Verstappen looked well placed for a comfortable win over Sainz at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve when a Safety Car was called in Round 49 of 70 after Yuki Tsunoda hit the obstacles of turn 2 after exiting the pits. With 16 laps remaining, Verstappen is holding back the attacks of the freshest Sainz to claim his sixth win of the season and 26th overall, as Sainz climbs to fifth place of the year – although the Spaniard is waiting for his first. victory continues. Hamilton was caustic in his assessment of the Mercedes W13 on Friday, but the car looked comfortable on race day in Canada as the seven-time champion completed the podium, his first podium appearance since the start of the season in Bahrain. George Russell backed his P4 teammate, while Charles Leclerc was able to recover in the P5 for Ferrari, starting 19th after a series of changes to the power unit. 1 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing 1: 36: 21.757 25 2 Carlos Sainz SAI Ferrari + 0.993s 19 3 Lewis Hamilton HAM Mercedes + 7.006s 15 4 George Russell RUS Mercedes + 12.313s 12 1rc5 5 Charles. Despite starting P2 after an impressive qualifier on Saturday, Fernando Alonso finished a disappointing P7 behind Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon as Valtteri Bottas drove his Alfa Romeo team-mate Zhou Guanyu for P8, while Zhou took second place in history. Home hero Lance Stroll completed the top 10 for Aston Martin. A slow stop for Daniel Ricciardo helped him finish just off points in the P11 for McLaren, ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin, with Alex Albon taking 13th place for Williams. Pierre Gasly had problems early on and was 14th for AlphaTauri, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris – who also had a slow stop – Williams ‘Nicholas Latifi and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen falling from P5 on the grid at P17 after a tough day in Canada. Tsunoda was flanked by Haas’ Mick Schumacher and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the departure category, both Schumacher and Perez reached the front doors of Turn 8 with technical problems. For Verstappen, however, there were no such problems, as he further increased his lead at the top of the standings, with what was just his second podium in Montreal. Canadian Grand Prix 2022: Pereth loses the car and is out of the race in the 9th lap
AS IT HAPPENED
Saturday may have witnessed a flood on the historic Gilles Villeneuve track – but that had given way to clear skies and a sweet 20-degree heat by Sunday, with track temperatures rising to 40 degrees. A perfect day for racing, in short.
Fernando Alonso told the media after his fantastic P2 qualifier yesterday that he wanted to lead the first round of the race. Max Verstappen knew, however, that with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz starting at P3, giving Alonso a place would be disastrous – and the Dutchman refused to let it happen, making it easy to quickly relax a steady lead over Alpine. .
Back, it was a courtesy start from the drivers, Mick Schumacher lost the best position of his career in the P6, as he was quickly demoted by Esteban Ocon and George Russell in the P8 – Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton was on the sidelines. -A traditional moment with Kevin Magnussen of Haas, causing damage to the wing of the Dane who took out a black and white flag that forced him to enter the pit stop.
At the front, Sainz finally cleared Alonso in lap 3 and started after Verstappen. But Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez would cause an early drama, the Mexican going out in the 8th lap with what Red Bull Team manager Christian Horner thought was a gearbox problem, Perez retired after an unhappy two days in Canada.
Canadian Grand Prix 2022: Pole Verstappen holds Alonso at the start of the match
The resulting Virtual Safety Car allowed Verstappen to pit to change from medium to hard, highlighting the P3 as Sainz and Alonso were left out, Verstappen along with Hamilton, Tsunoda and Latifi made a cheap pit stop.
Verstappen overtook Alonso in lap 15 for P2 – while another Virtual Safety Car was requested after the unfortunate Schumacher found himself in the same spot as Perez in lap 20, allowing Sainz, Russell, Zhou, Ocon, Vettel and his two McLaren Ricciardo. and Norris to box.
It was a disastrous pit stop for the papaya team, however, which was slow with Ricciardo, while trying to double stack exacerbated the problem, Norris’ tires were not ready as he sat helpless in the car, eventually becoming P18 and last.
Round 21 and Charles Leclerc reached the P7 after a sweet pass to Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo at turn 13, the league protagonist started the P19 after penalties for power change, with Leclerc not putting under any of the VSC after it started hard.
However, Monegasque was not calm in the cockpit, as he complained about lack of traction, as Ferrari had cut the rear wing of his car to improve its speed in the straight.
Leclerc struggled to make in-roads
With Sainz’s teammate throwing a pit under the second VSC, in the 25th lap of 70 the series was Verstappen by Sainz and Hamilton – the pair relentlessly passed Alonso in laps 22 and 23 – Alonso fourth ahead of Russell . The Verstappen lead was a comfortable 8s, while Alpine finally pulled Alonso into Round 28, emerging behind Leclerc in the P7.
Half the point reached lap 35, the field stretched as Verstappen drove Sainz 8 seconds, who was himself 8 seconds away from Hamilton in third place – Russell another 10s behind Ocon, who was running in a Ferrari an increasingly frustrated Leclerc. , with Alonso and Bottas completing the top eight. At the back, there was an exciting battle between Stroll, Zhou, Tsunoda and Ricciardo recovering from P9.
Tire degradation was now the buzzword. Only Leclerc, Stroll and Bottas had not stopped yet, while those who had stopped under the Lap 8 VSC began to wonder if they could make it to the end or if they would need another stop.
Verstappen, whose lead had dropped to about 6 seconds above Sainz, sounded nervous about his tire. Red Bull called him for a second stop in lap 43, emerging side by side with his 2021 title rival, Hamilton, who helped his former opponent in lap 2 before Verstappen quickly overtook him for P2, Hamilton then immediately put himself. , quickly followed by Russell a lap later.
Hamilton did well to hold the P3
Leclerc was finally allowed to enter the pit in the 41st lap, but a slow stop left him behind this Stroll-Zhou-Tsunoda-Ricciardo race, adding to Monegasque’s annoying afternoon so far – albeit with fresh rubber, at least did short work by these guides. .
Tsunoda was called to the pits in Round 47. But as the Japanese driver appeared with cold hard tires, he appeared to be speeding and just fell straight into the wall of turn 2, an annoying mistake that brought out a safety car. This worked well for Sainz, who was able to stop cheaply and hold on to P2 – Sainz joined the pits with Ocon and Alonso’s double-stacked Alpines, Bottas and Zhou Alfas, as well as Ricciardo and Albon .
The green flag races started again in the 55th Round, with Verstappen knitting up to the back until turn 13 before closing. Verstappen quickly tried to make a splash from Sainz as he desperately tried to get out of DRS range, while Sainz was kept honest by Hamilton, who showed a decent pace change in a Mercedes W13 with which he was extremely unhappy with dry running. on Friday.
Canada 2022 Grand Prix: Chunoda crashes after leaving the pits and activates a safety car
Sainz had smelled blood, however, and round by round he faced his former Toro Rosso teammate. It would have been futile, however, for Sainz to try his best, but ultimately failed to stop Verstappen, who crossed the line at the end of Round 70 for his sixth win of the season. It was also his …
