The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve hosted the Canadian Grand Prix for the 45th time in its history across the weekend of 22 to 24 May 2026. The event was the 55th running of the Canadian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship and the first time the race had been paired with the sprint format.
Going into the weekend, Kimi Antonelli led the Drivers' Championship with 100 points, 20 ahead of his Mercedes teammate George Russell in second, and a further 21 clear of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari in third. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes held first place on 180 points, with Ferrari second on 110 and McLaren third on 94.
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the three softest compounds in their range, the C3, C4, and C5, designated hard, medium, and soft respectively, for the event.
Sprint qualifying on Friday 22 May was topped by George Russell, who put his Mercedes on pole ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli and McLaren's Lando Norris. A red flag late in SQ1 was caused by a crash for Fernando Alonso; Alonso progressed to SQ2 on his earlier time but was unable to add another lap. Alexander Albon and Liam Lawson, both affected by car issues in practice, failed to set times and started the sprint from the back.
The sprint itself ran over 23 laps on 23 May. Russell led into the first corner and held position, with Antonelli close behind. A wheel-to-wheel battle between the two Mercedes drivers on lap 5 at turn 2 ended with Antonelli running off track and dropping to third behind Norris. The order at the front held for the remainder of the sprint, with Russell winning ahead of Norris and Antonelli. Oscar Piastri finished fourth after passing Lewis Hamilton on the final lap, with Leclerc fifth and Hamilton sixth.
Qualifying for the Grand Prix took place on the afternoon of Saturday 23 May. Russell took pole position for the main race as well, with Antonelli alongside him on the front row.
Race day on 24 May brought uncertain weather, which drove significant variation in starting tyre strategy. McLaren, Audi, Cadillac, and Williams driver Carlos Sainz Jr. chose to start on intermediate tyres, while the two Racing Bulls cars and Franco Colapinto of Alpine began on mediums, and the rest of the field took soft slicks. The race start was delayed and an additional formation lap was run after Arvid Lindblad of Racing Bulls stalled on the grid due to a clutch issue, reducing the scheduled distance from 70 to 68 laps.
At the start, Norris surged from third to first into turn 1, with Antonelli and Russell following in second and third. Hamilton again passed Piastri early, gaining fourth. McLaren quickly identified that the intermediate tyre choice was a mistake and pitted both Norris and Piastri for slick tyres at the end of the first lap, dropping them to the back of the field. After the initial pit cycle, Antonelli led from Russell and Hamilton, with Verstappen working his way into third.
On lap 6, Russell overtook Antonelli on the back straight, and the two Mercedes drivers exchanged positions over several subsequent laps. Hamilton encountered power issues and dropped back. On lap 13, yellow flags were shown after Piastri, recovering through the field, collided with Albon, forcing the Williams driver to retire. Piastri pitted for a replacement front wing and received a ten-second time penalty for the incident.
The decisive moment came on lap 30, when Russell slowed and retired with a battery failure, his first retirement since the 2024 British Grand Prix. A virtual safety car period allowed most of the field to pit, with Antonelli rejoining on medium tyres and resuming with a lead of roughly 4.6 seconds over Verstappen. Hamilton ran third. A double-stack Ferrari pit stop cost Leclerc a position to Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar, who later received a ten-second penalty for repeated direction changes while defending. Further virtual safety car periods were deployed on laps 48 and 53, with Hadjar and Piastri both serving time penalties.
In the closing stages, Hamilton closed on Verstappen for second and passed him on lap 62. Antonelli had extended his lead to around eight seconds and took the chequered flag to secure his fourth consecutive race victory. Hamilton was second and Verstappen third, giving Red Bull and Ford their first podium of the season, and Ford's first podium in Formula One since Jordan's win at the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix. Leclerc finished fourth, with Hadjar fifth ahead of Colapinto, Lawson, Pierre Gasly, Sainz, and Oliver Bearman completing the top ten.
After the race, Antonelli's lead in the Drivers' Championship extended further, having accumulated four wins in five rounds. Mercedes' dominance in the Constructors' Championship remained intact, with Ferrari and McLaren continuing to occupy second and third.
The 2026 Canadian Grand Prix reinforced Antonelli's status as the championship frontrunner and marked a troubling run of reliability issues for Russell, whose retirement ended a sequence of strong results. Verstappen's podium ended a difficult start to the season for Red Bull and provided the team and its engine partner Ford with a symbolic milestone, their first podium finish in the championship since the Ford-powered Jordan team won at Interlagos in 2003.
Gallery · 4 related images
