Canadian Grand Prix – Race: Verstappen unbeatable in Montreal

The beginning of the race

While Saturday had been eventful with rain, the race started under bright sunshine. Max Verstappen took the best start. After the first lap, the Dutch driver already had a one-second lead over Fernando Alonso. The Red Bull driver knew how important it was for his race to use the Alpine of the two-time world champion as an obstacle to slow down Carlos Sainz. Alonso’s barrier cracked on the third lap, as soon as the DRS was allowed. However, the number 55 driver was already three seconds behind the race leader.

Various problems

Kevin Magnussen was instructed to come into the pits on the 8th lap to repair his front wing. It had been slightly damaged following contact with Lewis Hamilton on the first lap. Despite putting in a strong performance during qualifying and setting the 5th fastest time, the Danish driver found himself in last place right from the start of the race.

After his crash in qualifying, Sergio Perez’s Canadian weekend didn’t improve in the race. Indeed, the Mexican driver was suffering from a gearbox issue. Stuck in 3rd gear, the winner of the Monaco Grand Prix was forced to retire from the race. This is his second retirement of the season after the opening race in Bahrain.

Following Perez’s problem, a virtual safety car was triggered for 2 laps in order to clear the Red Bull. Nearly 10 laps later, a second VSC was deployed following Mick Schumacher’s retirement. Just as the German driver was scoring points, his hopes were shattered by an engine issue on his Haas.

Fernando Alonso was the big loser of the virtual safety car intervention. While his rivals took advantage to change their tires, the Alpine driver stayed on track and had to defend his position with worn-out tires against drivers with new ones. On the 15th lap of the race, Alonso was overtaken by Max Verstappen for the second position, before subsequently being overtaken by Sainz and Hamilton. It was on the 29th lap of the race that the Spaniard decided to change his tires. He got rid of his mediums and put on hards.

The halfway point

At the halfway point, it was Max Verstappen who was skillfully leading the race. The reigning world champion had an 8-second lead over Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and a 14-second lead over Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. The British driver was followed by his garage neighbor, George Russell. Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 5.

Desperate to not be able to overtake Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc decided to make a pit stop on the 42nd lap of the race. However, a relatively long stop of 5 seconds saw him rejoin in traffic. Taking advantage of his new medium tires, the Monegasque driver began overtaking one after another to find himself in 9th place by the 48th lap of the race.

The race resumed.

As he was fighting to potentially finish in the points, Yuki Tsunoda completely missed his exit from the pit lane on the 49th lap. Locking up his front wheels, the Japanese driver went straight ahead and crashed into the barriers. This accident caused the deployment of the safety car, resulting in a restart of the race.

This restart of the race didn’t benefit Carlos Sainz, who couldn’t keep up with the leader, Max Verstappen. And despite never letting up the pressure on the Red Bull, Sainz never managed to find a solution to overtake his former Toro Rosso teammate. The Dutchman continues to assert his dominance this season by claiming his 6th victory in 2022.

It’s Lewis Hamilton who closes the podium in Montreal. The Gilles Villeneuve circuit has always been one of the British driver’s favorite hunting grounds. It’s there that he won his first Formula 1 victory in 2007 behind the wheel of a McLaren. The seven-time world champion is followed by his teammate and Charles Leclerc, who managed to overtake the two Alpines to climb from 19th to 5th position.

The results of the Canadian Grand Prix 2022 for F1.