Verstappen Takes Red Bull’s 100th Win At Canadian GP

Max Verstappen earned Red Bull their 100th win in Formula 1 after running a steady race from Pole ahead of a tense fight at the Canadian Grand Prix.

A slow start from Fernando Alonso in second left the Spaniard in the clutch of Lewis Hamilton behind, allowing Verstappen to ease into the first turn without threat. 

Carlos Sainz, after losing a position to Sergio Perez off the line, immediately went on the attack, making multiple overtake attempts on the Red Bull across the first lap.

Sainz was successful in regaining his starting position of P11, with the duel ending into the final corner.

Kevin Magnussen was forced to take evasive action behind the battle, relying on the run-off area at the final turn as opposed to the rear of the RB19. 

After contact with the wall at Turn 4, Alonso’s Aston Martin escaped any damage as the Spaniard shifted his focus to hunting down Hamilton.

On Lap 8, Logan Sargeant was forced to retire by the escape road at Turn 6, prompting a short-lived Virtual Safety Car.

With a train of McLarens, Ferraris and a Red Bull forming behind Nico Hulkenberg in P7, it was Oscar Piastri who was the first to make the move beyond, taking the German drivers 7th place out of Turn 2.

Lap 13 saw a full Safety Car called after George Russell, who was running in a threatening P4, took too much kerb at Turn 9, sending his W13 heavily into the wall.

The Mercedes driver was able to limp back to the pits, putting on the white-marked tyre to rejoin the race as marshals worked to clear the copious amounts of debris from his rear wheel.

At the restart, Alonso gained on Hamilton ahead, who, after an incident between the two of them in the pit lane, was under investigation for an unsafe release. 

No action was taken by the stewards.

Verstappen has another clear getaway, creating a small distance from the battle for second behind him after pitting for the hard compound tyre under SC conditions. 

Both Ferraris opted to stay out, as did Sergio Perez, seeing them running in fourth and fifth on the Medium compound. 

The McLaren teammate battled each other for the final points position, with Lando Norris holding off his teammate through the first lap post-rolling start.

However, Piastri was forced to switch to a defensive approach with Alex Albon closing in on him from behind.

His efforts were successful in keeping the Williams in his mirrors until Piastri locked up into the final corner, forcing him to take evasive action through the run-off area.

After watching Valtteri Bottas complete the move on Magnussen, Norris followed suit into Turn 1, taking P9 from the Haas with Piastri replicating the move only a few laps later. 

A 5-second penalty for Norris, however, put a dimmer on his overtaking efforts as the McLaren driver was reprimanded for ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’ behind the Safety Car. 

On Lap 23, the crucial move for second place was made by Alonso, passing Hamilton into the final corner complex before charging down the main straight still with the aid of DRS.

Leclerc was radioed for strategy discussions, and despite his teammate running within DRS range, was told Sainz would not attack him. 

Pierre Gasly, disappointed by his Saturday qualifying session, was running down in the DRS train of the latter half of the grid opted to stop for hards, intentionally releasing the Alpine into clear air.

Beginning at Turn 1, Magnussen and Nyck de Vries found themselves in a messy battle resulting in both drivers reversing from the escape road at Turn 3 due to a lockup from the Alpha Tauri. 

Perez made his first stop of the race on Lap 38 rejoining behind the sole remaining Williams, prompting both Sainz and Leclerc to react in the following two laps.

Further ahead on track, Hamilton committed to his second stop where he opted for the medium compound, as did Verstappen two laps later, while Alonso made the switch to fresh hards.

Team orders again came into play down at Ferrari when it was reiterated that Sainz would not be attacking the leading Ferrari of Leclerc.

Hamilton, gaining on Alonso who was instructed to lift and coast, set the fastest lap of the Grand Prix, running over 3 seconds behind the Aston Martin.  

Alonso wasn’t settling for second place, stating over the radio that he was still going for the win despite Verstappen running over 6 seconds ahead, a gap that was only increasing across the lap.

Norris trailed behind the closely fought battle for 7th place involving Albon, Russell, Esteban Ocon and Bottas, now needing to pull out a 5-second gap on Lance Stroll.

The McLaren was aided in moving up a position to P10 when Russell was radioed to retire with 15 laps to go.

With just 10 laps remaining in the Grand Prix, Hamilton had reduced the gap between himself and a second-place finish to below 2 seconds, with Mercedes reporting of Alonso nursing a brake issue. 

Norris, trying to build as big a gap as possible, passed Bottas under braking into the final corner, taking P9 from the Fin.

Albon’s impressive efforts to defend his P7 for much of the race remained under threat until the chequered flag, with Ocon following a mere 5-tenths behind with 5 laps to go.

Looking to clinch the extra point for the fastest lap, Perez stopped on Lap 69 for the soft tyre.

The Mexican driver punched in a time of 1:14.481, successfully taking the point in P6.

Into the final corner, Norris made a last attempt at an overtake on Ocon, however, instead of finding his McLaren in P8, he found it in the run-off area.

He crossed the line in P9, but with the 5-second penalty applied, was relegated out of the points to P13, just two positions behind Piastri meaning it was a pointless weekend for McLaren. 

Although it was a quiet race for the Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen crossed the line as the winner of the Canadian Grand Prix, adding another haul of 25 points to his tally.

Despite his valiant efforts, Lewis Hamilton was unable to advance from third, allowing Fernando Alonso to take the chequered flag in a welcomed second place. 

After starting in P10 and P11, Ferrari crossed the line to take a solid haul of points from P4 and P5, ahead of Perez and the tense battle for 7th further back championed by Albon.

Red Bull will head to their home race in Austria in two weeks’ time with a 135-point lead over Mercedes, with Verstappen holding P1 in the Drivers’ Championship by 53 points.

Canadian Grand Prix Results:

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