Max Verstappen wins Canadian Grand Prix after engaging duel in Montreal
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Max Verstappen might've had one of his most dominant race weekends in his Formula 1 career, but he had to defend extremely hard in the last 15 laps to win the Canadian Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz hunted down the championship leader, but the Ferrari couldn't combat Red Bull's straight-line speed even with the aid of DRS. Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top three.
The 2022 Formula 1 season is a battle between Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. Just as Red Bull looked to be getting comfortable, the race in Montreal proved the Italian team still have the car to compete. Sainz stayed within one second of Verstappen for the last 15 laps and it was the Dutchman who won the duel to take home the 25 points.
Charles Leclerc limited the damage as much as he possibly could. The man from Monaco started from the back of the grid as Ferrari introduced a fourth engine into his pool, one more than allowed for the entire season. He worked his way up through the grid via a long stint on the hard tyres. Despite being stuck behind Ocon for a lengthy period, Leclerc finished in P5.
Hamilton described the Mercedes W13 as really bad on Friday, but the seven-time World Champion walked away with a podium at one of his most successful tracks. His Mercedes teammate George Russell finished fourth as the German team picked up another strong points haulage. Sergio Perez retired from the race early with a transmission problem costing Red Bull a lot of points in the Constructors' Championship.
Fernando Alonso started from P2, but couldn't attack at the first corner. In the end, the Alpine driver finished one place behind his teammate in 7th. Valtteri Bottas led an 8th and 9th finish for Alfa Romeo and Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten in his home race.
Mixed up grid
Charles Leclerc started at the back of the grid due to an engine penalty as Ferrari's woes continued on from recent reliability problems. Concerns grew when Leclerc's engineers started applying sticky tape to parts of the bodywork on the grid. But that wasn't the end of the randomness on the grid after a wet qualifying session created some shocks. That included Fernando Alonso who started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Max Verstappen. Carlos Sainz provided some normality in P3 as Lewis Hamilton started from a season-best P4. Haas locked out the third row and there was even a place inside the top ten for rookie Guanyu Zhou.
Elbows came out but the top four retained their order through the opening lap. Leclerc moved up to P17 whilst Perez gained two places after falling victim to the wet track in Saturday's qualifying session. Sainz moved up to P2 on lap three using the advantage of slipstream down the sector three straight. Kevin Magnussen picked up the black and orange flag after a touch with Hamilton.
Red Bull reliability
Over recent weeks, Ferrari have come under pressure with reliability but it was Red Bull's turn in Canada. After less than ten laps, Perez was forced to pull over with a transmission issue. This caused a virtual safety car and teammate Verstappen made a cheap pitstop for hard tyres. Sainz refused to pit and therefore took the lead of the race. Mick Schumacher also retired at the same corner with a different issue triggering a second virtual safety car. Various pitstops took place that ended up yielding a top three of Verstappen, Sainz and Hamilton. Russell was the biggest gainer as the VSC dropped just as he arrived at the pit entry. He moved to P4.
World Championship contender Leclerc moved up to P6 by the midpoint of the race but got stuck behind Esteban Ocon for multiple laps. On lap 42, Leclerc pitted for the second time in the race. The Ferrari pit crew took 5.3 seconds to change the tyres placing Leclerc behind four drivers including Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.
Verstappen complained of some tyre degradation on the hard tyres and pitted on lap 44. The Dutchman emerged from the pitlane alongside Hamilton to produce some flashbacks to Monza. Down the straight in sector three, Verstappen blasted past his former rival. With 23 lap fresher tyres, Verstappen started his hunt on Sainz who had a ten-second lead.
Not all as it seems
A full safety car was thrown on lap 49 after Yuki Tsunoda crashed as he came out of pit lane. Sainz reached the pit entry just as the safety car came out and therefore had a free pitstop, giving the Spaniard the tyre advantage. Verstappen regained the lead but had some hard defending to do. Sainz reacted well to Verstappen's jump in the final chicane but the Dutchman opened a 0.9-second gap in one lap.
With DRS open, Sainz had multiple chances to make the move but the Red Bull proved too strong with straight-line speed.