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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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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