F1 Journal Canadian Grand Prix Race Round Up

19/6/2023

After an exciting wet Qualifying, we started the Canadian Grand Prix with a mixed up grid and the chance of a brilliant race, and we where not disappointed!
Overtaking up and down the grid, team mate on team mate battles, a safety car and Redbull scoring their 100th win. Lets take a look team by team at how the race happened for them.

RedBull- Max Verstappen & Sergio Perez

Verstappen- ANOTHER DOMINANT WIN Max started the race from first and never left that position, leading every lap of the race and ultimately winning the race by 9.570 seconds over Fernando Alonso. By winning the race, max scored RedBulls 100th Grand Prix win, meaning they become 1 of only 4 teams to achieve a century of race wins in formula 1 and are in good company with Ferrari, Mclaren Williams

Sergio Perez- After a tough Qualifying meaning he started 12th on the grid. Perez had a promising start to the race with some great racing with the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz but ended up running a race of his own, unable to challenge the 2 Ferrari ahead of him, but with a well timed Pit stop managed to end the race in 6th.

Aston Martin- Fernando Alonso & Lance Stroll

Alonso- Fernando started and ended the race in a solid 2nd position, after retaking the position after Lewis Hamilton briefly occupied it and despite constant pressure from the Mercedes World Champion, and being told to 'lift and coast' for a pretty big portion of the race Alonso held on to give team owner Lawrence Stroll a podium finish at his home Grand Prix.

Stroll- Stroll went in to this weekend hoping to give his home fans a podium result and unfortunately after a challenging Qualifying it wasn't meant to be. Lance raced hard and ended the race in a points paying 9th place after Lando Norris' penalty was applied.
In the end Lance put on a great sow for his loyal fans and gave his Dad and the team a double points score at the Strolls home race.

Mercedes- Lewis Hamilton & George Russell

Hamilton- Lewis drove a valiant race, starting and finishes in 3rd. Taking 2nd from Alonso into the first corner, before the Aston Martin man took the place back on lap 22. After another season start that challenged the 7 time World Champion, scoring his 4th podium of 2023 must be giving him both confidence and optimism in his car, the team and the rest of the season.

Russell- George had a great start, running with the top 3 till on lap 12 he hit the wall on the exit of turn 9. Bringing out a safety car that allowed him to return to the pits for the team to get him back out to return to the race. Unfortunately though after 40 further laps and him running in the points, Russell retired with brake trouble.

Ferrari- Charles LeClerc & Carlos Sainz

LeClerc- Charles started the race 10th after a miserable Saturday, qualifying 11th but gaining a position after his team mates 3 place grid penalty for impeding. But after an inspired pit strategy from the team(with alot of driver input) to one stop the ferrari man, he drove a brilliant race to finish 4th. It was the result Ferrari wanted but were not sure they could achieve but we should consider that Sainz was told to hold station behind LeClerc to make sure both cars came home as high as possible but how long will Sainz accept coming 2nd to Charles without putting up any fight?

Sainz- After a penalty for impeding Pierre Gasley put him 3 places back from his original Qualifying position, Sainz started the grand prix from 11th. Following his team mate to a top 10 finish in 5th, Sainz drove a solid consistent race 1 stopping the lap after Charles, but this writer cant help feel he could have finished higher had he not been told by the team to hold station behind LeClerc to make sure both cars came home safely. Knowing Carlos I can't see that happening to much more without a 'multi 21 situation occurring. Although I'm sure he is happy with points and a clean race for the whole team.

William- Alex Albon & Logan Sargeant

aAlbon- WHAT A RACE FROM THIS MAN
Alex started the racing weekend on a high after an brilliant tyre call in qualifying by him and the team to go onto dry tyres before anyone else and got himself into Q3, qualifying 10th but starting 9th after the Sainz penalty. Race day came and Albon showed his class again! After pitting on lap 12 Alex ran his hard tyres the rest of the race and fended off the likes of Ocon and the ensuing pack for 30 laps to come home 7th and score Williams first points of the season in fabulous style!!! Someone high five this man he deserves it!

Sargeant- It was a short race for Logan after his car stopped on track on lap 7 at turn 6 bringing out the Virtual Safety car. After a Williams update on Albons car, showing signs of real pace lets hope that when those parts hit Sargeant's car he will start to have the sucess his team mate saw this weekend.

