Leslie: VER, NOR, PIA Lizzy: VER, RUS, RIC Alexandra: RUS, VER, NOR Ellie: VER, NOR, RUS Emily: VER, RUS, NOR Chloe: VER, RUS, NOR Frankie: VER, NOR, RUS Result: VER, NOR, RUS
This race, all of us were correct or very close! On to what we have learned for each team.
Red Bull: Red Bull’s weekend was a mixed bag, as it so often is. Verstappen performed brilliantly; qualifying second and winning the race in Sunday. There was little more he could do. Perez underperformed again. He was out in Q1, with a lap time almost a second behind his teammate who led the session, therefore turning Sunday into a recovery drive. His retirement from the race made a bad weekend worse.
McLaren: A great performance from both drivers. Third and fourth on the grid, and second and fifth in the race are excellent results.
Mercedes: Great finishing positions, but not so great in the context of qualifying. Third and fourth will provide them with many valuable points, however Russell dropping to third from pole dampens the result. Hamilton performed well on Sunday to gain three positions from his seventh place on the grid. A nice points haul, but much less than a perfect performance from the whole team.
Aston Martin: Both cars in Q3 and both cars in the points. A solid performance for the team, with good race pace from Stroll.
RB: Excellent qualifying with both drivers in Q3, but a less impressive race result. Both RB cars dropped back over the course of the race, not having the sustained pace to hold their starting positions. Points from Ricciardo, who finished eighth, was welcomed.
Alpine: A double points finish from 15th and 20th on the grid is fabulous for the team. This moves them up a position in the Constructors’ Championship.
Haas: Both Haas drivers narrowly missed out on points. They gained many places from their starting positions. Overall a promising weekend despite the lack of points.
Sauber: From 18th and 19th on the grid to 13th and 15th, the Sauber cars benefitted from the retirement of faster cars. No points to show, but a performance as expected.
Williams: What began hopeful did not end that way. Sargeant performed well in comparison to his other performances, making it to Q2 to qualify 13th. He crashed during the race, but managed to finish. Albon had quite a typical qualifying, starting P10 after another Q3 performance. He was taken out by Carlos Sainz and forced to retire following the crash.
Ferrari: All round, an abysmal weekend for the Italian team. Qualifying did not go their way, with both cars getting knocked out in Q2. Both cars went on to retire from the race. They came into this weekend as the reigning race winners, and left embarrassed.
George Russell took his first pole position this season, with Max Verstappen matching his time in qualifying, followed by both McLarens. Both Aston Martin cars made it through into Q3 for the first time since Australia, qualifying P6 and P9. After the incident in Monaco, Ocon was given a 5-place grid penalty, resulting in a P20 start.
Both Sauber drivers started from the pit lane due to a change in their wing set up. All the teams started the race on the intermediate tyres, except for the Haas cars.
As the lights went out, George Russell took the lead. Further down the field, Lewis Hamilton overtook Daniel Ricciardo. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both ran wide in lap one. Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly made contact, causing Gasly to fall down the leaderboard.
Within three laps, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen both made up ten places, landing themselves in P9 and P4 at the end of lap 3.
At the start of lap four, Leclerc’s engineer reported a potential engine problems for the Ferrari.
Hulkenberg was 1.6 seconds faster than the race leader going into lap five. The other Haas sat the fastest lap.
With only six laps raced, the yellow flag was waved. Logan Sargeant locked up going into turn six, however, he was quick to rejoin the race.
On lap seven, the Mercedes of George Russell set the fastest lap. However, it was more bad news for Leclerc as he continued to suffer with more issues. Russell pushed the Mercedes to set another fastest time on lap eight. Magnussen took to the pits for intermediate tyres and came out behind Yuki Tsunoda after an 8.6 second pit stop. Daniel Ricciardo was noted by race control for a jump start. Between lap nine and twelve, the fastest laps set swapped between Verstappen and Lando Norris, with Norris setting a lap time of 1:28.032.
