Liam Lawson seventh in Canada as Kimi Antonelli wins for his fourth straight F1 victory
Monday, 25 May 2026
Italian teen star Kimi Antonelli charged to his fourth straight Formula 1 victory in a wild Canadian Grand Prix after Mercedes teammate George Russell was knocked out by an engine failure.
Kiwi driver Liam Lawson crossed the line in seventh following a superb drive after starting the race from 12th on the grid.
Stewards investigated Lawson and Nico Hülkenberg for being out of position during a chaotic pre-race formation lap, but deemed any punishment towards Lawson would have been unjust due to mitigating circumstances and confusion.
Italian teen star Kimi Antonelli charged to his fourth straight Formula 1 victory in a wild Canadian Grand Prix after Mercedes teammate George Russell was knocked out by an engine failure.
Kiwi driver Liam Lawson crossed the line in seventh following a superb drive after starting the race from 12th on the grid, but along with Nico Hulkenberg, was subject to a post race investigation for being out of place during one of the three formation laps in a chaotic pre-race build up.
The pair were out of position at the first safety car line, but returned to the correct order by the time they lined up on the grid. Stewards deemed Hülkenberg was slow away and Lawson moved 'sooner than expected', but the Kiwi driver 'should have waited longer'.
However, the stewards deemed the situation as an “unusual incident” and given the mitigating circumstances of the confusion and that the cars started in the correct order, any punishment towards Lawson would have been unjust.
The widespread confusion and additional formation laps were born out of Lawson's Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad suffering a clutch issue on the grid and being unable to start the race.
Holding on to seventh was a deserved result for Lawson who was at his defensive best in a long 36 lap final stint on the soft tyre.
'Very well done, that was very, very tense to the end,' Liam Lawson’s race engineer Alexandre Iliopoulos said after the Kiwi driver held off Pierre Gasly and trailed home Gasly’s Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto.
Lawson changed onto the soft tyre at lap 32 and managed to nurse them all the way to the end.
'It was very close, but happy to come in seventh. It was a great fight,” Lawson said.
'Towards the end of the race we were struggling a bit more and they (Alpine) had really good race pace, Franco pulled away from me.
'We didn't really have that much speed during the race, especially compared to qualifying but we survived it to come home in seventh which is great,” Lawson said.
The title-chasing Mercedes drivers put on a show in a thrilling battle through 30 laps, trading the lead several times and coming dangerously close to making contact, until Russell ran into trouble with a power unit failure.
A frustrated Russell threw his neck rest and and other parts of his car onto the track.
That gave the 19-year-old Antonelli a clear path to victory ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who overtook Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for second with six laps to go in cold and windy conditions at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
McLaren’s day started poorly when they made the wrong call to start both cars on the intermediate tyre despite the track drying and the drizzle stopping before the race.
It got worse when Oscar Piastri was handed a 10 second penalty for taking out Alex Albon and Lando Norris retired with a gearbox issue.
Piastri eventually came in 11th.
Antonelli opened a 43-point lead over Russell in the season standings through five of 22 stops. After Russell won the season-opener race in Australia, Antonelli won in China, Japan and Miami.
Top 10 finishes in the Canadian Grand Prix
1: Kimi Antonelli, 2: Lewis Hamilton, 3: Max Verstappen, 4: Charles Leclerc, 5: Isack Hadjar, 6: Franco Colapinto, 7: Liam Lawson, 8: Pierre Gasly, 9: Carlos Sainz, 10: Ollie Bearman.