Canadian Grand Prix: Verstappen – Sainz – Hamilton

Sunny. Dry. Air +20…21С, route +41С

The Canadian Grand Prix ended the season’s third in a series of two double stages and the spring-summer period of away games. With four wins in the last five Grands Prix and 67 points from Charles Leclerc in that period, Max Verstappen has a great opportunity to extend his lead before returning to Europe. In Montreal he dominated the weekend and confidently won pole, and his main rival was even penalized twice – Leclerc not only retired (leading) due to engine failure in the last race, but was also fined in Canada for replacing the power plants from the last row.

It was dry in Montreal on Friday, with Verstappen showing the best time in training. It rained on Saturday, and in the morning Alonso led protocol, and in the afternoon there was an interesting qualifying on a drying track, when the riders used wet tires first, then intermediate, and Russell risked slicks on the last attempt, but guessed it not.

On the grid just behind Verstappen’s Red Bull was Alpine Alonso – the first time since Germany’12 that the Spaniard started the race from the front row. Sainz and Hamilton started second and another sensation from third was Haas F1 drivers Magnussen and Schumacher. Leclerc and Tsunoda, after switching the power plants, shared the last row.

Sunday was sunny and dry, race day was the hottest of the weekend, making it difficult for the teams to work with tires. Pirelli brought a “soft” trio of compositions on stage – C3, C4 and C5 in the role of Hard, Medium and Soft. In the race, Bottas, Perez, Norris, Stroll and Leclerc started on Hard, the rest on Medium.

Verstappen kept the lead at the start. Magnussen attacked Hamilton and did not avoid contact, but was left behind. Okon and Russell overtook Schumacher. Leclerc and Tsunoda were ahead of Latifi. Bottas lost two positions.

Top ten in round 2: Verstappen – Alonso – Sainz – Hamilton – Magnussen – Windows – Russell – Schumacher – Riccardo – Zhou.

Sainz was ahead of Alonso in the battle for second place. Russell passed Magnussen for fifth.

On lap 6, Vettel and Gasly switched tires. Zhou overtook Ricciardo for ninth place.

Magnussen was shown a black and orange flag – the car was damaged in the Hamilton incident, he turned into the pit, changed tires and nose fairing.

On lap 8, Sergio Pérez complained of gearbox problems and withdrew. To evacuate the car, VSC mode was announced.

Top ten in round 9: Verstappen – Sainz – Alonso – Hamilton – Russell – Windows – Schumacher – Zhou – Riccardo – Albon.

Verstappen, Hamilton, Tsunoda and Latifi switched tires. The race was led by Sainz. Max came back in third, Lewis in sixth.

On the 11th lap, the riders continued to fight.

On lap 12 Hamilton overtook Okon for fifth.

On lap 14, Leclerc overtook Norris for 12th.

On lap 15, Verstappen overtook Alonso for second.

Top ten in round 15: Sainz – Verstappen – Alonso – Russell – Hamilton – Windows – Schumacher – Zhou – Riccardo – Albon.

On lap 18 Bottas and Leclerc were ahead of Elbon, on lap 19 Alex turned into the pits and switched tires.

Due to problems with the MGU-K, Mick Schumacher stopped the car in the safety zone and withdrew from the race. The VSC regime was re-announced. Russell, Okon, Zhou, Ricciardo, Norris and Vettel switched tires. There was a breakdown at Lando’s pit stop – the tires weren’t ready.

Sainz also made a pit stop on the next lap.

In the 21st round, the battle continued. Leclerc pushed Bottas ahead and moved up to seventh. Sainz overtook Alonso.

On lap 24 Hamilton overtook Alonso for third.

Top ten in round 25: Verstappen – Sainz – Hamilton – Alonso – Russell – Ocon – Leclerc – Bottas – Stroll – Zhou.

On lap 29, Alonso switched tires.

Leclerc put Ocon under pressure for a long time, but on fresher tires Esteban accelerated better at the exits and did not let the opponent go.

On the 37th lap Gasly made a pit stop, on the 39th – Latifi – there was a hitch in the mounting of the right front wheel.

On lap 42, Leclerc, who was driving seventh, switched tires and only returned to the track in 12th – there was a pitfall failure with the left rear wheel mounting.

On lap 43 Verstappen and Norris made a pit stop. Max took off next to Hamilton – and Lewis stayed in front. On the 44th Hamilton switched tires.

Leclerc overtook Riccardo and Tsunoda and moved up to tenth.

Russell made a pit stop on lap 46. In 47th place, LeClair beat Zhou for ninth.

On lap 48, Stroll and Tsunoda switched tires.

Back on track, Tsunoda crashed the car just after leaving the pit lane, locking up the tires. The safety car drove away.

Sainz, Albon, Ocon, Alonso, Bottas, Zhou and Ricciardo have changed tires.

Top ten in round 50: Verstappen – Sainz – Hamilton – Russell – Ocon – Alonso – Leclerc – Bottas – Vettel – Zhou.

On the 54th lap, a restart was announced. All riders have kept their positions.

On lap 57, Zhou passed Vettel and Ricciardo Stroll.

On lap 58, Gasly was ahead of Magnussen, Ricciardo ahead of Vettel and Leclerc ahead of Alonso.

On lap 60 Leclerc overtook Okon and Stroll passed Vettel.

Top ten in round 61: Verstappen – Sainz – Hamilton – Russell – Leclerc – Ocon – Alonso – Bottas – Zhou – Riccardo.

The last ten laps pushed Sainz Verstappen for first place, but the speed difference was not enough to overtake.

In the closing laps Stroll passed Ricciardo in tenth position after the Australian had problems with his brakes.

Max Verstappen won the Canadian Grand Prix, scoring his sixth win of the season, his 26th in his career – and further distanced himself from his pursuers in the individual standings.

Carlos Sainz climbed to the second step of the podium, Lewis Hamilton finished third.

In two weeks the battle will continue at Silverstone.

Race results

* added five seconds to Norris’s pit lane speeding score
** added five seconds to Fernando Alonso’s result

best lapTime: Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) – 1:15.749 (lap 63, 207,258 km/h)

Reasons for leaving

Championship position : Individual

Championship position : Constructors’ Championship

Team		engine	Glasses
†	1 Red Bull Racing	Red Bull powertrains	304
†	2 Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	228
†	3. Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	188
†	4 McLaren Racing	Mercedes	65
†	5 Alpine F1 Team	Renault	57
†	6. Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	Ferrari	51
†	7 Scuderia Alpha Tauri	Red Bull powertrains	27
	8. Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	Mercedes	16
	9 Haas F1 Team	Ferrari	fifteen
†	10 Williams Racing	Mercedes	3