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Mercedes has revealed the exact reason for George Russell’s sudden retirement from the Canadian Grand Prix could take “several months” to be confirmed due to complications.
Russell Kimi led Antonelli until a power-unit problem forced him to stop and allow his Mercedes team-mate to take his fourth straight victory.
It means Russell trails Antonelli by 43 points in the drivers’ championship ahead of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, live on Sky Sports F1.
“It was an engine kill caused by a battery failure, which suffered a catastrophic failure a third of the way into the race and ended George’s race there,” Mercedes technical director James Allison said. Short video of the team.
“We could see enough at the end of the run that the battery was pretty unhappy, there was some heat loss and we’ll have to find out exactly what caused that in the coming days and weeks and fix that.”
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Russell talks through his painful race exit from the Canadian Grand Prix
The new 2026 Formula 1 regulations were expected to cause major unreliability problems across the grid, but Russell’s power-unit issue was the first sudden retirement for a driver running at the sharp end of the race.
There were no signs of the problem and Mercedes’ deputy team principal Bradley Lord confirmed there was a “reasonable amount of damage” afterwards.
Lord Yoga Mercedes Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show: “We got the car back and were able to get the module out of it. It had to go through some unusual security procedures and then send it back to the UK.
“So it’s going to be several months before the hardware comes back and we really have to dig into the data to understand exactly what went wrong and then how do we try and prevent a repeat on another module in the future.”
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David Croft and Jamie Chadwick look back at Kimi Antonelli’s epic battle with Mercedes teammate Russell at the Canadian Grand Prix
Sky Sports F1’s Monaco GP live schedule
Thursday 4 June
12.20pm: F3 practice
1.55pm: F2 exercise
2.55pm: Drivers’ press conference
4pm: Paddock uncut
Friday June 5
10am: F3 qualifying
12pm: Monaco GP Practice One (Session starts at 12.30pm)
2.05pm: F2 qualifying
3 pm: Team bosses’ press conference
3.30pm: Monaco GP Practice Two (Session starts at 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 show
Saturday 6th June
9.40am: F3 sprint
11.15am: Monaco GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Monaco GP qualifying build-up
3pm: Monaco GP Qualifying*
5pm: Ted’s qualifying notebook
Sunday, June 7
6.50am: F3 Feature Race
8.30am: F2 Feature Race
10.50am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Monaco GP Build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
2pm: Monaco Grand Prix*
4pm: Monaco GP Reaction: Checkered flag*
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
*Also on Sky Sports main events
Watch the Monaco Grand Prix, the first of six races in eight weeks, on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Stream Sky Sports now – no contract, cancel anytime
