George Russell wins the Canadian Grand Prix

George Russell recorded the fourth victory of his Formula One career after triumphing in the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Russell had a commanding lights-to-flag victory in what can be termed as redemption for his failure to capitalise on pole position last year in Montreal.

The driver, who grew up in Tydd St Giles, had a promising start to the weekend after setting the fourth fastest time in first practice and topping the timesheets in the second session.

This pace carried on through to qualifying as Russell easily made it through the final stage.

Throughout qualifying, Russell’s times had been somewhat erratic as he experimented with both the soft and medium tyres due to the use of the highly fragile C6 compound at this event.

Alas, the yellow-striped medium tyre prevailed and in the dying seconds of qualifying, Russell set a string of fastest sectors to take pole position - two tenths ahead of Max Verstappen.

Given the recent tensions between Russell and Verstappen and the fact that the Mercedes driver used his post-qualifying interview to declare that “I’ve got a few more points on my license to play with” - hinting at the fact the Dutchman sits one penalty away from a race ban.

Despite the rivalry, the race start was uneventful thanks to Russell getting a commanding getaway that propelled him into an early lead, one which by the first round of pit stops had reached over 3 seconds.

Russell made his first stop relatively early on to eliminate the risk of an undercut from Verstappen and within 20 laps had amassed another commanding lead.

Another round of pit stops followed, again with Russell following Verstappen into the pits and shortly after, the Mercedes driver regained the lead.

It was looking to be an easy win for Russell until the two McLaren drivers collided on the pit straight which brought out the safety car.

Russell slowed during the safety car with this change of speed not being anticipated by Verstappen who as such almost overtook the Mercedes driver which attracted the attention of the stewards thanks to a protest from Red Bull.

The race ended under the safety car with Russell taking a commanding victory albeit with the stewards’ investigation hanging over him.

Shortly after the race, no action was taken on Red Bull’s protest allowing Russell to rightfully claim his fourth race win of his career and Mercedes’ 130th as a constructor.

After the race, Russell said, “I am really pleased to take the team’s first victory of the season. I felt in control throughout and was able to manage the race to bring home the win.

“With the slightly higher temperatures, we thought we may struggle a little more than we saw on Friday. We did a good job of managing the tyres though and had the pace to hold off the chasing pack.

“A big well done and thank you to everyone at Brackley and Brixworth and a massive congratulations to Kimi on taking his first of what I am sure will be many podiums.

“We look to have made a step forward with our car in recent races. We have typically gone well in Montreal though and we knew this race would likely suit us a little more than others.

“We can’t get ahead of ourselves as there is still plenty of work for us to do to get into the fight for victories more regularly. I am looking forward to trying to do that next time out in Austria.”

The 2025 Formula One season continues on June 27-29 for the Austrian Grand Prix - a race which Russell won last year.