At the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, Leclerc was in the back of the grid after an engine penalty, Perez dropped to a rare 13th place after a qualifying crash, and Verstappen was aiming for Montreal. Top podium. Finally on race day, on the sun-drenched circuit of Gilles Villeneuve, the Dutchman took pole position to finish off with his 26th F1 victory.
In the weekend’s game, Verstappen had been cruising all the way calmly. Then, as often happens at the Canadian Grand Prix, the unexpected happened. A safety car from Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda’s crash gave Sainz a “free” pit stop, Verstappen held the lead in the 70-lap marathon to the final 15 laps sprint, but Sainz quietly The ground lurks behind the tires, and there are six laps of tire advantage at that time.
Sainz loomed large, but Verstappen kept his cool
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Verstappen kept his composure as tensions mounted and had Sainz in his rearview mirror lap after lap as the Spaniard chased after the RB18 and the pair went straight from behind The last corner. It wasn’t until the last lap that Verstappen finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although the final lead was only a tiny 0.993 seconds, it was enough for the Austrian Red Bull’s six-game winning streak, which was also the team’s longest winning streak in nine years. win record.
Sainz finished his fifth career second, getting closer to his first victory in F1, while third on the podium was won by a resurgent Hamilton, the Messi. The Dess driver had a strong showing at the scene of his first F1 victory in 2007.
Leclerc was at the back of the grid with engine trouble and finished fifth, while Perez unfortunately retired early due to car trouble, which also allowed Verstappen to extend his series lead to a staggering one. 46 points and still leads the pack in the 12th round of 21 games this season.
Here are key facts about F1’s return to Canada after a three-year absence.
Can’t talk on the phone, but don’t worry about Verstappen
While Verstappen dominated the early encounters, his winning edge didn’t look reassuring. The reigning world champion’s composure remained the same throughout the 70 laps as the race on the St Lawrence river had several ups and downs with safety car interruptions.
A rainy qualifying session on Saturday disrupted the standard starting sequence, with Verstappen galloping from his second pole position of the year on lap 24 with a nine-second lead. The twists and turns in the later stages of the race also made the hearts of the Austrian Red Bull pit crew pound, especially with radio communication issues that made two-way communication impossible in the final stages. Verstappen, though, was pragmatic and flawless. He knew Sainz couldn’t pass him unless he made a mistake, so he just drove carefully.
“All in all, they (Ferrari) were very fast in the race… It was really exciting at the end and I gave it my all. Sainz is doing the same thing. It’s hard to keep up here but I can watch Until he was doing his best…the last few laps were really fun.
“Luckily we all looked fast on the straights this year, so that really helped. I liked the offense more than the defense, but it worked out in the end.”
No matter the conditions, Verstappen had Montreal’s measure
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The victory was the Austrian Red Bull’s third in Canada after Vettel in 2013 and Ricciardo in 2014, while Verstappen’s victory was his 26th in Formula 1, surpassing Three-time world champion Niki Lauda and two-time world champion Jim Clark are ninth all-time.
Austrian Oracle Red Bull Racing team leader Horner was all smiles after the race, but admitted there were still moments of sweaty palms.
“It wasn’t easy at all for the last 10 laps,” Horner said. “(Ferrari) could attack and stay close, but luckily they didn’t make a single mistake.”
“We lost contact with the car, only one-way talk – he could hear us but we couldn’t hear him. I guess he doesn’t really need us either…
“We have achieved good results together, Verstappen is doing his own way and the team is doing well.”
The victory also gave Austrian Red Bull a 76-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors’ title race with 304 points.
Perez’s Canada curse continues
Despite Verstappen’s success, the run in Canada has not been perfect for Austrian Red Bull, with Perez’s recent stellar performance coming to an abrupt end.
The Mexican driver is coming to Montreal with a top-four finish in the first seven races and a podium finish five of the past six Grand Prix, but Canada and Perez always seem to be at odds with each other in eight career races. With only three points in Canada, it’s hard to match his recent strong record.
Pérez’s race was short and not particularly sweet
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From qualifying, Perez’s history proved stronger than the momentum, as he skidded off the track at Turn 3 in Q2 and slammed his head into the protective wall, his worst record in his previous 18 races starting position, ranked 13th. Hopes were high at the time of the race, he said he intended to run for a longer period of time after the start and beat his opponents when they pitted on hard tyres, but a gearbox failure made him the first in the race after just eight laps Retired driver.
The good news is that with Leclerc only 10 points in fifth, Perez remains second in the drivers’ standings behind Verstappen, the team’s first since the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix. Second time in the standings with a score of 1-2.
AlphaTauri team back in Montreal not happy
Kakuda Yuki inadvertently provided a headline for the Scuderia AlphaTauri on Sunday when he came out of the pits in a crash on his debut at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit, with the resulting safety car set in the stands That is done.
The Japanese driver started from the back row alongside Leclerc as he had to bear the penalty for his own engine change. Unfortunately, at the end, he became one of the three drivers who failed to finish the race.
Tsunoda was contrite after his late-race mistake
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It was also a race with nothing in return for teammate Gasly, who had a braking problem in qualifying and had to start from 16th, a brutal blow as he A very promising second place finish in wet conditions in the final practice session. Reliability problems arose as early as the fourth lap of Sunday’s race, when he finished 14th.
Two-time world champion Alonso was the talk of the town after Saturday’s qualifying session, with the Alpine team veteran finishing second in qualifying, his best finish since the German Grand Prix 10 years ago. Only a month away from his 41st birthday.
The Spanish driver, well aware that he could not compete for victory with the likes of Verstappen and Sainz, crossed the line in seventh. More bad news followed, however, as a five-second penalty against Alfa Romeo’s Bottas on the penultimate lap sent him down to ninth.
Alonso’s impressive qualifying performance made him the oldest driver in the front row since Michael Schumacher, 43, finished second at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix; Michael’s Ermi Kerr finally had his first point hopefuls in F1 when he finished a thrilling sixth place for Haas, but the German driver retired on lap 19 with a points run.
F1 Formula 1, for the next round of the 2022 season, will return to the starting point of the event at the British Grand Prix (3 July), Silverstone on 13 May 1950 for (to date) 1066 races The first race in the Grand Prix was also a long time ago? The last time Austrian Red Bull sprayed British Grand Prix victory champagne at the famous old World War II airport was Mark Weber in 2012.
Verstappen has won an F1 race at Silverstone before, but it was a one-off 70th Anniversary Grand Prix in 2020 as part of a hastily rescheduled, reduced-schedule event due to the coronavirus pandemic. A year ago, Verstappen’s victory in the sprint at Silverstone gave him his first pole position at the British Grand Prix.
Perez’s Silverstone record is relatively lackluster. The Mexican driver finished 16th last year after being left behind in the early races of the sprint, and he has also missed two races in 2020. He finished sixth for Force India in 2016, his best finish to date in 10 races.