Max Verstappen overcame three safety car interventions and absorbed the intense late pressure from Carlos Sainz to win his first ever Canadian GP in a thrilling race .
Max Verstappen now leads the Drivers’ championship with 175 points .
Regarding the race, Verstappen said , ” It was proper racing , proper pushing .It was really on the edge and that was good to see .”
Carlos Sainz comes home second :
Carlos Sainz chased Max Verstappen to chequered flag in a thrilling Canadian Grand Prix but finished second .
Sainz was leading the race ,but with 20 laps to go , Yuki Tsunoda crashed at Turn 2 and a full safety car was deployed . This gave an opportunity to Verstappen to take the lead back and to win the race .
A devastated Sainz said , “The fact that victory does not come when you are the fastest perhaps hurts more. I am not satisfied. It’s been too close to be satisfied. Especially with the pace I’ve had throughout the race, which has been very good.”
“The Safety Car came out and I had to stop. There I hesitated between the soft and the hard, if it could happen with one of the two wheels. We went very fast also putting a lot of pressure on Max, but not enough to pass the Red Bull “, he said .
Driver of the day :
Charles Leclerc battled from back of the grid after taking an engine penalty, finished a brilliant P5 and won the driver of the day title .
Leclerc said , “The first part of the race was quite frustrating, as we were stuck behind a DRS train, so it was all about practicing patience. After our pit stop, we came back out behind another DRS train and started fighting our way back up.
“This part was much more fun, because I had to be quite aggressive to make it work. It was just one of those races where you had to maximize the points and that’s exactly what we did today.”
Heart Break for Sergio Perez :
Sergio Perez retired from the Canadian Grand Prix with a gear box issue . This is his 2nd DNF of the season .
Perez after starting P13 in the grid said that everything was looking good and he could have worked his way through the field and scored good points .
Regarding the DNF , Perez said , “We need to keep on top of the reliability because a zero, when you are fighting for the championship, is very painful and costly .
You go into new regulations and there is always going to be new problems to face. Today hurts a lot, it has been a weekend to forget for me, so I want to forget about today and move on to Silverstone.”
Disappointment for Fernando Alonso :
Fernando Alonso went into the race after a brilliant qualifying session , putting his Alpine car in the front row (P2) . He , however had a disappointing race , finishing P7 , which was later changed to P9 after a 5 second time penalty for defending against Valtteri Bottas in the penultimate lap of the race . Alonso faced engine problems for the majority of the race , but managed to cross the chequered flag .
Fernando said , “I was losing, like, one second a lap with the engine deployment, and from that moment we forgot about the podium, or retiring the car, we were just staying on the DRS train with the cars in front just to defend. But it was very difficult to stay with Esteban [Ocon] or Charles [Leclerc] because on the straights we were losing one second.
I think this weekend we deserved better than ninth position,” he added, “but it’s still good for both cars to score points in the end. We ultimately lost a big opportunity to fight for a potential podium as I felt like I had the pace to do so.”
Alpine could soon overtake McLaren in the Constructors’ championship .Alpine is behind McLaren by 8 points .
Zhou Guanyu’s first points :
Rookie driver Zhou Guanyu qualified P10 and grabbed his first points in F1 by finishing P8 . He was super-happy after failing to finish the races in Miami, Spain and Baku .
An excited Zhou Guanyu said , ““It’s very good to get the frustration out of the way, finally get to the finish line,” said Zhou. “I think it’s been missing the last few times. And very strong weekend from my side and we finally converted a good Saturday into a good Sunday. So, super-happy to have P9, the best finish yet for myself in F1.
“Obviously never expected to be doing that in Montreal, it’s a tough, tough track but the whole weekend it’s been very, very good. I’m just so happy that we can finally get both cars up there. The race for me was pretty good pace all the way through. Obviously, a little bit frustrating to get stuck behind Stroll the whole race – it was difficult to overtake him on the straights.”
Bad day for Haas :
After qualifying P5 and P6 , Haas failed to score a point in the Canadian Grand Prix . Mick Schumacher retired with a power unit issue and Kevin Magnussen dropped to P17 after damaging his front wing .
Top 3 in Drivers’ Championship after Canadian GP :
Max Verstappen – 175 points
Sergio Perez – 129 points
Charles Leclerc – 126 points
Top 3 in Constructor Standings :
Red Bull racing RBPT – 304 points
Ferrari – 228 points
Mercedes – 188 points
[…] Heart break for Perez , win for Verstappen – Key points in Canadian Grand Prix 2022 […]