MAYHEM!

 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX 2025

photo credit: motorsport.com

GEORGE RUSSELL!!

THE MOST UNEXPECTED WIN OF THE SEASON!!

The Mercedes man from King's Lynn pulled this one out of the bag. First the unexpected pole and then the unexpected win. He came...won and left. Just excellency from him from start to the end. No one came even close to taking the lead from him not even the reigning world champion, MAX Verstappen. 

Mercedes had the most unexpected comeback after the terrible European leg which put Ferrari above them in the constructors but the Canadian grand prix was redemption for them which helped them regain the second position in the constructor's championship. The Mercedes was a literal rocketship with them being the fastest car easily this weekend. Kimi Antonelli was also on the podium this weekend with him being the third youngest podium taker in F1 history and first italian after 2009 to be on the podium. A fanastic drive from him too. He stuck it round the inside of Oscar Piastri in the opening lap of the race and took P3 from him and never looked back and was in full control of getting a podium from start to end. At points, he was even attacking Max which is phenomenal considering he is only a rookie. Considering he is only 18 years old this a feat no one expected from him. In the end, Mercedes have had their best weekend of the season with having one of the most dominant cars they have had the whole season. 

On the other hand, McLaren had quite the opposite weekend... the worst they have had this whole season. For the first time this season they had no car on the podium. To make matters worse, Oscar and had a collision with Lando rear ending Oscar which ended his race... a very stupid move from him considering he is a championship contender. Due to this now the gap between them both is 22 points. McLaren were slower than Mercedes and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen which shows severe lack of pace this weekend which has been unlike them this whole season. In the end, Oscar could only finish in P4 with him for the first time this season looking like he did not have leading pace. A disappointing weekend for McLaren which they surely would like to finish. 

Ferrari... well they do have have the pace that Hamilton thought they would have. They were the slowest of the top 4 teams by a mile, with them being in no man's land in terms of pace... ahead of the midfield but behind the other 3 of the top 4 teams. In the end, all they could manage was P5 and P6 which is just no good enough considering they were somewhat fighting for wins last year, they have had a massive drop in form or their competition has pulled one up on them from last season. Leclerc was quick for his car but couldn't make inroads to catch the 5 cars in the leading pack ahead of him. Hamilton was also far away from Leclerc as he had damage which made him lose 20 points of downforce... hence he was in a race of his own all alone. Well it was a race Ferrari would like to forget and move on to the next one and improve. 

Well moving on to Red Bull now... they have had one of the worst seasons in the last 4 years. Max is still performing for them but that Red Bull second seat just seemed to be cursed at this point. First they removed Checo Perez, then hoped Liam would perform better but removed him after two races and now Yuki replaced Liam and well he is doing worse than he was doing at VCaRB. Just to exemplify that ... he currently has less than half the points that Isack Hadjar has. Yuki for another race this season with Red Bull was not in the points, finishing P12 after starting last due to a 10 place grid penalty. On the other hand Max finished in P2, realistically the most he could have done considering the sublime skill George Russell showed throughout the weekend. Max is currently single handedly scoring most of the points of Red Bull and Max is fighting the big boys and not Red Bull as a team which is not what either the team wants nor the fans who want to see someone competing and defeating Max in the same machinery if possible. In the end, a double ended weekend for them with Max scoring huge points whereas his teammate just proving to be a disappointment.

It was a very good race for Fernando Alonso who started P6 and finished P7. He seems to have gained some luck now for the past few races after he had his longest ever pointless streak in F1. A great drive  by the 43 old rookie to still show that he has the fighting spirit in him. Nico Hulkenberg has achieved some crazy form since Spain... he was again in the points this weekend in P8 while his teammate was way down the grid in P14. It was just a sublime drive from him to score the points for the Sauber team who are in dire needs of points. Nico was only one of the two people in the points who completed the race on one stop. The second being Esteban Ocon was unexpected as most teams thought that a two stopper would be superior yet Nico and Esteban managed to score the much needed points for both of their teams. 

Subsequently, for Williams it was a weird race as at times they had the pace but at other moments they did not. In the end, Carlos went from P16 to P10 which is a commendable job considering how close the whole pack is after the top 4 teams. On the other hand, Carlos' teammate Alex had to retire mid race due to an engine failure... which honestly speaks against the reliability of Mercedes engines as Williams and Mercedes itself have had power unit issues the past few races. 

In the end, quite a good race which took a massive turn at the end and made it quite eventful. It had many overtakes and most of all an unexpected winner which had to come this season but no one expected someone to break the McLaren dominance so early... especially the Mercedes who have a fair share of problems the last few races.

Next on we head back to Europe, to one of the fastest and shortest circuits of the F1 calendar ... the RED BULL RING. The home of the Red Bull team with endless supporters for Max year in year out. Can Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion, the MOST SUCCESSFUL DRIVER AT RED BULL RING win there again or does the likes of Mercedes or a comeback by McLaren spoil the party for them and win. Only time will tell...