After two years of being forced off the schedule due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the popular Canadian Grand Prix makes its much-anticipated return to the Formula One world championship as the ninth round. Be sure to tune in on The Roar for lap-by-lap updates from Montréal from 3:50am (AEST).
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a classic parklands style track, situated on the St Lawrence River and the Île Notre Dame. The 4.3km layout is comprised largely of straights, with several chicanes and slow corners linking them all.
Straights, which will not be music to the ears of the drivers who last time out in Azerbaijan suffered severely from the ongoing bouncing problems of these new ground effect cars. The FIA have however intervened and dictated that they’ll force teams to change setups after scrutineering on safety grounds if they’re found to have excessive bouncing.
Red Bull have tightened their grip on the championship, moving out to an 80-point lead over Ferrari in the constructor’s standings. A second retirement in three races for Charles Leclerc, also paved way for Sergio Perez to surpass him in second behind championship leader Max Verstappen.
The pain does not stop there for Ferrari however, as Leclerc has been forced to take on a new power-unit component for this weekend beyond his yearly allocation – resulting in severe grid penalties. The Monegasque, along with Yuki Tsunoda will start from the rear of the grid with fresh power units.
Verstappen mastered the wet conditions in qualifying for pole position, 0.645-seconds ahead of the ageless Fernando Alonso who put in a season-best effort for Alpine to be on the front row. Carlos Sainz being the sole Ferrari in Q3, lost vital tenths coming out of the final corner on his last attempt – for the third quickest time.
The wet equalised most of the field and allowed both Haas cars to earn their best grid positions for 2022, with Mick Schumacher eyeing his first Formula One points from sixth behind teammate Kevin Magnussen and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
It did catch out the likes of Perez though, who gently found the barriers in Q2 and will have to make his way through the field. 2012 saw the Mexican start fifteenth in a Sauber, en route to a sensational podium.
With dry conditions and plenty of overtaking predicted for race day, what will 70-laps around this thrilling circuit produce? And will Red Bull’s run of consecutive victories in 2022 continue with a first Canadian win since Daniel Ricciardo’s maiden in 2014?
Race Information
Lights out: 4am (AEST)
Venue: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal
TV: Fox Sports
Online: Kayo Sports, Foxtel
Grid
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 2. Fernando Alonso (Alpine), 3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), 4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 5. Kevin Magnussen (Haas), 6. Mick Schumacher (Haas), 7. Esteban Ocon (Alpine), 8. George Russell (Mercedes), 9. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), 10. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), 11. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), 12. Alexander Albon (Williams), 13. Sergio Perez (Red Bull), 14. Lando Norris (McLaren), 15. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), 16. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), 17. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), 18. Nicholas Latifi (Williams), 19. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 20. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
That's a wrap on this Canadian Grand Prix live blog on The Roar, thank you again for tuning in for another Max Verstappen masterclass. It looks like that he and Red Bull can't do much wrong at the moment in this world championship, despite teammate Sergio Perez bowing out of this race. A spirited drive from Carlos Sainz for second, though ultimately coming short. That maiden F1 win is hopefully not too far away for the Spaniard. A fortnight's break and we'll be back in Europe for the fan favourite British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Until then, thank you and take care.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
-------- DRIVER'S -------- 175 - Max Verstappen 129 - Sergio Perez 126 - Charles Leclerc 111 - George Russell 102 - Carlos Sainz 77 -- Lewis Hamilton 50 -- Lando Norris 44 -- Valtteri Bottas 39 -- Esteban Ocon 22 -- Fernando Alonso 16 -- Pierre Gasly 15 -- Kevin Magnussen 15 -- Daniel Ricciardo 13 -- Sebastian Vettel 11 -- Yuki Tsunoda 3 --- Guanyu Zhou 3 --- Alexander Albon 3 --- Lance Stroll 0 --- Mick Schumacher 0 --- Nico Hulkenberg 0 --- Nicholas Latifi
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
----- CONSTRUCTOR'S ----- 304 - Red Bull Racing 228 - Ferrari 188 - Mercedes AMG 65 -- McLaren Mercedes 61 -- Alpine 47 -- Alfa Romeo Racing 27 -- Scuderia AlphaTauri 16 -- Aston Martin Racing 15 -- Haas Ferrari 3 --- Williams Mercedes
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Yeah the McLaren pit-stops weren't the greatest and at least Dan got the better end of that deal. Watching him get passed by Stroll at the end was a bit painful though.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
