Max Verstappen wins in Canada ahead of Carlos Sainz and further extends his championship lead

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The opportunity was too good, Max Verstappen did not hesitate to (again) take advantage of it. The Red Bull driver won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday June 19 and can rub his hands. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 5th after a good comeback from his 19th place on the grid at the start, and Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) quickly forced to retire, the 2021 world champion becomes an even more comfortably leader installed in the driver rankings. The Dutchman is now 46 points ahead of his teammate Pérez, and 49 over Leclerc after nine Grands Prix, a chasm.

Behind Max Verstappen, the Canadian podium is completed by Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) who fought at a distance with the defending champion throughout the race, and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

On the shores of the St. Lawrence, this Montreal Grand Prix has long been a long calm river. The obstacle Fernando Alonso (Alpine), second on the starting grid but quickly dismissed by Carlos Sainz on the fourth lap, the fight for the final victory quickly turned into a battle of strategy between the Spaniard and Verstappen. The Dutchman took advantage of the abandonment of his pit neighbor Sergio Pérez – betrayed by his gearbox already damaged the day before in qualifying – to return to the pits on the 9th lap.

The beginning of a long crossover, with a virtual safety car and attempts to counter the tactics of the other in the pits. At this little game, Max Verstappen seemed on his way to a comfortable success. But Yuki Tsunoda’s (Alpha Tauri) silly mistake led to the only intervention of the “real” Grand Prix safety car at the start of the end of the race.

With fifteen laps still to go and a regrouping peloton, everything seemed to be back on track with an aggressive Sainz after failing to take control, the fault of a second stop that was too long when the race was neutralized. Usually so comfortable in the attacking posture, Verstappen this time had to fight to save his place and his victory, with impeccable composure. Carlos Sainz’s first F1 victory will still have to wait. The way to a second title opens a little more for the Batavian and Red Bull, winner of a sixth Grand Prix in a row.

Charles Leclerc will have tried everything to limit the damage of his 19th place on the starting grid after changing several elements of his Ferrari. Unleashed, the Monegasque finished 5th and could even be frustrated by the guilty trial and error of his pit mechanics who put him back in the heart of the peloton after his pit stop.

Behind the leading duo, Lewis Hamilton will have lived a completely different race than that of Baku last Sunday, finished crippled with back pain because of the infernal porpoising that his Mercedes suffered. The seven-time world champion signs his second podium of the season, from a distance of course, but with remarkable mastery. Fourth, George Russell continued his impressive consistency, again in the Top 5 for the ninth meeting in a row.

Disappointment therefore for Alpine, who started on the front row with Fernando Alonso after qualifying in the rain on Sunday. The dry track will have smiled less on the French team, more behind in 6th and 7th places, Esteban Ocon, finally finishing ahead of Alonso. Already struggling on Saturday because of his brakes, Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) finished in an anonymous 14th place.


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