Lando Norris was on the ninth-longest points-scoring run by a driver in Formula 1 history heading into last weekend’s race.
But the McLaren driver’s run came to an end when he retired after a collision with team mate Oscar Piastri.
His streak of points scores began last year after the Austrian Grand Prix – coincidentally the next round on the calendar. He scored points in 22 consecutive races.
Despite that, Norris was officially listed as a finisher, as he’d covered more than 90% of the race distance. The same was also the case when he retired in Austria following a collision with Max Verstappen.
That was a small upside for Norris, as if he hadn’t been classified, his subsequent five-second time penalty would have been converted into a grid drop for the next event. Instead he recorded his 35th consecutive classified finish.
Even before that collision both McLaren drivers were on course to miss the podium for only the second time each this season. This was the first time in 11 races the podium did not feature a McLaren driver and the first time in 10 events neither of them started from the front row.
George Russell capitalised, claiming pole position for the second year in a row at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He converted that into victory and added the fastest lap, scoring the second ‘hat trick’ of his career.
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Russell scored his fourth win, putting him level with Williams driver Carlos Sainz Jnr plus Dan Gurney, Bruce McLaren and Eddie Irvine. He took his seventh pole, which puts him level with Jacques Laffite (Formula One Management would call it his sixth, as they do not count his 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix pole, and would therefore also call this his first ‘hat trick’).
He have Mercedes their first win of the season and fifth in the Canadian Grand Prix. McLaren hold the record with 13, and scored their last win in this race with Lewis Hamilton in 2012. Russell crossed the finishing line ahead of Verstappen, who came within 0.228 seconds (and two unsuccessful protests) of a fourth consecutive Canadian Grand Prix win.
For the first time in five rounds, Verstappen did not lead a lap. Five drivers did, however, the most since last year’s Italian Grand Prix.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli led a grand prix for the second time in his career (he spent 10 laps in front at Suzuka) and clinched his first podium finish. He is the third-youngest driver to stand on the rostrum, behind Verstappen and Lance Stroll, and did it at his 10th attempt.
Yuki Tsunoda has appeared in 10 times as many races. Before the weekend began he remarked it “feels a bit crazy” to have reached 100 race weekend participations already. That may be partly because he didn’t start three of them. He was unable to take the start at Monza in 2021 and 2023, and Jeddah 2022, and so didn’t actually contest a full season until his fourth year of competition.
Fernando Alonso scored points for the second race in a row, as did Nico Hulkenberg. He delivered his team’s first back-to-back points finish since the same two races – Spain and Canada – in 2023, when they competed as Alfa Romeo. It is their first consecutive points finishes under the Sauber name since their last two appearances before that rebranding, in the 2018 Brazilian and Abu Dhabi grands prix.
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Finally, Russell’s latest win came on a great day for his original F1 team mate Robert Kubica, who he teamed up with at Williams in 2019. Kubica won the Le Mans 24 Hours for Ferrari’s customer team AF Corse with team mate Ye Yifei and Phil Hanson. Poland’s only grand prix winner scored his sole F1 victory at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2008 and would surely have taken more had it not been for the terrible injuries he suffered in his 2011 rally crash.
Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Canadian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2025 Canadian Grand Prix
- Norris’s career-best point-scoring streak ended in crash with team mate
- After Red Bull’s third Russell protest, could 2025 see a peak in post-race rows?
- Why Alonso was unimpressed with Hamilton at the end of the Canadian GP
- Ferrari told Hamilton damage from marmot cost him 20 points of downforce
- Wolff certain Verstappen didn’t support Red Bull’s ’embarrassing’ Russell protests
