Ricciardo’s epic fightback after first-lap meltdown as wet and wild Canadian GP stuns F1 fans

The top three of Russell, Verstappen and Lando Norris started well and kept position amid the chaos behind them, only for Russell to drop to third after a poor error cost him the lead.

But Verstappen ran off on lap 17, and Norris soon got past Verstappen into second behind pole-sitter George Russell. Norris surged into the lead before a safety car arrived at precisely the wrong time when Logan Sargeant crashed his Williams.

The McLaren star was caught out – and let down by his team’s strategy – and ended up emerging from the pits in third. Then the heavens opened again, after the race had started in the wet, and the order was shuffled again as drivers took different strategies with dry or wet tyres.

As the rain stopped, both Russell and Verstappen pitted for dry tyres earlier than Norris, who built up an 11-second gap in the lead – but took too long to get back on dry tyres and cost himself victory.

Verstappen would take the lead, as Norris fought back past Russell into second.

Australia’s Oscar Piastri was right in the mix as he rose to third ahead of the Mercedes gun, but there was more chaos to come as a host of drivers found the wall in a series of crashes.

Piastri was nearly one of them, after colliding with Russell in the last chicane. Russell ran off track and dropped to fifth, but fought back brilliantly on fresh tyres to get past Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton and then Piastri for third place behind Verstappen and Norris.

“It felt like a missed opportunity, to be honest,” Russell said.

Adding insult to injury for Piastri, the Australian was subsequently overtaken by Hamilton.

“Definitely a few frustrations,” Piastri said. “It was a very very tricky race, just trying to keep the car on track.”

It marked a 50th win for Verstappen from his last 75 starts, adding to his championship lead on a day when Ferrari suffered a genuine meltdown.

“That was a lot of fun,” Verstappen said.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon collided late in the race, but Charles Leclerc had already been forced to retire after persistent engine issues.

“I was losing 1.2 (seconds) in the straights, which was extremely annoying… it was such a frustrating race… there was nothing we could have done better,” he said.