Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Sunday Round Up - Canada

9/6/2024

The Canadian Grand Prix was filled with rain, tyre strategy, and safety cars, but ultimately, Max Verstappen returned to the podium, followed by Lando Norris and George Russell.

Sainz, Perez, Albon, Leclerc and Sargent were out of the race with damage and engine failures.

Race Facts

Max Verstappen takes his third consecutive Canadian Grand Prix win
Five cars don't make it to the end of the race with two safety cars deployed
Both Alpine drivers finish in the points

George Russell started on pole for the first time since the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu started from the pit lane after Sauber changed the rear wing spec on both cars.

With rain pre-race and rain looming for the start of the race, everyone started on Intermediate tyres, except both Haas drivers, who started on full wet tyres.

There is standing water all around the track, and existing drainage problems have already delayed FP1 on Friday. There is a lot of water around the track for the start of the race.

George starts in P1 and retains P1 for the race start, holding off Verstappen. Alonso and Hamilton gain places at the start, with Riccardo dropping to 7th place. Sainz cuts the last corner and drops back to 15th, with Leclerc up to 8th.

Both Haas drivers started on full wets and it paid off, with Magnussen passing Leclerc, Stroll, Hamilton, Alonso and Piastri and moving up into 4th place in an incredible driver. He didn't manage to keep the momentum for very long as the track dried out and the blue skies appeared.

On lap six, Sargeant headed down the escape road, bringing out a brief yellow flag, but managed to turn around and get back on the track. As the intermediate tyres turned out to be faster tyres, despite Magnussen's initial charge through the field, he was the first to pit from wet tyres to intermediate tyres, but the team wasn't expecting him, and they ended up with an eight-second pit stop.

While the track started to dry out, Daniel Riccardo was under investigation for a false start, for which he later received a five-second time penalty.

Verstappen started to gain on Russell, who was still in the lead, with Norris right behind them. All three were trying to keep their intermediate tyres in good shape as the track dried.

With the continued threat of rain looming, tyres were on everyone's mind. Verstappen was now just 0.602 seconds behind Russell. But it was Norris who was gaining, and he took the fastest lap on lap 16.

As Verstappen tries to get past Russell, he quickly detours off the track at Turn 2 but manages to maintain his place ahead of Norris in P3.

As DRS is enabled on lap 20, Norris gets past Verstappen and moves into second place before overtaking Russell to take the lead in the Canadian Grand Prix. Verstappen also overtakes Russell.

Meanwhile, behind the leaders, Sargeant crashes on lap 25, bringing out a safety car. Verstappen, Russell and Piastri all take advantage of the safety car and pit, but Norris stays out and pits a lap later with all drivers now on fresh intermediate tyres. Norris regains the track in third position behind Russell and Verstappen, with Verstappen taking the lead.

As Sargeant's time racing in Canada comes to an end, Leclerc's Ferrari has engine issues, which they tried to fix during a pit stop. However, that didn't work, and Leclerc rejoined the race in 19th place.

The rain once again started to fall as the safety car came in on lap 29, and the race once again started. Sainz received damage to the front of his Ferrari after a slight scuffle with Bottas and Riccardo.

As the rain stopped and DRS was once again enabled, it was a gamble who would move onto slick tyres first, but that wasn't a problem for Leclerc as Ferrari retired his car from 19th place on lap 43 of 70.

It was Hamilton who was pitted first for medium tyres on lap 44 with Verstappen (mediums), Russell (hards), Piastri (mediums) and Alonso (hards) also pitting.

Verstappen regains the lead from Norris, who also pits for medium tyres but can only rejoin the track in P2 and is immediately overtaken by Russell on the hard tyre. However, Russell is still four seconds off Verstappen.

Russell runs wide at Turn nine and takes a bit of kerb, allowing Norris to pass him and regain second place.

The safety car was deployed again on lap 54. This time, Albon had a tussle with Sainz and had to retire his car from the race after it ended up the wrong way around and in the grass. Sainz also retired from the race after losing control of his car in the wet and hitting Albon.

Meanwhile, Perez lost control of his car and ended up slightly hitting the barrier with the rear of his car at the wall at Turn Six. He also had to retire his car.

The safety car arrives on lap 58, with Verstappen leading in front of Norris, Piastri, Russell, and Hamilton, rounding off the top five.

With just ten laps to go, Verstappen was ahead of Norris by two seconds, and battles were raging between the McLarens and Mercedes.

On lap 64 the top three was Verstappen, followed by Norris and Piastri but Russell and Piastri have slight contact allowing Hamilton to pass his team mate and Piastri and moved into third position.

But not for long. On lap 68, Russell overtakes Hamilton to gain a position on the podium. The race ends with Verstappen celebrating his third consecutive win in Canada, with Norris taking second place and Russell taking the last podium spot. Hamilton retains and earns the point for fastest lap.

Race Results

1) Max Verstappen 1:45:47'927
2) Lando Norris + 3.879s
3) George Russell + 4.317s
4) Lewis Hamilton + 4.915s
5) Oscar Piastri + 10.199s
6) Fernando Alonso +17.51s
7) Lance Stroll + 23.625s
8) Daniel Riccardo + 28.672s
9) Pierre Gasly + 30.021s
10) Estaban Ocon + 30.313s
11) Nico Hulkenburg + 30.824s
12) Kevin Magnussen + 31.253s
13) Valtteri Bottas + 40.487s
14) Yuki Tsunoda +52.694s
15) Zhou Guanyu + 1 Lap
DNF Logan Sargeant
DNF Alex Albon
DNF Sergio Perez
DNF Carlos Sainz
DNF Charles Leclerc

Max Verstappen, who takes his third consecutive victory at the Canadian Grand Prix, said: “It was a pretty crazy race, a lot of things were happening and we had to keep on top of our calls.

As a team we did really well today, we remained calm and we pitted at the right time, the safety car worked out nicely for us but even after that we were managing the gaps quite well. “I love it, that was a lot of fun, those kind of races you need once in a while.”

Anny Wooldridge
Writer @ F1 Journal

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