Alpine- Esteban Ocon & Pierre Gasley

Ocon- Esteban qualified in a decent 6th position and ran a great race, chosing to run medium-hard-hard strategy meant he stayed competitive to the end fighting right till the last corner with Norris behind but just could get past the Williams of Alex Albon ahead of him, to finish where he started. Ocon should be happy with another top 10 finish that leaves him in best of the rest position, out side the top 4 teams in the championship in a healthy 9th.

Gasley- Pierre had a tough qualifying, being blocked by Carlos Sainz on his fastest lap of Q1 meant Gasley didnt get to show his true pace in qualifying. But after starting on soft and then running used hards then a set of new hards, raced his heart out to finish a decent 12th. Lets hope in Austria we get to see how fast he can really be in qualifying and the race.

Mclaren- Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri

Norris- Lando started a healthy 7th but was over taken by Mclaren team mate Piastri into turn 2 on the first lap, he stayed behind Piastri until after the Safety car Russell bought out but unfortunately in an effort to help the team double stack both cars, Lando backed the pack up to much, going disproportionately slow and ended up with a 5 second penalty for 'unsportman like behavior' which after he fought past his team mate, the Alfa Romeo of Bottas and other cars meant that despite crossing the line 9th he placed 13th after the time penalty was added. Which was a shame as those would have been the first points the team scored here since 2018.

Piastri- Oscar started a very decent 8th after showing his class in the changeable conditions of Qualifying and the Sainz penalty. That positivity continued into the race and after overtaking his team mate into turn 2 it was all looking great for Oscar, but after pitting under the Russell safety car and losing his position back to team mate Norris, Piastris race plateaued and despite some great moves and brilliant racing the rookie finished a semi respectable 11th place at his first formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix

Alfa Romeo Sauber- Valtteri Bottas & Guanyu Zhou

Bottas- Valtteri had a great race for Alfa Romeo. He Qualified 15th after an unfortunate qualifying for the Finish driver but after some brilliant moves, a long battle with the Mclaren of Lando Norris and a great effort to run a 1 stop race, Bottas took the last points of the day in 10th, putting him in 15th place in the championship along side Piastri on the same 5pts tally but the Australian scored them first so keeps 14th place in the standings.

Zhou- Guanyu had a tough race, starting dead last after qualifying and his race didn't get much better after that. He finished 16th of 18 cars and a lap down, unsuccessfully chasing down the HAAS of Hulkenburg. fingers crossed his season improves from here but it does seem the Alfa Romeo car is more of the issue than its drivers.

HAAS- Nico Hulkenberg & Kevin Magnussen

Nico Qualified incredibly, he drove the wheels of that HAAS to Qualify 2nd for the Canadian Grand Prix, but unfortunately that's not where he started. He was given a 3 place grid penalty for completing his lap under red flags faster than the dictated delta time and was demoted to 5th for the start of the race. Much to his dismay that's not where the blows stopped. After a bad start, a mistimed pit stop and a battle with an Alpha Tauri that took them both into a run of area you can only reverse out of Nico's race was ruined and he ended up 15th.

Magnussen- Kevin had a great start, but after getting caught up in the squabbling between Perez and Sainz, he had to take to the run off to stop himself being taken out of the race and it didnt get to much better for him. It was a long race for Magnussen. Finishing 2nd from last. Lets hope his season can turn around and HAAS find some race pace for both its drivers.

Alpha Tauri- Yuki Tsonoda & Nyck De Vries

Tsonoda- Yuki started in 16th and by the end of the race gained 2 positions to finish 14th.
It was a tough long race for him, fighting hard the whole way with almost half the field. I think its safe to say that Yuki is out performing De Vries consistently and is largely being held back by the lack of pace in the Alpha Tauri. I really hope we get to see his true talent sooner than later.

De Vries- The dutch driver finished the race where he started it, in 18th position he was making great progress through the pack until an incident between he and Nico Hulkenberg forced both drivers into a run off area that they could only reverse out of and Nyck was the first car in so 2nd car out and it unfortunately killed what was becoming his most positive race of the year. But until then we saw a glimpse of the talent that got Nyck into F1. He has had a tough year but the talent is there and like Yuki its this writers opinion that he to is being held back by the car .

It was a great race, at a great race track and I'm already excited for the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix.

Joanna Blackmore
F1 Writer @ F1journal

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