Lap 13 saw disappointment after disappointment. As the circuit started to dry up, Hulkenberg started to fall back and Ricciardo was given a five second penalty for his start.
Russell was still leading the race by lap 14, followed by Verstappen. The McLaren of Norris was 4.8 seconds behind Verstappen, however he was able to cut the time between them down to less than one second within three laps. That same lap Verstappen locked up, allowing Norris to gain on the Red Bull.
The McLarens, who were currently P3 and P4, were building their speed continuously, setting the fastest lap time constantly, finishing with Oscar Piastri setting a lap time of 1:25.976.
20 laps in, we saw Norris overtake the world champion with ease. The following lap, Hamilton set the fastest lap with a time of 1:25.298. With a mistake made by Russel, Norris and Verstappen took the opportunity to overtake and Norris took the lead.
Norris extended the gap between himself and Verstappen and continued setting fastest lap times. He lapped Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu on lap 24, making the interval between him and the Red Bull over ten seconds.
The yellow flags were waved for the second time for Sargeant after he collided with the wall. The safety car was released just after Norris passed the pit entrance, allowing everyone behind him to pit. When Verstappen left the pits, the time difference between him and Norris was around 30 seconds. As Norris entered the pits to put a fresh set of inters on, the gap had closed, leading to him rejoining the race just ahead of his teammate, Piastri. After the multiple issues, Leclerc headed into the pits, luckily for him, after a 2.41 second pitstop, he was able to fix the problem.
The safety car went in on lap 30, and Verstappen kept the lead after the restart.
Magnussen started the second round of pit stops, with pitting on lap 41. The following lap, Leclerc and Valterri Bottas entered the pits, however, only the Sauber driver existed. Leclerc was told to retire the car due to the problems he faced earlier in the race.
Sainz, Perez and Ricciardo pitted on lap 44, with Piastri, Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon pitting the following lap. Verstappen and Russell pit on lap 46. And Norris, after setting another fastest lap, pitted on lap 47.
The next couple laps saw the close battle between Norris and Russell with both of them overtaking each other, though Norris takes the final overtake retaking P2.
Lap 53 saw Sainz and Albon crash, and Perez taking to the pits. All three of them retired from the race on lap 54 as the safety car was deployed, making it a double DNF for both Williams and Ferrari. Under the safety car, both Mercedes drivers pitted for mediums. After the safety car ended, the leaderboard stayed the same.
After DRS was enabled in lap 60, the overtaking started to happen in the following laps. Ocon was able to pass Tsunoda, and Russell took Piastri for P3. However a lap later, Russell and Piastri made contact, enabling Piastri and Hamilton to overtake Russell. Hamilton makes one of the final overtakes in Piastri to take P3.
With 4 laps left, the yellow flag waved for the last time after Tsunoda hit a bollard track marker. Hamilton set the final fastest lap of the race with a lap time of 1:15.074. Ricciardo was able to overtake the Alpine of Ocon for P8. And Russell came back for revenge, overtaking Piastri and a lap later, overtaking his teammate. The last overtake was made by Gasly with his teammate, Ocon.
Max Verstappen saw the chequered flag first, followed by Lando Norris and George Russell. The rest of the top ten was made up by Hamilton, Piastri, Alonso, Stroll, Ricciardo, Gasly and Ocon.
This is the first time Norris and Russell have shared a podium in Formula One.
The Canadian Grand Prix is back for its 54th year on the Formula One calendar.
Circuit Stats:
70 laps around the 4.361km track.
Valtteri Bottas set the track record of 1m 13.078s in his W10 Mercedes in 2019.
This track is named after late F1 icon, Gilles Villenueve, after his success in six Grand Prix.
The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix was over four hours long, being the longest F1 race in history!
The track is based on an artificial island (Ile Notre Dame).
Notable Canadian Formula One racers include Jacques Villeneuve, Nicholas Latifi and current Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll.
The Canadian Grand Prix has a notorious corner named ‘Wall of Champions’, but not for a good reason! Various Formula One icons have crashed into this exit barrier, such as Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill.
