Antonelli won the Canadian Grand Prix from second on the grid, 10.768 s ahead of Hamilton, with Verstappen third, 0.508 s further back. The winning margin says nothing about how the race was won. For the first 29 laps it was a fight between the two Mercedes, settled not on track but on lap 30, when Russell's car stopped while he was leading. Five cars did not finish, and Lindblad, ninth on the grid, did not start.
Race trace, full race: every driver's position, lap by lap.
One lap on intermediates
Race control had put the risk of rain at 50%, and the start was preceded by extra formation laps. Seven cars took the start on intermediates; the rest were on slicks. Our weather feed never recorded rain during the race. The intermediate runners had one lap of advantage, and Norris made the most of it: from third on the grid he was leading at the end of lap 1, a second clear of Antonelli. He pitted for mediums on lap 2 and rejoined 13th. Every other car that started on intermediates was in by the end of lap 3.
Twenty-nine laps, never more than 1.2 s apart
Russell came into Sunday with the sprint win and pole position, 0.068 s faster than Antonelli in qualifying. Antonelli got ahead of him at the start and inherited the lead when Norris pitted. From there the two ran as a pair: at the line after every lap from 2 to 29, the gap between them was 1.2 s or less. Verstappen, third from lap 9, was about 4 to 8 s behind them.
The official overtaking feed records eleven changes of the lead between the two Mercedes from lap 6 to lap 25, most of them reversed before the next line: two on lap 12, four within 16 s on lap 16, and three in about a minute across laps 24 and 25. The stewards looked at one Turn 13 incident between them on lap 24 and took no further action. By the timing line, Russell led laps 6 to 21 and 25 to 29, Antonelli laps 2 to 5 and 22 to 24. At the end of lap 29 Russell was 0.5 s ahead.
Lap 30
Partway through lap 30 Russell's car stopped. In our position feed it comes to a standstill and does not move again; the stewards' later decision on his conduct describes the car as having come to a halt. Our data does not say why. Antonelli, half a second behind, was leading again, now about 6 s clear of Verstappen.
The Virtual Safety Car came out on lap 31, the first of three VSCs in the race; there was no full Safety Car. Antonelli, Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc and Hadjar all pitted under it on lap 31, every one of them from used softs to new mediums. It cost Antonelli nothing. After lap 31 the gap to second never fell below 4 s, and he set the three fastest laps of the race, the quickest a 1:14.210 on the final lap. Mercedes won the race, but the fight that had defined it ended on lap 30.
Hamilton's late pass
The race for second was the one still open at the end. Verstappen, sixth on the grid, had passed Hamilton for third on lap 9 and stayed ahead through the stops. On the same tyres, Hamilton wore the gap down: 4.6 s after lap 40, 2.3 s after lap 51, 1.2 s after the last VSC on lap 54 and 0.4 s after lap 61. On laps 60 and 61 he lapped in 1:14.751 and 1:14.573 to Verstappen's 1:14.854 and 1:15.097, and he took second seven seconds into lap 62. He finished 0.508 s ahead, after starting fifth. Leclerc, on the same strategy as the three in front, finished fourth from eighth, but 44.151 s behind the winner; his last five laps were between 1:16.5 and 1:17.5, more than a second slower than the leaders.
Two penalties, no place lost
Hadjar started seventh and finished fifth, a lap down, after a race with two penalties: 10 s for more than one change of direction, served at his lap 52 stop, and a stop-and-go for a yellow-flag infringement, served on lap 62. Neither cost him a place. After lap 61 he was more than 40 s clear of Colapinto in sixth, and after the stop-and-go still about 15 s clear. Piastri, fourth on the grid, had a harder afternoon: he started on intermediates, was 21st after lap 1, took a 10 s penalty for a collision with Albon at Turn 10, and finished 11th, one place out of the points. Albon retired after 11 laps.
What decided it
Antonelli did not beat Russell on Sunday; the race never reached a verdict between them. What the data shows is a 29-lap fight with no gap larger than 1.2 s and eleven lead changes, ended by a car stopping on track, and a VSC that let the new leader change tyres without losing a place. From there Antonelli controlled the gap and finished with the fastest lap of the race.