Having to retire from a race is never ideal for an F1 driver – but a sudden exit feels even worse when it happens whilst in the lead of the Grand Prix. George Russell experienced this heartbreak recently at the Canadian Grand Prix, where he had managed to keep chasing Mercedes team mate Kimi Antonelli at bay in a feisty battle for P1 before a battery failure on Lap 30 forced the Briton to come to a halt.

With Antonelli going on to win and stretch his championship lead to 43 points, it was a tough outcome for Russell. But if it is any consolation to him, he joins a list of famous names who have also suffered the heartbreak of retiring as the race leader…

Mika Hakkinen, 2001 Spanish Grand Prix

Having failed to win a race or stand on the podium across the opening four rounds of the 2001 season, Mika Hakkinen looked on course to change that at the fifth event of the campaign, the Spanish Grand Prix. After running in P2 behind Ferrari's Michael Schumacher for several laps, the McLaren driver took the lead during the second round of pit stops and built a sizeable gap back to the German.

However, Hakkinen's hopes of victory were suddenly dashed on the final lap when smoke started to emerge from the rear of his slowing McLaren. As the Finn pulled off track – a hydraulic issue preventing him from reaching the finish line – Schumacher swept past to take his third win of the season.

Hakkinen would have to wait until Round 11 of the campaign at Silverstone to experience a victory, while another followed at the penultimate race in Indianapolis – a triumph that would prove to be his last, with the two-time World Champion leaving F1 at the end of 2001.

Kimi Raikkonen, 2005 European Grand Prix

In the category of Finnish drivers experiencing last-lap retirements, Kimi Raikkonen – the man who would replace Hakkinen at McLaren in 2002 – suffered a particularly memorable exit from the lead at the Nurburgring in 2005.

Raikkonen was no stranger to poor luck during his days with the Woking-based outfit, having recorded 10 reliability-related DNFs across the 2002 season alone. But his fortunes seemed to improve somewhat as the years progressed and he became a regular race winner in 2005 as he fought Renault's Fernando Alonso for the title.

After back-to-back victories in Spain and Monaco, Raikkonen arrived at the European Grand Prix weekend looking to extend that run, and the chances of achieving this appeared good as he led the final stages of the race. However, 'the Iceman' was driving with a flat-spotted tyre in the closing laps. McLaren opted to keep him out on track rather than pitting and losing a potential win – but that decision backfired when the increasing vibrations caused Raikkonen's suspension to dramatically break on the last lap, sending him crashing into the barriers while Alonso claimed P1 instead.

Ayrton Senna, 1989 Canadian Grand Prix

Like Russell, Ayrton Senna was another driver to see a potential win slip out of his hands in Montreal back in 1989 – a season famed for being one of several dominated by a fierce championship fight between Senna and rival Alain Prost.

At Round 6 of the season, it was Prost who took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix ahead of McLaren team mate Senna. While the Frenchman initially led, he retired after only two laps due to a suspension issue. A pit stop on Lap 4 for slick tyres amid changing conditions resulted in Senna dropping backwards, but the Brazilian carved his way through the field to eventually become the race leader again.

That ascent was undone, however, just three laps from the finish when the Honda engine in his MP4/5 gave up, forcing him to pull off the track. Williams' Thierry Boutsen subsequently claimed the first of his three wins in F1, while Senna would go on to just miss out on the World Championship following a controversial clash with Prost later in the campaign at Suzuka.

Alain Prost, 1993 Italian Grand Prix

The French driver also experienced his fair share of dramatic retirements – including one in 1993 that delayed the arrival of his fourth and final title.

Following a hiatus in 1992, Prost returned to the grid with Williams in the year that followed and embarked on a hugely successful season, scoring a total of seven victories and 13 pole positions along the way. Arriving into Round 13 of the campaign, the Italian Grand Prix, an eighth win for Prost would seal his fourth World Championship, and the driver known as 'the Professor' bolstered his chances by leading from pole when the race got underway at Monza.

