With a near-perfect performance around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, George Russell delivered Mercedes its first grand prix victory of the season.
“We got the victory today probably due to the incredible pole yesterday,” he said. It had indeed been a spectacular pole lap, 0.15sec clear of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, both of them on the medium C5 tyre, which proved a better bet than the C6 soft favoured by McLaren and Ferrari.
The result was made yet-sweeter for Mercedes by Kimi Antonelli taking his first podium not so far behind Verstappen. The world champion was twice almost passed around the pit stops by Antonelli but could offer no serious threat to the imperious Russell. The Red Bull’s front left tyre graining limited its speed and range and so the team, countered by running Verstappen at a hard pace and stopping aggressively early, thereby committing himself to a two-stop. All Mercedes had to do was cover that, which Russell did quite comfortably.