RACE REPORT A late Safety Car appearance energised the conclusion of the Canadian Grand Prix, as reigning world champion Max Verstappen denied Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz a maiden win to extend his lead in the standings. From pole, Verstappen got away clear at the start from Fernando Alonso before setting into his own race. The Alpine lasted only five laps in second, prior to compatriot Sainz coming through to second. Verstappen pitted early on Lap 10 thanks to a Virtual Safety Car, triggered by Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez who’s race was grind to a halt by a suspected gearbox problem. Lewis Hamilton in the top four also took this opportunity to pit. Another Virtual Safety Car on Lap 20 for Mick Schumacher, who lost the opportunity for maiden points due to a reliability problem – saw much of the rest of the field pit bar Alonso and Charles Leclerc, who was charging from the rear. With a comfortable lead in the middle part of the race, Verstappen made his second stop at the end of Lap 44, relinquishing the lead back to Sainz and even falling behind Hamilton briefly. All before the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 49 as Yuki Tsunoda came out of pit-lane too hot and couldn’t make the Turn 2 corner exit. As the marshals recovered the stricken AlphaTauri, Sainz was given the opportunity to make a second stop and have the fresh tyre advantage against Verstappen. The restart saw the field compressed and Sainz able to keep within a second of the Red Bull, to stay within DRS range. Though Verstappen remained unshaken in the dying stages of the 70-lapper, putting in a champion’s defence to claim the team’s sixth consecutive win. A stellar performance from Sainz saw him bag the fastest lap honours as well, ahead of Hamilton who benefitted from his early stop – mirroring Verstappen’s strategy ahead of teammate George Russell. Mercedes showing their strength in race pace when it mattered. Leclerc’s damage limitation saw the Monegasque net fifth, having spent parts of the race stuck behind the likes of Esteban Ocon. Though the Ferrari executed a one-stop strategy, having started on the hard compound. The Alpines both scored in sixth and seventh, though Alonso will be disappointed to finish behind teammate Ocon – despite starting ahead of the Frenchman. Staying out late in the first stint seemingly hurt the Spaniard’s race. Both Alfa Romeos also claimed points, as rookie Guanyu Zhou capitalised on his first top ten start to score his best finish in Formula One behind teammate Valtteri Bottas – who also nailed a one-stopper, along with tenth placed Lance Stroll.
andrew
Roar Rookie
Max wins again he's certainly on a purple patch. I'll be interested to see how Hamilton's back is after the problems from the last race. Dan just out of the points, well at least he finished, and ahead of his teammate.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Post-Race Interviews - Hosted by Jenson Button VERSTAPPEN - "The Safety Car didn't help! They [Ferrari] were very quick in the race." "The last few laps were a lot of fun." "This year we are very quick on straights." "I would've preferred attacking, not defending." SAINZ - "I was pushing flat out." "I tried everything to pass Max, but today we didn't have enough pace." "Happy with the race pace, timing of the pit-stops were right." "Try again in the next one." HAMILTON - "It's quite overwhelming to get this third place, it has been such a battle this year." "They're a little bit too quick for us at the moment." "Our pace was quite good." "I'm ecstatic."
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
RESULTS FROM THE 70-LAP CANADIAN GRAND PRIX 1 M. Verstappen 2 C. Sainz (Fastest Lap) 3 L. Hamilton 4 G. Russell 5 C. Leclerc 6 E. Ocon 7 F. Alonso 8 V. Bottas 9 G. Zhou 10 L. Stroll 11 D. Ricciardo 12 S. Vettel 13 A. Albon 14 P. Gasly 15 L. Norris 15 N. Latifi 16 K. Magnussen RET Y. Tsunoda RET M. Schumacher RET S. Perez
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
MAX VERSTAPPEN WINS THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX! The Dutchman denies Carlos Sainz a maiden F1 win, but a solid performance for second from the Spaniard. And third for Lewis Hamilton! Who'd have thought that after the last race in Azerbaijan.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 70/70: FINAL LAP
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 68/70: Verstappen is just nailing it in the early part of the lap, while Sainz does look a bit messy and taking a bit too much kerb.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 67/70: Time is running out for Carlos Sainz against Max Verstappen. The Red Bull just knows what to do to defend the lead and is covering the Ferrari pretty much everywhere. It might take an uncharacteristic mistake from the reigning world champion for something to change.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 66/70: The gap is still around that 0.8-0.9 seconds between first and second.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 65/70: Sainz needs to come out of the hairpin with less than half-a-second to Verstappen for him to have a shot at passing down the back straight with DRS.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 64/70: The gap between Verstappen and Sainz is still hovering around 0.8-seconds. Stroll passes Ricciardo for tenth too.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 63/70: Purple second sector for Sainz, which turns into a fastest lap of the race on this occasion to set just oh so closer to the tail of that Red Bull.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 62/70: Verstappen responds with a purple first sector and this gives the Dutchman the tenths he needs to deny Sainz DRS on this occasion.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 61/70: A fastest third sector for Sainz, but still not enough to get the job done on the Red Bull.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 60/70: Leclerc is clear of Ocon though now. Up to fifth is the Ferrari. Sainz still unable to get close enough to Verstappen at this stage.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 59/70: Sainz is a lot closer on this attempt down the back straight, but still too far back under braking to make an overtake. Leclerc went straight on at the chicane and has lost a bit of time to Ocon.