While team mate Damon Hill was chasing him as the afternoon progressed, Prost still looked on course for victory – but his Renault engine failed just five laps from the finish, meaning that the Frenchman would have to wait until the next round in Portugal to seal his crown.

Sebastian Vettel, 2018 German Grand Prix

Looking back on his six-year stint as a Ferrari driver, Sebastian Vettel once named the 2018 season as "a decisive year for many things" – and while this referred to various goings-on at the team off track as well as on it, the German admitted that his infamous exit from his home race was "a little mistake but [with] a huge outcome".

Having finished second in the 2017 Drivers' Championship to Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, Vettel launched his title bid for 2018 with four victories across the opening 10 rounds – and, lining up in pole position for his home event at Hockenheim, the four-time World Champion looked set to potentially add another to his tally.

Vettel was leading when rain started to fall as the race entered its final third, but there was heartbreak for the local hero when he ran off the track and into the barriers on Lap 52 of 67, leaving him visibly upset as he hit the steering wheel in frustration.

Hamilton went on to lead home team mate Valtteri Bottas in a 1-2 for the Silver Arrows, the Briton embarking on a dominant run through the remainder of the season that saw him clinch his fifth World Championship.

Charles Leclerc, 2022 Spanish Grand Prix

During his final two seasons as a Ferrari driver in 2019 and 2020, Vettel was partnered with the up-and-coming Charles Leclerc – a driver who would experience a dramatic championship-affecting retirement from the race lead himself in the years that followed.

The start of the 2022 campaign – which kicked off the sport's new era of ground effect regulations – went well for the Scuderia, with Leclerc heading the Drivers' Championship ahead of Round 6, the Spanish Grand Prix. Leclerc took pole position at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and soon found himself comfortably leading the race, with strong gusts into Turn 4 causing the likes of team mate Carlos Sainz and Red Bull's Max Verstappen to go off track and drop down the order.

However, the Monegasque's afternoon rapidly came undone when his car lost power on Lap 28, sparking cries of "No, no, no!" from Leclerc as he was forced to retire. Verstappen eventually won the race and with it claimed the lead in the title fight, a position he would not surrender en route to his second World Championship.

Nigel Mansell, 1991 Canadian Grand Prix

Another entry on the list of race-leading retirements at the Canadian Grand Prix comes courtesy of Nigel Mansell's last-lap exit during the 1991 event.

The start of the season had been dominated by Ayrton Senna and McLaren, the Brazilian having won every race across the opening four rounds. It was Mansell in the Williams, however, that made a good launch in Montreal – and when Senna retired from the running on Lap 25, the opportunity for a win looked even more feasible for race leader Mansell.

By the last lap, the Briton was still in P1 ahead of Benetton's Nelson Piquet – but the Williams suddenly slowed midway around the track and came to a halt, allowing Piquet to grab what would prove to be the last victory of his F1 career. The cause of Mansell's retirement looked to be due to a gearbox issue, though rumours circulated that he may have stalled the car after letting his engine revs drop whilst waving to fans at the hairpin.

Lewis Hamilton, 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix

Russell's sudden DNF in Canada has seen him lose ground to Mercedes team mate Antonelli in what has so far been a close intra-team fight for the title – and someone who knows exactly what that feels like is Lewis Hamilton.

Back in 2016, Hamilton had been locked in a famously tense championship battle with fellow Silver Arrows racer Nico Rosberg – and when the paddock arrived in Malaysia for Round 16 of 21, the Briton appeared on course for his seventh win of the campaign.

A collision at the first corner between Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel saw Rosberg drop backwards, while Hamilton went on to build a significant lead. But with just 15 laps remaining, smoke billowed from the rear of Hamilton's car and the championship contender subsequently pulled off the track and out of the race.

Leaving Sepang with no points – in contrast to a P3 finish for Rosberg – meant that Hamilton fell back by 23 points from his team mate in the standings, with Rosberg ultimately going on to take the crown at the end of the season before announcing his immediate retirement from the sport.