️ Sprint race at 5pm BST, qualifying 9pm BST
️ Mercedes aim to build on dominance | Email Philip
It is safe to say the Canadian Grand Prix weekend is not working out the way it was supposed to for plenty of the participants – as Robbie Burns almost wrote, the best-laid plans of marmots and men in Montreal often go awry.
First, there have been more red flags than on Hannibal Lecter’s dating profile. In free practice, Liam Lawson lost power steering and parked up by a chicane – picking up a €30,000 part-suspended fine for Racing Bulls as the FIA ruled they had failed to ensure his clutch disengagement system button was working. Then it was Alex Albon, whose Williams was involved in a collision with one of the aforementioned marmots, following in the messy tyre tracks of Lewis Hamilton last year. Finally, Esteban Ocon spun his Haas into a wall and needed a new nose. Neither Lawson nor Albon made it to the start line for sprint qualifying.
Certainly, should Mercedes have made the same advances that their rivals did in Miami, they will retain the whip hand – and with it the intensity of the title fight between their drivers, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, will surely ratchet up.
The 19-year-old Antonelli, in only his second season in F1, has been enormously impressive, having won the last three races in a row to lead the world championship by 20 points from his far more experienced teammate. Russell, the pre‑season favourite, who could manage only fourth in Miami, unsurprisingly had to bat away inquiries in Canada as to whether he was starting to feel the pressure.
“It’s been a turbulent start but the truth is Miami felt like the first tough race of the season,” he said. “It’s still so early days and I know how to deal with it. It’s not the first time in my career that I’ve had a bad race or two but in this sport it does change so quickly: one week you have a tough race and the next week you come back and everything goes back to normal.”
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