George Russell, Mercedes (P4, 12 pts): 8.5/10
George Russell and his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton were well-matched this weekend, with Russell quickest in FP1 and FP3 but Hamilton quickest at the end of Friday and then pipping Russell in qualifying by two thousandths of a second. A slow start for Hamilton allowed Russell to take brilliant advantage of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen getting distracted into the first corner to briefly emerge in the lead. However that was gone the minute DRS was enabled and Verstappen predictably took emphatic charge. There seemed to be a new note of friction in his relationship with Hamilton this weekend, but they kept it clean in the race: Hamilton had much fresher soft tyres at the end and was able to snatch the podium position away from the younger Briton. Even so, Russell could hardly complain in the circumstances, having put in a good day's work.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (P3, 15 pts): 9/10
Lewis Hamilton has sounded increasingly disgruntled as the season has gone on, Friday 'breakthrough' performances for Mercedes regularly disappearing like dust when it came to qualifying and the race. But Montreal demonstrated that the former world champions really are getting back in form, and Hamilton responded by getting serious about maximising the opportunities this weekend. He was quickest at the end of Friday and ruffled George Russell's feathers by playing hard anytime the two competed on track. They locked out the second row of the grid in qualifying, but while Russell leapt into a brief lead at the start of the race, a poor launch for Hamilton kept him out of contention for the win. A late set of soft tyres did allow him to pass Russell and get onto the podium, his first since Mexico in 2023, meaning a record 18 consecutive seasons in F1 with at least one top three finish. However being 15s off Max Verstappen and Lando Norris shows there's still much work to do at Brackley.
