The Grand Prix of Canada was presented as an interesting GP after the classification at Montreal and did not disappoint. Max Verstappen won the race but Sainz fought with him until the last lap for the victory.
The start line of the race was really clean. There were no accidents and Max could hold the position against the attacks of Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso. The first five of the race hold the position but, for example, Checo, Ocon and Charles won one position on this first lap.
Then, as expected with a better car, Carlos Sainz manage to complete the overtaking of Fernando Alonso on the first attempt he had with DRS on lap 3. Lewis Hamilton was following the two Spanish drivers very closely, with which Alonso was able to defend himself thanks to maintaining DRS with Sainz.
George Russell, who had managed to overtake Schumacher and Ocon, also managed to overtake Magnussen, placing himself in fifth position behind his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Then, Carlos Sainz reported by radio to his engineer 6 laps into the race that he already had graining on his tyres, which set off alarms in the Ferrari box. He still had not let go of Fernando, who was making the most with his DRS, while the driver from Madrid was doing fast laps pursuit of the current champion, Max Verstappen.
The bad news for Red Bull Racing was, one more time, reliability issues. Sergio Perez, reported by radio some engine problems and he dropped out the race. With this virtual safety car many pilots took advantage of it. Both Verstappen and Hamilton went to the pit stop. Neither Alonso and Sainz chose to make their pit stop as there were still 60 laps to go.
Some laps later, the second safety car appeared. Mick Schumacher was defending position with Guanyu Zhou when he ended up going out in the same corner that Perez did before. With that, he caused the second virtual safety car that the drivers with medium tyres who had not stopped took advantage of to make their stop.
The last laps were really difficult for Verstappen. Carlos Sainz managed to keep the DRS and stay very close to Verstappen. Every lap he was getting very close to him before the last chicane but not enough to be able to pass him with ten laps to go.
Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc managed to overtake the two Alpines for fifth position and was struggling to catch up with the two Mercedes.
Finally, Max Verstappen did not make any mistakes and despite the great pressure that Carlos Sainz put on him every lap and keeping the DRS, he could not pass him. Fernando Alonso was unlucky and fell to seventh position. Fernando, inexplicably, did not choose the stop when everyone else did and also he had a sanction thanks to a covered to Bottas.
Jorge Barbero