This weekend the kids’ bedtimes will be pushed back! Qualifying is at 21:00 until 22:00 BST, local time at a typically later time of 16:00 – 17:00.The race commences at 14:00 local time (19:00 BST), in the hope the 2024 race won’t be as long as the 2011 race!
The weather is looking positive for those cars that run better with hotter temperatures. However, it’s not perfect weather due to the chances of rain.
Grand Prix History:
The only Canadian to win their home race was the reason the track was named Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with Gilles winning it six times.
Lance Stroll has not yet grasped his home win yet, however the Canadian Grand Prix was the first race he gained World Championship Points in Formula One, in 2017, when celebrating the 50th circuit anniversary.
Repeat Canadian Grand Prix Winners:
Lewis Hamilton – 2007, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19
Michael Schaumacher – 1994, 97, 98, 2000, 02, 03, 04
Seemingly almost unstoppable, Verstappen aims to take a step further to cement his championship lead, while Leclerc and Perez play catch up.
The Canadian Grand Prix was back on the calendar for the first time since 2019 and the grandstands were packed from the get-go. Stroll and Latifi, who have been struggling in recent races were looking to make a good impression at their home Grand Prix.
It was announced early enough into the weekend that Leclerc would be starting at the back of the grid due to a penalty for taking up a new power unit after his DNF in Baku. Starting along side him at the back would be Tsunoda, who also took up a new power unit.
Practice
Verstappen, on the back of a dominant win in Baku set the pace in the first practice session of the weekend. Sainz was the leading Ferrari in P2, while Alonso impressed with P3. Perez and Leclerc were slighly further back from their teammates with the Mexican fourth tenths behind Verstappen and the Monegasque half a second behind the championship leader.
The guys at Aston Martin seemed to be getting on well at the track in FP1. A P7 and P9 for Stroll and Vettel set up the team for a positive start to the weekend.
In FP2, Verstappen closed off the first day back on track in Montreal with another P1 ahead of Leclerc, but only by 0.081s. Sainz was again showing a steady pace, completing the top 3. Former world champions Vettel and Alonso were fourth and fifth, the Aston Martin looking even sharper out on track.
Ricciardo continued to show his pace for McLaren with another top 10 finish in FP2, inspiring hope of a positive change of luck for the Aussie. Alfa Romeo’s Bottas had his share of problems, only getting a few laps in, going back into the pits after each run when the team discovered issues.
On Saturday, the rain came down for the final practice session. A specialist in wet weather conditions, Alonso demonstrated his skill and flaunted his fine form on track. He was closely followed by Gasly who was 0.053s behind him.
Source: Autosport.com
It certainly was not an easy session for the drivers as they started off the session with full wet tyres before changing for intermediates later on. Sebastian Vettel completed the top three, the timesheets a very different order to what we have come to expect.
Ocon, in the other Alpine was in P4, following in his teammate’s footsteps, the Frenchman was ahead of the McLaren duo of Ricciardo and Norris. in fifth and sixth. There were of course difficulties in that session, with Verstappen spinning at Turn 2 (but safe from the impact of the barriers) and Magnussen who also went wide in Turn 1, missing the barriers.
Qualifying
Rain during a qualifying session meant anything and everything could go wrong, and for Sebastian Vettel and Aston Martin who had high hopes for qualifying, everything did go wrong.
Verstappen and Alonso, both posting great times that would see them at the top of the table. On the contrary, Vettel and Gasly who were both in the top three in FP3 could not escape elimination from Q1; the Aston Martin just not coming to terms with the track the way it did in free practice.
It was a positive result for Alex Albon who made it into Q2 for the first time since Bahrain.
Out in Q1: Gasly, Vettel, Stroll, Latifi, Tsunoda
Source: Automobilsport.com
Q2 saw a mixture of tyre choice, with some drivers daring to take on the intermediates instead of finding comfortability on the wet tyres. Albon was the first driver to hit the barriers in the session, a strong front wing surviving the blow as the Thai driver made his way back to the pits to change his front wing. Moments later, Perez was not as lucky as Albon and his contact with the barriers was much harder and he was unable to get out of the barriers, ending his qualifyi8ng session and causing a red flag.
