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
It is the 8th June 2008 at the Circuit Giles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. The street circuit is hot with temperatures approaching 31°C, and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes is on pole following an excellent Saturday qualifying session.
At this, the seventh round of 18 for the 2008 season, Hamilton topped the Drivers’ Championship standings, with Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari in second and Felipe Massa, also of Ferrari, in third. Robert Kubica held fourth place in the overall standings.
Despite Hamilton’s pole, the star of the weekend was Kubica. The BMW-Sauber driver qualified in second place. Following the retirements of both Hamilton and Raikkonen after a crash, Kubica came through to take the victory. This was both his first and only win, and it catapulted him to the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings.
BMW-Sauber executed a two-stop strategy for Kubica, with his teammate Nick Heidfeld finishing in second on a one-stop race. The team scored an excellent 1-2 podium finish. David Coulthard of Red Bull-Renault took the third step on the podium, having raced up from the P13 he had achieved in qualifying.
Kubica’s win was first for a German constructor since the 1962 French Grand Prix, continuing the streak of historic firsts at this race. This win marked the peak of Kubica’s career. His redemption was especially sweet considering that he had crashed at the Canadian Grand Prix the previous year.
Which races would you like to see us cover next on Flashback Friday? Leave your comments below.
The Fastest Sector 
