By Alan Baldwin
MONTREAL (Reuters) -George Russell took Mercedes’ first win of the Formula One season in Canada on Sunday while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri went 22 points clear in the championship after teammate Lando Norris smashed into him and retired.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who had hoped to win for a record fourth year in a row at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, took second.
Russell’s 18-year-old Italian rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli finished third for his first F1 podium.
Piastri was fourth with the safety car leading the final lap before peeling off to clear the way for Russell to take the chequered flag.
An uneventful afternoon erupted in headline drama when Norris hit the rear of Piastri’s car three laps from the end — a clash long predicted in the title battle — while trying to overtake.
The Briton, who ended at a standstill by the side of the track with no front wing and a broken car, was quick to blame himself.
“I’m sorry. All my bad. All my fault. Stupid from me,” Norris said over the team radio.
Piastri pitted as the safety car was deployed and rejoined with a tyre advantage over Antonelli that he could not use as the racing never resumed.
“Glad I didn’t ruin his race. In the end apologies to the team,” Norris told Sky Sports television.
“This wasn’t even like a ‘that’s racing’, it was just silly from my part.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and sixth with Fernando Alonso seventh for Aston Martin and Nico Hulkenberg bringing in more solid points for Sauber in eighth place.
Esteban Ocon was ninth for Haas in their 200th race with Carlos Sainz 10th for Williams.
“Well done team. That made up for last year,” said Russell, who also started on pole last year but finished third. His last win before Sunday was in Las Vegas last November.
“It’s amazing to be back on the top step.
“I felt last year was a victory lost and probably got the victory today due to the incredible pole lap yesterday.”
Third place made Antonelli the third youngest driver ever to stand on the F1 podium.
“I had a good start, managed to jump into P3 and just stayed up there at the front,” he said of passing Piastri for third on the opening lap.
“The last stint I pushed a bit too hard behind Max and I killed a bit the front-left (tyre), and struggled a bit at the end, but really happy to bring the podium home.”
Russell led away cleanly from pole, with Verstappen slotting in behind.
Behind them, Williams’ Alex Albon tracked across the grass after starting ninth with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto moving briefly up from 10th before losing out to Hulkenberg and then falling down the order.
Norris, who started on the hard tyres to go longer in the opening stint, was leading by lap 16 after others who started on mediums came in for pitstops. He then pitted on lap 29 and came out fifth, behind Piastri in fourth.
Leclerc also came in that lap but then questioned why Ferrari had made the call, with his hard tyres still in reasonable shape.
Hamilton was behind his teammate, with reported damage to his car, and wondering out loud where the performance had gone.
“I’m nowhere in the race, mate, I don’t know what’s happened,” the seven-times world champion told his engineer over the team radio.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis and Pritha Sarkar)
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