NASCAR news

[HossC]

I'll write my F1 race report later when I have more time, but I just wanted to post a quick congratulations to ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica. He had what Rosco would call "a horrendous crash" at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix (see video below), and nearly died when a barrier penetrated the cabin of his rally car in 2011. Yesterday, he won the Le Mans 24 Hours in a privately entered Ferrari 499P alongside co-drivers Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson. They were just over 14 seconds ahead of the second placed Porsche.

 

[HossC]

Now back to the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix.

Most of the top 10 got off the grid in formation, but Kimi Antonelli was able to overtake championship leader Oscar Piastri on the first lap. A few laps later, Lando Norris picked up a few places. Positions were also swapped further down the field. Tires were wearing more quickly than expected, so Max Verstappen was the first of the leaders to make a pit stop.

The commentary mentioned that Lewis Hamilton had picked up damage around lap 13 which cost him an estimated half a second a lap. It was only today that I read that he'd hit a groundhog. As a well-known animal lover, Lewis was said to be "devastated" about the death of the animal.

Despite the pit stops, the leaders stayed in roughly the same order until around lap 62 (of 70) when Lando caught his team mate Oscar. After a few laps of the gap getting closer and closer (and both drivers catching Kimi in third), Lando went for an ill-judged overtake on the start/finish straight, lost his front wing and crashed into the wall. With only four laps to go to clear the debris, the race finished behind the safety car (because there's no refuelling, they can't extend the race like NASCAR does).

George Russell added his name and the Mercedes team to the list of 2025 winners, and Max picked up some useful points in second. In third, Kimi became the third youngest driver to take an F1 podium. Oscar increased his lead to 22 points by finishing fourth, while both Ferraris scored points in fifth and sixth with Charles Leclerc ahead of Lewis.

You can see the race highlights here.

The next race is the Austrian Grand Prix in two weeks.