Pole: Max Verstappen
Race winner: Max Verstappen
Fastest Lap: 1:15.745 Carlos Sainz
1-10
All clean at the start of the first lap. Alonso gets a decent start and keeps second. Russell makes an overtake at the hairpin on Schumacher to take p7. Perez gained two positions in the first lap in p11 along with Leclerc gaining 2. Lap 2 and Magnussen has damaged a front wing he is running in p5. Verstappen seems to be pulling away as Alonso is keeping Sainz behind in the Ferrari. Lap 4 and Sainz overtakes Alonso as Hamilton is running closely behind Alonso. Gasly has developed a problem with the car and is having to lift and coast to manage the problem he is running 18th and informs his teammate. On lap 5 Russell overtakes Magnussen on the inside to take p5 both Mercedes’ now running well. Lap 6 Gasly and Vettel both pit onto the hard tyres. Zhou gets passed Daniel Ricciardo to take p9. Sainz despite suffering from graining on the mediums is setting the fastest lap. Magnussen has been shown the black and orange flag and has to box for a new front wing. Lap 8 and Perez is out of the race with engine problems and the virtual safety car comes out. The drivers drive to 40% of their normal lap times with no overtaking. Lap 9 Verstappen and Ferrari and Hamilton pit during the safety car which saves them around 10 seconds more than a normal pit stop.
10-20
Sainz is now leading followed by Alonso with Verstappen in 3rd. Most teams chose not to pit. Lap 12 Lewis Hamilton overtakes into turn 1 to take p5 from Ocon using DRS. Leclerc and Albon overtake Bottas and Norris with DRS. Lap 14 Leclerc needs to do more overtaking to get into contention for the top 5 at the end of the race. Lap 18 Bottas overtakes Albon and Leclerc follows suit.
20-30
Schumacher is off at the same part of the track as Perez at turn 8. Russell makes a pit stop under the VSC as those who did have now pitted. Lap 25 and Zhou is getting frustrated with the pace of the car whilst locking up. Lap 26 and the race seems to be settling down a little. Lap 27 and Leclerc is closing up on Ocon in the Alpine running p6. Lap 29 Alonso pits for the hard tyre.
30-40
Leclerc reports on lap 30 that he does not have enough grip with his tyres. Lap 32 and Leclerc is still struggling to overtake but keeping close behind Ocon. Lap 36 and the Mercedes’ are still running comfortably in p3 and p4 with Verstappen creating a 7-second lead. Lap 37 and Leclerc cannot seem to overtake as they discuss their strategy.
40-50
A few slow stops earlier on in the race McLaren has confusion with the tyres for Norris and a slow pit stop for Ricciardo. Latifi has a slow stop on lap 41 with the front right not being attached properly. Leclerc pits on lap 43 but has a slow stop and comes out behind Ricciardo in p11. Tsunoda and Ricciardo are battling it out on lap 44 whilst Verstappen boxes onto the hard tyre. He comes out behind Hamilton in p3. lap 45 Hamilton pits with a good 2.8-second pit stop. Leclerc is overtaking better on the medium tyres as he overtakes Tsunoda. Lap 49 yellow flags in turn 1 and Tsunoda is out after he came out of the pits on cold tyres and crashes into turn 2 coming out of the pits. The safety car is out and closing the pack up as Sainz gets a free pit stop.
50-60
Alpine drivers both box as teams are reacting to their main rivals in the race. As we watch the replay of the Tsunoda incident we see that he locks up coming out of the pits. Lap 53 and the lapped cars can overtake. Lap 54 the safety car is ending. On the restart, Sainz is still following close to Verstappen as he needs to keep close as there is no DRS for 2 laps. On lap 57 Leclerc is following Alonso closely but they’re both on medium tyres that are giving good pace. Zhou so the help of DRS gets passed Vettel around the outside of turn 1. Each lap and Sainz is getting closer and closer.
60-70
Leclerc goes around the hairpin overtaking Ocon to take p5 and will now set off chasing the Mercedes. 8 laps to go and Sainz still seems to be struggling to overtake as he is slipping out of DRS range. Lap 64 and Vettel is under investigation for a safety car infringement. The two alpines and the Alfa Romeo cars are following each other very closely in the closing stages of the race. Verstappen seems to have the race covered with 3 laps to go. The last lap of the Grand Prix and Sainz tyres are complaining with half a second separating them. Verstappen wins the Canadian Grand Prix, Sainz in second with the fastest lap and Hamilton in third. George Russell continues his top 5 finishes in p4.
Summary:
Max Verstappen looked comfortable in his victory at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as he takes his 5th win in the last 6 races of the season. Alpha Tauri driver Yuki Tsunoda caused a late safety car after he hit the barrier at turn 2 after coming out of the pits on fresh tyres. After the safety car, Carlos Sainz started putting pressure on Verstappen whilst on fresher tyres but was unable to take the victory from Verstappen as the wait for Sainz's first win continues.
It was Lewis Hamilton on the podium for Mercedes this time as the team picks up solid points with Russell finishing in 4th as Leclerc finishes in a respectable p5 after starting 19th due to power unit changes. Fernando Alonso finished behind his teammate after a phenomenal qualifying which had him starting p2 for the race, it was a good day for the Alfa Romeo team who received a good team result as Bottas finished p7 and teammate Zhou Guanyu takes p8 for his second point-scoring race in his rookie season.
Next up, Formula 1 returns to the iconic Silverstone circuit which should provide an entertaining race after last year's intense battle between Verstappen and Hamilton which resulted in a controversial coming together at Copse corner. The teams and fans will be looking forward to seeing this new era of F1 cars take on the speedy circuit in Great Britain.
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