{"id":731146,"date":"2026-06-12T03:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731146\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T03:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:37:17","slug":"george-russell-tipped-to-end-kimi-antonellis-winning-run-in-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731146\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell tipped to end Kimi Antonelli&#8217;s winning run in Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Formula 1 paddock has arrived in Spain for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, and former F1 driver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/david-coulthard\/68\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">David Coulthard<\/a> has backed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/george-russell\/21167\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">George Russell<\/a> for a comeback this weekend after a string of bad luck and poor results.<\/p>\n<p>While Russell won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and the Chinese sprint race, he has watched his 19-year-old team-mate Kimi Antonelli extend his lead in the drivers&#8217; championship with five consecutive grand prix victories. That could all be about to change if Coulthard is proved to be right.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/o5x5xEebTyY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-custom-text=\"1\">Up To Speed<\/a> podcast, Coulthard explained: &#8220;I think it&#8217;s going to be George&#8217;s comeback. George is going to be winning in Barcelona, and he&#8217;s going to come out swinging, and it&#8217;s going to be like Rocky 3.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Former F1 TV presenter and co-host of the Up To Speed podcast Will Buxton disagreed with Coulthard, arguing that Antonelli will likely celebrate his sixth win of the season in Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Kimi for the win. Kimi six in a row. He is breathing rarefied air. There is a looseness, a joy, just a oneness that\u00a0Kimi has at the moment that I think is going to be really, really hard for anybody to topple,&#8221; Buxton argued.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/george-russell-mercedes-amg-w1.jpg\" alt=\"George Russell, Mercedes-AMG W17\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">George Russell, Mercedes-AMG W17<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Erik Junius<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s got almost twice the points of his team-mate heading into Barcelona. You don&#8217;t drive the way that Kimi drove at Monaco unless you are in a very, very comfortable place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The on-track action for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix will begin on Friday 12 June with the first two practice sessions. Heading into the race, Antonelli leads the drivers&#8217; championship with 156 points. Seven-time champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/lewis-hamilton\/1278\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> follows in second with 90 points, and Russell sits third with 88 points.<\/p>\n<p>Ferrari&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/charles-leclerc\/109611\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Charles\u00a0Leclerc<\/a> and McLaren&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/oscar-piastri\/828689\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Oscar\u00a0Piastri<\/a> complete the top five with 75 and 60 points, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Photos from Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix &#8211; Thursday<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Formula 1 paddock has arrived in Spain for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, and former F1 driver David&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[3032,262910,49,48,578,262911,576,577,3024,263252,1881,82,4962],"class_list":["post-731146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-barcelona-catalunya-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-barcelona-catalunya-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-george-russell-tipped-to-end-kimi-antonellis-winning-run-in-barcelona","tag-mercedes","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731146","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=731146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}