The start of the 2026 Formula 1 season has felt a bit like the start of the Canadian Grand Prix: a couple of stalled attempts, before finally getting underway at the third time of asking. The first third of the season has been punctuated by the unscheduled break due to the conflict in the Middle East, plus the scheduled rest & travel breaks between the Miami and Canadian races giving us just 5 races in 3 months. As the season now enters its European stage we'll pick up a more regular cadence of races, with 6 events over 8 weeks leading up to the summer break.

And yet we will still arrive at Monaco with a runaway leader; Kimi Antonelli fronting teammate George Russell now by 43 points - the largest Championship lead by a driver since Verstappen's early dominance of the ground-effect era. It would be naive to start claiming the season was already over when there is still a minimum of 17 races remaining, but Antonelli is continuing to show his credentials and demonstrate why Mercedes picked him to fill the shoes of his 7-time World Champion predecessor.

When Linblad's RB was cleared from the grid and the race in Canada did finally get going, we were treated to some battling between teammates reminiscent of Hamilton vs Rosberg at Bahrain a decade ago. The lead swapped between Russell and Antonelli no less than half a dozen times, but unlike the "yo-yoing" passes created by the boost button, these were largely driven by the drivers having to handle the gusty conditions and capitalising on mistakes under braking for the hairpin. The racecraft at the front was ferocious, close and world-class.

Russell showed his experience, remaining unflustered by the Italian in his mirrors. Antonelli pushed his senior every way he could, somehow - occasionally more by luck than good judgement - not touching or colliding with his teammate. Kudos must be given to the Mercedes team for allowing the battling to continue, with only a reminder to remain fair being passed down from the pit wall. It was such a shame then to be robbed of a natural climax to this battle by a mechanical failure, a relative rarity in modern F1, that left George Russell only able to watch his car being lifted away along with his chances of making a meaningful dent in Antonelli's championship lead.

The majority of the F1 grid are still waiting to try this generation of cars on a wet track, as for the second race in succession the promised (or feared) rain didn't materialise. This was of particular pain to the McLaren team who, for some unfathomable reason, elected to start both cars on intermediate tyres despite a clearly drying track. Their choice did give some immediate return as the double-aborted start and cold track conditions gave them far higher grip off the line, with Lando Norris slicing past both Mercedes to take the lead into turn 1.

It quickly became apparent the intermediates were the wrong choice though and both cars pitted for slicks in the opening laps. This put them both back in the pack and out of position; Lando had some early skirmishes across the grass and Oscar severely mis-judged a gap in trying to make his way through the midfield, colliding with Alex Albon at the hairpin. It ended a bad weekend for the Williams driver, which started with his team having to extract an unfortunate groundhog from his front wing and ended with them having to remove parts of Piastri's McLaren from his sidepod.

The resulting pitstop for Piastri to change his front wing, plus the resultant 10-second penalty left him outside the points. And although Norris was able to take advantage of the VSC caused by Russell's stricken Mercedes to regain some places, his gearbox checked-out a few laps later, leaving the Woking team empty handed and losing ground to Ferrari in the Constructors' championship.

With one Mercedes down and McLaren mastering their own downfall, this opened up opportunities for the second two steps on the podium. Luigi Hamilton had been showing good pace all weekend, at a track he enjoys and was the location for his maiden career win 19 years ago. The Ferrari started well and was able to keep the leaders in sight, although he was passed by Max Verstappen - the Red Bull equally showing a good turn of pace in race trim. After pitting under the VSC for fresh medium tyres and already running in third, Lewis was able to slowly close the gap back to Max.

Following the inevitable observation from Brundle: "it's one thing to catch but quite another to pass", the two former world champions provided another period of entertaining racing, before the Brit was able to use his grip and guile to get past the Dutchman into turn 1. A slightly deep entry to the hairpin a few laps later almost gave Verstappen a chance to return the favour, but Hamilton was able to keep him behind and pick up his best race result so far wearing Ferrari red. A happy Lewis Hamilton makes the paddock seem a much more joyous place to be; his warmth and enthusiasm showing throughout the post-race celebrations and into the media pen.

Elsewhere, Charles Leclerc drove a rather lonely race to finish fourth, although may have ended with more in his seat than just the water after nearly dropping the car out of the last corner, narrowly avoiding the 'wall of champions'. Hadjar will also leave Canada wondering "what if" as he ended up with more time-penalties than points and could have challenged for the podium with a cleaner race. Alpine continued their strong start to the season with an excellent double-points finish.

The Canadian race was the first race with the reduced harvesting limits on the battery, introduced as part of the regulation adjustments agreed during the April break. At a flowing track like Gilles Villeneuve where there are few hard braking zones to charge the batteries, the reduced limit meant that there was less incentive for the teams to harvest whilst still on the power - the dreaded "super clipping". This led to a much more natural feel to the racing style. Combined with the ability of these cars to follow closely without suffering significant performance drops and the low temperatures allowing drivers to push on their tyres provided a race that was intriguing and entertaining throughout, in stark contrast to the opening races in Australia and China.

Monaco will offer a very different challenge, as always. It will be interesting to see how the new generation cars step up to the challenge. In the hands of a couple of locals, it's a track where the Ferrari's lower top speed will not present as much of a hindrance so expect them to be strong. George Russell will be looking to bounce back and attempt to reassert some form of control over his position: Toto Wolff would not be drawn into when or whether they would implement any driver priorities - but with 4 drivers now closer behind Russell than Antonelli is in front, that may only be a matter of time.

Either way, it feels like the 2026 season has finally arrived and is set to put on a show.