Max Verstappen was in cruise control as he coasted to another victory Sunday at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The pole-sitter led every lap from start to finish to earn his sixth victory of the season and extend his championship points lead to 69 over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished second and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes came in third as the veteran drivers sparked an entertaining battle.
Here’s what you need to know from the Canadian Grand Prix.
NEW CHAPTER TO ALONSO-HAMILTON RIVALRY
With Verstappen still on another level, the most intriguing fight during the Canadian Grand Prix took place between Alonso and Hamilton, two veteran world champions who have renewed their rivalry (in a friendly way but perhaps that’s just because they’ve mellowed out with age).
Hamilton managed to get the jump at the start, but Alonso battled back and retook second place with a DRS assist towards the end of Lap 22.
Alonso appeared to be dealing with brake issues — his team told him to “lift and coast” to go easy during turns — but he never relinquished his position.
There’s also a resurgence of confidence in the 41-year-old Alonso. When Alonso was informed Hamilton was only 1.9 seconds behind, he cooly replied: “Copy, leave it to me.”
Alonso and Hamilton are fighting for third in the championship, but they can surely catch Perez for second soon enough. Perez has had some poor qualifying runs lately that have held him back enough on race day and are allowing Alonso and Hamilton to close the gap.
MAX’S MILESTONE
Verstappen’s dominance continued as he led every lap for the third consecutive race for this 41st career win. That ties Ayrton Senna for fifth place on the all-time F1 wins list as Verstappen continues to climb past the greats.
Up next in fourth place is Alain Prost with 51 wins. At the rate he’s going, Verstappen could definitely catch Prost by the end of the year with 14 races remaining on the calendar.
Verstappen isn’t perfect as there’s still the possibility for unforced errors as we saw on Lap 66 when he caught a curb and almost lost it. Fortunately for Verstappen, he was able to laugh it off and continue on his merry way.
Red Bull also picked up a 100th victory to become just the fifth team to hit the century mark joining Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Mercedes. Credit to Red Bull and chief technical officer Adrian Newey, who has been at the helm since 2006 crafting a car this year that’s practically perfect without any reliability issues.
FERRARI NAILS STRATEGY
Considering how the weekend started, Ferrari deserves credit for how it ended.
Charles Leclerc bickered with his team over tire selection during qualifying and didn’t make it out of the second session while Carlos Sainz was dinged three places on the grid due to impeding Pierre Gasly. That had Leclerc and Sainz starting 10th and 11th, respectively, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez right behind them and potential for trouble at the start.
The Ferraris managed to fend off the threat from Perez and stayed out on their starting tires until the midway point of the race — well after everyone else had already pitted at least once. Leclerc and Sainz switched to the hard tires that carried them to the finish line in fourth and fifth, respectively.
It was probably the best possible outcome Ferrari could have hoped for, all things considered, as they salvaged what was shaping up to be another miserable weekend.
STROLL-ING INTO THE TOP 10
Aston Martin chairman and Montreal native Lawrence Stroll was hoping for a double podium for his team at his home event.
Qualifying dashed those dreams as driver Lance Stroll was on the wrong set of tires during the wrong time and a penalty for impeding Esteban Ocon pushed him back to 16th on the starting grid. Considering Stroll started 17th last year and managed to finish 10th in an inferior car, points definitely weren’t out of the equation.
The younger Stroll ended up moving seven spots once more as he finished ninth after McLaren’s Lando Norris was penalized five seconds for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Stroll would have finished within the points regardless as he passed Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo for 10th on the final lap. Again, a salvageable effort.
ALBON BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO WILLIAMS
Alex Albon looked transformed as he made the most of the new upgrades to his Williams car this weekend. Albon actually had the fastest lap during the second session of Saturday’s qualifying and proved it was no fluke as he hung tough to finish seventh ahead of a traffic jam of cars.
It was Albon’s best finish since joining Williams last season and his best result in F1 since his last race with Red Bull at the end of 2020 when he was fourth at the finale in Abu Dhabi.
Albon previously scored one point to start this season in Bahrain and the six he earned in Canada helped lift Williams out of the constructors’ basement. AlphaTauri, with just two points, now sits at the bottom as Red Bull-owned teams bookend first and last in the standings.
Williams is also one point back of Haas and Alfa Romeo, both with eight points apiece. Now if only Albon’s rookie teammate Logan Sargeant could get some of those upgrades.
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