Montreal (AFP) - Pre-season title favourite George Russell delivered a consummate lights-to-flag drive to win Saturday’s sprint race at the Canadian Grand Prix and trim his angry team-mate Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead.

The 28-year-old Briton came home 1.272 seconds clear of world champion Lando Norris of McLaren after resisting a spirited attack by the teenage Italian, who finished third, in the early part of the 23-lap race.

Norris’s McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri came home fourth ahead of both Ferraris with Charles Leclerc finishing fifth ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.

Four-time champion Max Verstappen finished seventh for Red Bull ahead of Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad.

It was the first sprint race held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and was a memorable one, with the scrap between Russell and Antonelli requiring an intervention from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, telling the precocious Italian to cool off and stop talking on the team radio.

The incident came on lap six when Antonelli, 19, tried a move around the outside of Turn One, but Russell defended stoutly forcing the Italian to run off with a muscular defence of his leading position.

“That was very naughty,” said Antonelli, who accused Russell of pushing him off. “That should be a penalty. I was alongside the mirror.”

His experienced race engineer Peter Bonnington told him to calm down and concentrate, but Antonelli was still fuming after the race.

“If we race like that, it is good to know,” said the teenager before Wolff told him: “Kimi, we don’t talk about this on the radio –- we do it internally.”

“l need to review on that because I was quite well alongside him at turn one,” said Antonelli. “But it was a good battle.”

- Recaptures momentum -

Russell, who won last year’s Canadian Grand Prix, re-established his seniority in the team with his drive and result.

“I was never really concerned. For me, Miami is a bit of a bogey track, but there was also this huge break in the calendar and lots of people had a lot to say (about me).

“I just wanted to get racing again and now I feel like this season is going to start now.”

Antonelli’s aggression and mishap gave Norris his opportunity, having had a perfect view of the battle ahead of him.

“It was good to watch them go at it for a little while,” he said. “But we were there to pick up the pieces when it happened.”

In a frantic race, Norris showed he had the speed and resolve to resist the clamour around Antonelli’s spectacular run of successes after three consecutive wins had lifted him 20 points clear in the title race after Miami.

The field was tightly packed with several close scraps, including the late moves that saw Piastri fight his way past Hamilton, who smacked the ‘wall of champions’ and slipped from fourth to sixth.

Antonelli also made a late bid to steal back into second place with another attempt to pass Norris on the outside of Turn One, but went off and had to give the place back after running through a run-off area.