From formula1.com
Max Verstappen made it six victories from eight races in 2023 with a dominant display during Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, leading home the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, as Red Bull maintained their 100% winning record for the season so far.
Verstappen’s lights-to-flag triumph also gave Red Bull their 100th victory in the sport, 18 years on from the team’s debut, while the Dutchman made more history by drawing level with the legendary Ayrton Senna on 41 wins – extending his championship lead in the process.
Alonso and Hamilton traded places on multiple occasions throughout the race, Hamilton getting the jump at the start but falling back behind when the strategies unfolded, meaning it was the Spaniard who finished runner-up to the record-setting Verstappen.
George Russell missed out on a potential podium fight in the other Mercedes after an early crash caused major damage to his car and dropped him to the foot of the order, with the resulting Safety Car leading to different strategic approaches.
Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were two of only five drivers – along with Red Bull’s Perez, Haas man Kevin Magnussen and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas – to stay out under the Safety Car, giving them track position that they converted into P4 and P5 respectively.
Perez took a lonely sixth, and the fastest lap bonus point, as he did his best to limit the damage after a third successive compromised qualifying session, while Albon made the most of his top 10 starting spot – and a well-timed single stop under the Safety Car – to give Williams a much-welcomed haul of points in seventh.
Albon had to fend off a train of cars in the closing stages of the race that included Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, McLaren’s Lando Norris, the aforementioned Bottas and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, benefitting from the upgraded FW45’s strong straight-line speed.
Norris would lose his points finish after the chequered flag, though, having been given a five-second penalty for “unsportsmanlike conduct” behind the Safety Car, the McLaren man accused of backing up the pack to clear the way for a McLaren ‘double-stack’ in the pits.
That meant Norris dropped to P13, behind team mate Oscar Piastri and the other Alpine of Pierre Gasly, with the final points of the day going to Stroll and Bottas – the Canadian managing to pass the Finn late on to gain an extra place.
After dropping from second to fifth on the grid due to his red flag breach in qualifying, Nico Hulkenberg experienced an anonymous afternoon en route to 15th, behind the lead AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda, having lost out with a stop just before the Safety Car and the Haas team’s general lack of competitiveness on race day.
Zhou Guanyu was 16th in the second of the Alfa Romeo machines, while Magnussen and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries wound up 17th and 18th respectively after two collisions midway through the race that led to them both running off the track.
Having initially continued after his crash and worked his way back into the points, Russell was later told to retire amid brake worries, with Logan Sargeant the other non-finisher when the Williams rookie was asked to park his car in the early stages.
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Photo's: Oracle Red Bull Racing