Norris's grave prediction comes true - What we learned at the Canadian GP

George Russell delivered a commanding performance to secure pole position and then led Mercedes to its first win of the season at the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix.

The race ended dramatically after a late collision between McLaren team-mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for which the Briton took full responsibility.

Here’s a look at what we learned from the Montreal weekend.

Mercedes found some magic

Mercedes needed a win – although maybe not literally – to bounce back from a disastrous triple-header in which it managed just 18 points, and its Canada performance was the perfect response. A response that surprised the team itself.

Russell and Kimi Antonelli were very strong all weekend and culminated their fightback with one of the team’s most competitive races in recent years, the Briton dominating on Sunday as the Italian scored his first podium, ending his point-less streak in the process.

The result was particularly significant because Mercedes re-introduced the new suspension it had decided to drop for the last two races, leaving the team with an actual upgraded car going into the remaining part of the season.

The 1-3 was also a boost for the team because the race ran in pretty hot conditions, in which Mercedes has usually struggled.

Does it all mean that Mercedes is now a contender at most circuits? Probably not, but at least Canada showed that the team hasn’t forgotten how to win races and that its driver line-up can be as strong as anyone else’s.

Norris wasted a golden chance

Canada wasn’t the first time this year that Norris had looked like the fastest of the McLaren drivers in the race. Unfortunately for the Briton, it also wasn’t the first time he had missed an opportunity to outscore Piastri.

Ironically, Norris had warned ahead of the weekend that a clash between himself and Piastri was inevitable as they fought for their first title.

The crash shouldn’t have happened, particularly as Norris appeared to have so much more pace than his team-mate and, to his credit, the British driver didn’t even attempt to pretend it wasn’t his fault.

In typical Norris fashion, he was probably slightly too harsh on himself in public, but his reaction was not surprising given opportunities like this one will not come too often.

“It was all my mistake,” Norris said. “I take full blame, so I apologise to my whole team and to Oscar for attempting something like that.

“There’s going for it like in the hairpin: a good, fair move, and there’s being stupid like I was at the end.”

With 14 races to go, it’s still all to play for in the championship fight and it could all change in just one race, but Canada showed that Piastri still has the psychological advantage over Norris.

Verstappen kept it clean

Max Verstappen was quickly fed up with questions about the threat of a race ban after his Spanish GP penalty, leading to some moments of tension between himself and the media.

Verstappen could have predicted that was coming given how controversial it all was, particularly as he hadn’t faced the press after Spain.

On track, however, the world champion avoided drama and cleared one of two weekends in which he can’t afford to add any penalty points to his superlicence.

His start was clean and never tried anything crazy to try to pass Russell, although he was never really in a position to really try an attacking move.

The only hiccup came during the incident with Russell behind the safety car, although Verstappen didn’t do anything wrong.

Red Bull‘s protest against Russell was just another shot in the mind-games battle that the Briton was involved in with Verstappen all weekend.

Verstappen didn’t bite and now needs another clean weekend in Austria to get some breathing room again.

McLaren’s weakest weekend showed it’s still favourite

The Canadian GP was arguably McLaren’s worst weekend of the 2025 season so far.

Piastri qualified third and Norris seventh as the nature of the Montreal circuit layout as they struggled with a lack of grip that made it harder for them to drive consistent fast laps.

The lack of middle-speed corners, where McLaren has been very strong this year, hurt its form as rivals Mercedes and Red Bull benefitted from the long straight and slow corners.

But given all that, McLaren was still a threat in the race, and Norris could have been fighting for victory had he qualified closer to the front.

The fact that both he and Piastri were running some five seconds off the lead when they clashed suggests even at its weakest weekend, McLaren was pretty strong.

Several of the upcoming races will play to its strengths and the normal order is likely to resume.

Ferrari had a Groundhog day 

Charles Leclerc complained about Ferrari’s strategy choices as he failed to keep up with the frontrunners; Lewis Hamilton had a somewhat promising qualifying only to have a miserable time on Sunday.

It’s a story that has been repeated several times this season as the Maranello team continued to be in no man’s land, too slow to compete with Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren.

Leclerc’s weekend started off on the back foot after a crash in practice, and he messed up his qualifying, finishing in eighth when he believed he had the pace for pole, although maybe that was an overoptimistic take.

His race was better, but the farcical arguments about strategy on the radio highlighted his frustration and made Ferrari look like a team in disarray.

Hamilton was unlucky (and devastated) to hit a groundhog during the race, seeing his pace disappear, although this time at least it wasn’t his fault.

Regardless of the circumstances, the Montreal weekend mirrored several of Ferrari’s previous races this year, without many positive things to extract.