Canada – Francophone Report: Leclerc third anonymous, Gasly and Grosjean far behind

Charles Leclerc: 3rd (3rd on the grid)

The Monegasque driver never managed to threaten his teammate during the most important moments of this weekend in Canada. Behind Vettel during Free Practice 3, Charles Leclerc was notably outpaced by 6 tenths in Q3, settling for third place, but still harbored some ambitions for the race.

Surely a little too kind at the start against Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari driver #16 was, throughout his first stint, 3 seconds behind the Briton. Leclerc then had a good lead over Valtteri Bottas and the two Renaults to delay his pit stop, executed on the 34th lap.

Coming out very far behind Hamilton, Leclerc subsequently drove a very anonymous race, more than 8 seconds away from second place. He managed to close in a bit on the leaders towards the end of the race but not enough to steal the second position from Vettel, who received a 5-second penalty. A consolation prize nonetheless for the former Sauber driver, who steps onto the second podium of his career, after the one achieved in Sakhir, at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

« I am quite happy with my race but of course disappointed for the team because I think Sebastian deserved to win. I was a bit alone: I lost time delaying my stop but I still made some up at the end. For us, it was a great race in terms of performance: we managed to be fast from the first lap to the last. It’s just a shame I didn’t perform better in qualifying. I need to work on qualifying because the pace is there in the race. » 🚨 Leclerc wasn’t aware of the 5 seconds! 🚨 The team wanted to stop Charles to get him the fastest lap. He refused the stop but fought for that bonus point. #CanadianGP #F1 #AuRupteur pic.twitter.com/D02sb3A2ek— Au Rupteur (@AuRupteur) 9 juin /f1/actualite/23372-vettel-sur-sa-penalite-ils-nous-ont-vole-la-course-.html

Pierre Gasly: 8th (5th on the grid)

Beating Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes to secure fifth place, the Norman achieved his best qualifying performance of the season. The catch, however, was his Q2, conducted on soft tires, unlike the other top drivers, all of whom were on hard tires.

This factor weighed on his race: at the start, Gasly failed to overtake Ricciardo’s Renault. His soft tires forced him to stop relatively early, on the eighth lap. His return to the track was in traffic and especially behind the local, Lance Stroll. Blocked behind the Canadian during his second stint in 8th position, the Red Bull driver finished the race in the same position! Another disappointing performance for Gasly, especially since Verstappen finished in fifth place despite starting from eleventh on the grid.

« This is not the result we were hoping for. With the strategy, we found ourselves in traffic, and then the tires, engine, and brakes started to heat up. We had to conserve everything, so we didn’t have speed. The car was well-tuned, but this position at the finish is disappointing. We’ll have to analyze all this and come back stronger for the French Grand Prix, my home race. »

Let’s indeed hope that Gasly will finally find the solution to beat his teammate: overall, he now has a 52-point deficit to Verstappen!

Romain Grosjean: 14th (14th on the grid)

The Frenchman can still complain. Unlucky in qualifying, eliminated in Q2 due to his teammate Kevin Magnussen’s crash, Romain Grosjean had a complicated race. A victim of the collision between Räikkönen and Albon, the driver with the number 8 was forced to cut through the escape road at the first corner, losing four positions in the process. Then in 18th place, the former Lotus driver climbed up the rankings, notably through pit stops, and was in 11th place after 13 laps.

Emerging 15th after his stop on the 36th lap (from mediums to hards), Grosjean finished his Canadian race in 14th place, following Räikkönen’s second stop on the 60th lap. However, the pace of the Haas was clearly not there, and the strategy did not allow the French driver to move up in the standings.

« It was a long race. Everything got complicated at the start: the guys in front of me took risks by being three abreast! I picked up debris on my car. After that, it was over, and we didn’t have much pace. For a few laps, it was good, and at the end, it was difficult! We need to analyze everything to have a better understanding of our race pace. »

In itself, a 150th career race to forget for Romain Grosjean who still has only 2 points on the board before heading to Le Castellet in two weeks…

#CanadianGP 🇨🇦 | L 33/70

Great overtaking by Pérez on Grosjean 👀#F1 pic.twitter.com/a6s6AMMSx5— Secteur F1 🏎️🇫🇷 (@Secteur_F1) June 9