The remaining time after the restart saw others bar Perez and Leclerc come back out for more attempts to improve their lap times. Norris saw issues with his car not allow him progression to Q3 as he failed to set a time. With constant improvement of the track, the other drivers were setting time after time to save themselves. Zhou and Schumacher impressed, the young drivers making a Q3 appearance, a first for the Alfa Romeo driver.
Out in Q2: Bottas, Albon, Perez, Norris, Leclerc
There seemed to be only one man in total control of the qualifying session, and that man was Max Verstappen. Almost in a world of his own, he took pole position by six tenths of a second.
As the track was everchanging, after the first set of runs, Russell took a huge gamble by going onto soft tyres but with certain parts of the track still wet, the Brit’s gamble did not pay off and he spun at Turn 2, with little time left to change his tyres again- he had to settle for P8.
Fernando Alonso clinched a front row start for the first time in a decade and was to start alongside Verstappen in P2 ahead of the race. Carlos Sainz was in a provisional P2 but his efforts were thwarted as his last sector let him down on his final flying lap, leaving him in third.
Hamilton out qualified his teammate Russell and achieved his best starting position of the year. He was ahead of the ecstatic Haas drivers, who were the only time to have two drivers in the top six, with Magnussen in fifth and Schumacher in sixth- claiming his best ever F1 start.
The top 10: Verstappen, Alonso, Sainz, Hamilton, Magnussen, Schumacher, Ocon, Russell, Ricciardo, Zhou
Source: Sportingnews.com
Race Report
Sunday afternoon was a time of resurgence for many of those on the grid, although it was a difficult afternoon for a fair few as well.
Max Verstappen took his 26th victory at his 150th grand prix this weekend, to the delight of the Red Bull team, who move ever further forward in the Constructor’s Championship. Unfortunately, however, Verstappen’s teammate and Monaco winner Sergio Perez retired the race on lap 8 due to an engine issue, limiting the amount of points the team could take home.
Carlos Sainz brought his Ferrari home to finish in second place, after a particularly strong race which included a close battle with Verstappen for the win in the final ten laps. It was just as strong a weekend for teammate Charles Leclerc, who finished fifth after starting in nineteenth, following engine penalties for the Monegasque driver after his devastating retirement from the lead in Baku.
Source: Picasa via Grand Prix 247
Lewis Hamilton had a long-awaited return to the podium in third place, only his second top-three finish of the season. Fellow Brit and teammate George Russell finished in fourth place, meaning Mercedes were able to collect a valuable 27 points in Canada. Could this be a sign of change in the Mercedes garage? They’ll certainly hope so, particularly with Silverstone being their next outing and the home race of both drivers.
Source: LAT Images via F1 Chronicles
While Saturday had provided a strong result for Fernando Alonso, he was unable to capitalise on this in the dry conditions on Sunday, finishing the race in seventh place with teammate Esteban Ocon in sixth. However, following the grand prix, Alonso was given a five second time penalty for weaving to defend on track, thus dropping him to ninth place.
Alonso’s penalty meant that rookie driver Zhou Guanyu was able to finish the weekend in ninth place after an excellent and strong weekend. This was mirrored by Valtteri Bottas who ended the weekend in seventh place (also a result of Alonso’s penalty), meaning that Alfa Romeo were able to leave the circuit with a double points finish and their heads held high.
It was yet another disappointing event for the McLaren team, who failed to score this weekend with either driver. Daniel Ricciardo finished in eleventh place, ahead of teammate Lando Norris who finished in fifteenth, additionally receiving a five second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
Another team which failed to score was the almost-local Haas – despite qualifying fifth and sixth, Kevin Magnussen was only able to finish in seventeenth place, whereas Mick Schumacher had to retire once again due to an engine failure.
Source: WTF1.com
Silverstone is up next- what to expect, no one knows but we can be sure of another thrilling race. Is there anyone who can stop Verstappen from conquering it all?
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