forced to pit for slicks on the second lap — but Mercedes was always the dominant force here.

Which, given that it had a major upgrade which worked well and that McLaren removed a major part of phase 2 of its upgrade (the new front wing), it made it feel like confirmation of a straight Antonelli-Russell title fight. Sure, Ferrari has a possible ADUO power unit boost to come and Lewis Hamilton was in sparkling form all weekend here, taking a terrific fighting second which included a revenge late pass on Max Verstappen after the Red Bull had got ahead of him early in the race. And we have Monaco next, where Ferrari is hot favourite, given the quality of its chassis and the reduced importance of its power deficit. But realistically, Montreal surely confirmed 2026 is Mercedes all the way?

Or was this just standard Montreal, which always rewards great tyre warm-up, something in the Mercedes DNA? As Norris said after qualifying within 0.15sec of them: “Mercedes always performed very well here, as a standalone event. Even last year when we were here, we probably quite easily had the best car [of the season] and Mercedes were still on pole. So, they’ve always just done very well on this type of track. With them bringing upgrades, of course, we thought it would be tough to beat them. And the fact we’re not using some of our upgrades, I think we’re very surprised to be even this close. A lot of good signs. It’s nothing bad. It’s a lot of positives considering we’ve not been able to extract everything out of our upgrades just yet. It shows that there are still good things to come once we figure them out. So yeah, plenty of positives. But I think to beat the Mercedes around here, considering how strong they’ve been so far this season, is probably a little bit optimistic.”

Antonelli had come so close to taking both Mercs out but got away with it

But George Russell wasn’t on that line of thinking, at all. He believes they’re ahead with the car and that actually its tyre traits didn’t help it here, at all. Hence the tricky beginning of Q3. “I think the team has to take the credit because clearly our car historically takes a step at this circuit. As for the last two years, we struggled [at other tracks] with the tyres getting too hot. So, when we came to Montreal and it was quite cold, we were in a much nicer window and probably our competitors’ tyres were too cold. As for this year, I think we’re doing a really good job with the tyres and I think the situation is potentially reversed here. Hence why the gap was maybe so close today… So yeah, it probably was more plain sailing to get the pole position last year than it has been for Kimi and I today.”

Ultimately, Russell worked around those traits in qualifying better than Antonelli — in terms of thinking. As Russell began his first Q3 attack lap in a car which was struggling to get tyre temperatures and in which the energy requirement demands you not push in the last bit of the out-lap (so further hurting your tyre prep), his hands were a blur containing the wild oversteer out of Turn 2. So he hadn’t even got rear temperatures (which are always easier to generate than front). Then a big rear lock-up twitch into Turn 6. So the lap was rubbish already. That’s when the contingency in his head of the alternative tyre strategy kicked in: abandon doing a flying lap on the first run to create the time for two attack laps on the second run. As opposed to what Antonelli was stuck with once he’d completed a flyer on his first run – ie he only had time for one attack lap on his second run. Because of the laps wasted having to do prep laps to bring the tyres in, time was of the essence even more than usual.

Yet still Antonelli almost took pole, just a downshifting moment into Turn 6 robbing him. But he was past Russell off the line, into the lead with Russell on his rear wing as Norris pitted. Even using the boost button (which actually slows your lap time) in defence and attack, the Merc pair had around 0.3sec per lap over the closely-matched Hamilton Ferrari and Verstappen Red Bull behind, both of which were also using their boost facilities.

The one clear instruction Wolff had given his drivers was to wait until they had pulled a decent gap over third place before they started slowing each other down by direct combat. Well, that lasted only for six laps. Russell slipstreamed ahead as they raced up to the chicane and claimed the inside line. Antonelli, with the mad audacity his confidence is carrying him, swooped to the other side but in doing so lost all front downforce, locked up and was forced onto the run-off, rejoining now with Hamilton snapping at his heels. Antonelli had come so close to taking both Mercs out but got away with it.

That was just the opening act of the Mercedes duel. They pulled away from Hamilton all over again, with Lewis then coming under attack from Verstappen who caught him napping into Turn 1-2 a few laps later. But Russell could not get Antonelli out of his hair. He’d briefly got out of Kimi’s 1sec boost range but the gap had closed right back up, nose-to-tail, within a lap.