Max Verstappen Clinches Top Spot at Canadian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen of Red Bull defeated late charges from Carlos Sainz of Ferrari to win the Canadian Grand Prix. Sainz put on a late-race charge to catch up to Verstappen, who remained in front despite using older tyres.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished in third and fourth places for Mercedes, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishing in fifth after starting last.

Verstappen was able to extend his lead in the Championship to 49 points over Leclerc.

Despite retiring from the race with an engine problem, Sergio Perez of Red Bull remains in second place, three points ahead of Leclerc.

Fernando Alonso, who last started on the front row in wet qualifying 10 years ago, finished seventh, behind teammate Esteban Ocon, after suffering from a questionable strategy from Alpine and some technical problems.

Fierce race to the end

During a race in which there were two virtual safety cars as well as a final full safety car, Verstappen and Sainz engaged in a cat-and-mouse game.

Perez’s early stop created the first VSC on lap nine, but Verstappen was pitted and Sainz stayed on the track, followed by the Spaniards’ second stoppage 11 laps later due to another VSC, which was created by Mick Schumacher’s Haas’s getting stuck on the track.

Sainz came back in contention after his second pit stop on lap 43, as tyre offsets set up a race in which he closed in on Verstappen slowly. Tsunoda’s accident on the exit to the pits prompted the final safety car. Sainz then benefited from it.

Despite being on six-lap-old tyres, the Ferrari driver was unable to close in on the Red Bull to mount an attack, and he followed within a second for the entire final fifteen laps.

Red Bull’s sixth straight victory, Verstappen’s fifth win in six races, and his own sixth win in nine this year sealed an increasingly decisive championship lead.

Poor Race for Alonso

After qualifying, Alonso said he wanted to battle Verstappen for the lead on the first lap, but the Red Bull pulled away too fast, forcing the veteran Spaniard to settle into second place.

During the two virtual safety cars, Sainz quickly passed Alpine and then fell into a trap of wrong thinking. Both Mercedes drivers stopped—Hamilton under the first safety car and Russell under the second one. Alonso didn’t stop for either safety car.

They were able to pass Alonso and he also was a passed by his teammate Ocon as the Frenchman and Russell stopped under the second VSC.

The timing of VSC affected Alonso’s performance. It occurred just after he passed the pit entrance on lap 19, and it terminated about two seconds before he reached it again on the next lap. But because Alpine stayed out, Alonso was left in no-man’s land, and his tyres began to lose traction soon after, forcing him to stop a few laps later under racing conditions, allowing Leclerc to pass him.

That meant that Alonso was racing behind Ocon in sixth but ahead of Leclerc for the final lap to the flag.

Leclerc did I good job of damage limitation in the championship as he passed the two Alpine cars to finish fifth, though there were doubts as to whether Ferrari made strategic mistakes.

Alonso may have had a faster car than Ocon but he was unable to pass him.

During qualifying, Alonso complained about the pace of his teammate, saying he had been much faster during the weekend. He said he was losing 0.5-1 seconds on the straights because of an engine problem and asked the team if they would let him swap positions.

Despite maintaining a significant pace advantage, Ocon finished ahead of him. Worse still, Alonso was later given a five-second penalty for weaving on the straight, relegating him to ninth.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were forced to settle for seventh and eighth places, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finishing tenth and scoring the final point in his home event.

The Next Race

There is a two-week break before the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Ferrari team will be searching for a big win as they’ll need to halt the Red Bull team’s momentum. It should also be a great track for the Mercedes team as it will suit their car.

Williams Racing Performance

Alex Albon finished 13th and Nicholas Latifi 16th after starting 12th and 19th respectively.

What they said:

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:

It was always going to be difficult to hang on to what we earnt yesterday, and we didn’t have the pace to hold off the quicker cars that started behind us. However, we did have a good race with Gasly and Norris and we were close to Vettel and Ricciardo at the end too. Like last weekend, the timing of the virtual safety car was not good for Alex, but he kept his head down and made the best of it.

Similar to Alex, Nicholas struggled to find pace during the race despite his best efforts. As a team it was great to be a part of Nicholas’ first home race and experience the support from the fans. We needed a little more basic car pace to be able to really race for points and everyone in Grove is working very hard to deliver that to the track as soon as possible.

Alex Albon:

Going into this weekend, we knew this track was going to be difficult and despite our good qualifying, in the first 3-4 laps I could tell it was going to be a struggle. I think P13 was all we could have achieved today so at face value; I am quite happy with it. Going into the next stint of races, hopefully we can make these upgrades and continue to improve on this.

Nicholas Latifi:

The overall experience of the weekend has been pretty special. It’s great to finally have my first home race and the support I felt from my family, friends and all the fans in the grandstands was amazing. In terms of on track, we were lacking a lot of pace and we need to try to understand why in both high and low fuel. We have two weeks now to try and do a bit of analysis before heading to Silverstone. Regardless of the result, this weekend has been one to remember.

Canada Grand Prix Results

2022 FIA Formula One World Championship Schedule