![\"f1](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bc56a0d3-d8ed-4231-8240-7148a9bfeefd.jpeg\" "\\"F1")
NurPhoto\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\nThe Monaco Grand Prix weekend could hardly have gone any better for Kimi Antonelli. In only his second F1 start in the principality, the Italian teenager took pole and put in a dominant performance to win the race, even overcoming the frustration of a red flag negating his lead and exposing him to the risk of a second standing start.<\/p>\n
But while the youngster logged his fifth successive victory, it was another nightmare Sunday for his teammate, George Russell. The man who many observers expected to be the 2026 World Champion now has a huge job on his hands to get back into contention.<\/p>\n
Just two weeks after retiring with a power unit issue while leading in Canada, he again logged no points in Monaco after a race in which everything seemed to conspire against him, just at the time when he needed a big score.<\/p>\n
Having qualified only sixth, Russell gained a spot from the early retirement of Max Verstappen, and another when he jumped Isack Hadjar at the pit stops. Alas, like several other drivers, he was then handed a five-second penalty by the FIA for pitlanespeeding, to be served at his next stop.<\/p>\n
When a safety car came out in the closing laps, the race director then sent all thecars through the pit lane while Lance Stroll\u2019s crashed car was being recovered at the final corner.<\/p>\n
Some drivers took the opportunity to stop to change tires for the final part of the race, and there was some confusion as to whether Russell should or not.<\/p>\n
He chose to stop at the Mercedes pit, and in theory should then have served his five-second penalty before any work was done on his car. However, having just serviced Antonelli, some of the crew members mistakenly started to change his tires instead of waiting, so the others joined in. He was sent back out, having not served the penalty.<\/p>\n
“There was a lot of confusion last minute,” said Russell. “I was meant to be staying on track, but then the FIA sent the cars through pit lane. I was asking the team, ‘am I stopping for tires or not?’ I didn’t get an answer, but I saw my set of tires there; everything just happened too quick, and I guess the mechanics didn’t get the message that they had to leave the car for five seconds. Then I was on the radio saying I’m willing to serve the penalty the next lap, because I had a 20-second gap to [Pierre] Gasly behind me. But the rules say we didn’t have the penalty correctly, and the punishment is a drive-through.”<\/p>\n
Then a red flag led to a bunched-up field for a restart, so when Russell took his drive through, he tumbled down the order. He was eventually classified 12th after various penalties for others were taken into account.<\/p>\n
On a day when Antonelli won again, it was not what he needed. The gap between them is now 68 points, and Lewis Hamilton has snuck into second place.<\/p>\n
“I’m beyond frustration now,” Russell said after the flag. “I\u2019m just struggling to comprehend how on earth the season is panning out the way it has done. The team told me there was nothing I did wrong with the speeding and the pit lane \u2013 a software issue, we don’t know where from. A five-second penalty was not ideal, but not the end of the world. And then obviously drive through for not serving it properly when I was in P3. So two weekends in a row, 40 points down the drain.”<\/p>\n
Russell conceded that he could have done a better job in Monaco qualifying, as he struggled to get as much out of the car as his team mate. What\u2019s frustrated him more is when circumstances that he can\u2019t control have had a major impact.<\/p>\n
NurPhoto\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
George Russell returns to the paddock following retirement while battling for the lead in last month\u2019s Canadian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday was a bad day for me, and I accept that,” he said. “But the result of the last two races\u2026 I wish I could take some responsibility for the car breaking down in Canada, or the penalties today. But it’s been completely outside of my control, and that is an incredibly difficult pill to swallow. I don’t ever really believe in good luck or bad luck, but when I look at the season as a whole, leading the race in Canada, break down. I could have been on the podium today, zero points. Leading the race in Japan, and the safety car came out 10 seconds after my pit stop. There’s not a lot, and the whole season could look totally different now.”<\/p>\n
He admits he\u2019s been frustrated that this run of misfortune has come just as he has finally got the winning package \u2013 one that he\u2019s been waiting for since he joined Mercedes, and had to endure the team\u2019s slump during the ground effect era of 2022 to 2025.<\/p>\n
“I’m in a very, very weird state of mind,” he said. “Because I’ve had very low moments in my career where I’ve maybe had a run of two bad races or three bad races on my own personal performance. I’ve never had a run of bad luck as such like this. It didn’t happen when the car was a P7 car two years ago, or a P4\/P3 car last year. Now I’ve got the car, it feels very painful. But a long way to go. Still very much believe in myself. Still believe we’re going to be fighting for race wins to the end of this year. There’s no reason why we won’t be continuing into next year, but right now it’s tough.”<\/p>\n
Regarding Antonelli\u2019s stunning run of success, he added: “When I look at things objectively, things are balanced out a little bit more. I still think it’ll be very, very close. And he’s done doing an amazing job, but I think I’d have at least two more victories to my name.”<\/p>\n
Instead, Antonelli has been piling on the successes, and he is starting to look like a serious contender to become the sport\u2019s youngest World Champion. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff known as Antonelli\u2019s greatest supporter, is also the man who gave Russell his break. He remains fully behind the Englishman.<\/p>\n
“George is really good at analyzing and assessing the situation,\u201d said Wolff. \u201cWe forget, in Montreal, he was on pole, he won the sprint race, he was leading the main Grand Prix. There was no discussion about a lack of speed. That was two weeks ago. So we’ve got to stay with both feet on the ground, work through the data, see why this one was a difficult one, and Miami was a difficult one. But that is not a pattern that I have seen through the season.”<\/p>\n
Wolff remains adamant that Russell has not lost his talent and will bounce back.<\/p>\n
“It’s not a question of not knowing how to drive,” said the Austrian. “It’s about having a car underneath that you feel confident with, and that you can go fast, and that’s a fact. Formula 1 is about physics and not mystics; you don’t unlearn how to drive, and you don’t become a miracle wonder driver. I’m not stressed at all for his performances, because we know he’s one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Monaco Grand Prix weekend could hardly have gone any better for Kimi Antonelli. In only his second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,183855,782,260963,784,578,576,577,237154,1642,260962,82],"class_list":["post-722217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collection-motorsport","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-88646ebc-0fff-46b6-b81c-a15c92fb8944","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-russell-falls-to-third-in-wdc-battle-as-teammate-surges","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}