Lewis Hamilton walked through the Montreal paddock wearing the broadest grin of his Ferrari tenure on Sunday evening, and Kimi Antonelli left the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve having served notice that the rookie class of 2026 has a fighter in its ranks. The Canadian Grand Prix delivered the championship’s most unpredictable race of the season — a wet-to-dry thriller settled by tyre strategy and nerve — and BBC Radio 5 Live’s Harry Benjamin has delivered his verdict on who rose to the occasion and who let the moment slip.
George Russell took the chequered flag ahead of Antonelli in a Mercedes one-two that few predicted on Saturday night, with Hamilton charging from eighth on the grid to claim his first Ferrari podium in 14 races. Max Verstappen, who arrived in Quebec leading the drivers’ standings, salvaged fourth after an early off at Turn 3, while McLaren’s title pretenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri endured contrasting Sundays that left Andrea Stella’s team with serious questions to answer before Spielberg.
Hamilton’s Ferrari breakthrough earns top marks
Benjamin’s highest rating of the afternoon went to Hamilton, who scored a 9 out of 10 for a drive that finally vindicated his decision to leave Mercedes after 12 seasons. The seven-time world champion was the fastest man on track in the second stint, lapping six tenths quicker than race-winner Russell before traffic intervened, and his overtake on Charles Leclerc at the hairpin on lap 41 was described by Benjamin as “the move of the season so far”.
“Hamilton was all smiles in parc fermé and you could see why,” Benjamin said. “He’s been searching for that confidence all year, and Montreal delivered it. The Ferrari finally behaved on a circuit where you can attack the kerbs, and Lewis attacked everything in sight.”
The 41-year-old’s podium ends a barren run stretching back to last season’s Belgian Grand Prix and lifts him to fifth in the drivers’ championship, 38 points behind Verstappen. With Ferrari bringing a substantial floor upgrade to Austria in a fortnight, team principal Frederic Vasseur will hope Sunday’s performance marks the beginning of a genuine challenge rather than a Montreal anomaly.
Antonelli announces himself in the wet
If Hamilton’s drive was the emotional headline, Antonelli’s was the strategic one. The 19-year-old Italian collected an 8.5 from Benjamin for a performance that combined patience in the early laps with aggression once the racing line dried. His wheel-to-wheel battle with Verstappen between laps 22 and 24 — during which he held the outside line through three consecutive corners — was the standout sequence of the race.
“He’s absolutely not afraid to fight, and that’s the most important thing you can say about any rookie,” Benjamin said. “Most teenagers would have lifted when Verstappen squeezed him at Turn 8. Antonelli didn’t, and Verstappen blinked first. That tells you everything about his future.”
The runner-up finish is Antonelli’s second podium in 2026 and the third by any rookie this century at the Canadian Grand Prix. He moves to seventh in the standings, leapfrogging Carlos Sainz, and reinforces Mercedes’ decision to promote him directly from Formula 2 rather than loan him out for a development year.
McLaren stumbles raise championship doubts
The day belonged less comfortably to McLaren, whose drivers received the harshest assessments on Benjamin’s scorecard. Norris was marked down to a 5 after a sluggish first stint and a botched pit-stop call that dropped him to ninth, while Piastri’s spin on lap 18 — followed by a five-second penalty for an unsafe release — earned him a 4.5 and ended any hopes of a recovery.
The result narrows the constructors’ standings considerably. Mercedes have closed to within 22 points of McLaren, with Ferrari now only 41 adrift after looking 90 points off the pace a month ago. Stella admitted afterwards that the team had “got the tyre window wrong” on Norris and faces a difficult debrief before the European leg of the calendar resumes.
- Top marks: Hamilton (9), Antonelli (8.5), Russell (8)
- Solid afternoons: Verstappen (7.5), Leclerc (7), Alonso (7)
- Disappointments: Norris (5), Piastri (4.5), Tsunoda (4)
Verstappen’s fourth place keeps the Dutchman in the championship lead with 186 points, but the gap to Russell has shrunk to 19. With nine races still to run before the summer break, and Ferrari’s upgrade package imminent, the title race that looked like a Red Bull procession in March now has at least four genuine contenders. Montreal, as it so often does, has rewritten the script.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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