@Max33Verstappen fends-off @Carlossainz55 to claim #CanadianGP victory. #F1
Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing-RBPT, RB18, celebrating after winning the Formula 1 AWS Canadian Grand Prix, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Image credit to Lars Baron - Formula 1 via Getty Images. Verstappen Canadian GP victory, 2022 Canadian GP, 2022 Canadian GP Results, F1 Canadian GP, Canadian Grand Prix Results. 2022 British GP Preview, F1 British GP Preview, British Grand Prix Preview, British GP Preview. 2023 Canadian GP Preview, F1 Canadian GP Preview.
Verstappen Canadian GP victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen withstood intense pressure from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to take victory at the Canadian GP following a late safety car interruption with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton taking third.
The race already had two disruptions from virtual safety cars, which put Verstappen and Sainz on different two-stopper v one stop strategies for the Ferrari ahead of the final phase, before the safety car brought them altogether and set-up a straight battle for the win on the same Pirelli C3 white side-walled compounds, with the Spaniard on the younger tyre.
Behind, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who started on the front row became a seventh-placed finish for the Spaniard, behind Mercedes duo Hamilton and George Russell, whilst Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc recovered from the back-of-the-pack to finish fifth.
When the 70 lap Canadian GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen made a comfortable get away into turn one, eliminating Alonso’s desire to pass the Dutchman.
Sainz followed his fellow Spanish-compatriot through the opening corners whilst Hamilton’s front-left tapped Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen’s right-side front wing end-plate when the VF-22 attacked the outside of the Silver Arrow into turn three, which broke part of it and left it hanging off.
As Verstappen started to build his lead, which was at one second at the end of the first tour, Sainz took until the end of the third lap to pass Alonso – using DRS assistance to get by the A522 racer on the approach to the final turns.
Verstappen gained a few tenths per tour over Sainz during the early proceedings, where the Ferrari driver struggled with graining on his front-left tyre, but the Spaniard was starting to reverse this trend when the initial stint was disrupted by the deployment of the virtual safety car on the ninth tour.
Just after Magnussen was instructed to pit to change his front wing by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez peeled off mid-pack with what was a suspected engine failure, which meant the Mexican stopped in the run-off area behind turn nine and the run-down to the hairpin late in the tour.
Whilst one of it’s cars were being cleared under the virtual safety car, Red Bull immediately pitted Verstappen to put on the harder tyres to take advantage of the reduced time stop with the Grand Prix stabilised, as Sainz and Alonso remained out on track whilst Hamilton also came in.
Sainz lead for the next stage of the race after it went green at the end of the tenth lap, with Verstappen then eating into what was a 6.4 second gap for the Ferrari over the former leader, who rapidly caught and overtook Alonso for second place – getting passed with an easy DRS overtake down the back straight.
The race status remained unchanged until the 20th lap, when the virtual safety car was deployed again for Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher, who had dropped back from sixth-place on the first lap, as the German pulled off with a mechanical failure at the same spot as Perez had done earlier.
This time Sainz stopped to put on the harder rubber, emerging just as the virtual safety car ended at the beginning of the 21st tour and just in-front of the already-pitted Hamilton, then leading him back up behind Alonso, who again remained out despite the cheap pit-stop on offer.
Like during the early proceedings, Sainz got by Alonso once again with DRS assistance on the rundown to the final corners on the 22nd lap, which left the Spaniard 9.4 seconds behind Verstappen, whilst Hamilton soon followed the Ferrari driver past Alonso to run in a distant third place behind the leading duo.
Sainz used his fresher harder tyres to his advantage to slowly eat into Verstappen’s gap over the next phase of the Grand Prix, but it was still holding at comfortably above eight seconds with 30 tours completed and even as Verstappen reported over the radio that his harder compounds were starting to lose grip.
By the beginning of lap 40, Sainz had been taking bigger chunks out of Verstappen’s lead meaning the gap was shrinking to just over six seconds and so Red Bull decided to bring the race leader in a second time – again putting on a set of harder rubber on lap 43.
Verstappen was annoyed to come out behind Hamilton but flew by the Mercedes with DRS assistance the next time down the back-straight, with the latter then immediately pitting for the second time also.
Sainz then enjoyed a comfortable 10.8 second lead with 25 tours remaining, but Verstappen quickly pushed to bring the gap down to 7.7 seconds at the end of lap 49.
But the race complexion completely changed when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda crashed after making his second pit-stop and went straight into the turn two barriers at the pit-lane exit.
Ferrari brought Sainz in and was able to put on a fresh set of harder compounds and emerged just behind Verstappen, which set up a 14-lap dash to the flag once the race returned to green at the beginning of the 56th tour after the AlphaTauri AT03 racer was cleared.
Sainz could not put a move on Verstappen at the restart after the race leader had waited until the final few turns before shooting back into top speed, with the Dutchman pulling out a 0.8 second gap over the Ferrari driver on the initial tour back at racing speed.
But Sainz charged hard to stay in DRS range when the system was re-activated two tours after the restart and was able to keep Verstappen under intense pressure.
Tour-after-tour Ferrari used his DRS to close in on the long back and main-straights, but Verstappen was able to remain in-front thanks to his brilliant traction out of the hairpin and last chicane.
Twice Sainz got the gap to 0.3 seconds and within Verstappen’s rear wing, also twice moving towards the inside line for the final chicane in an attempt to put the Red Bull driver off, but Verstappen did not budge.
Sainz locked-up at the hairpin on the final tour meaning, Verstappen was able to cross the line to take the Canadian GP victory by 0.993 seconds, increasing his Driver’s Championship points lead to 46 over Red Bull team-mate Perez.
Hamilton completed the top three having been quickly dropped by the leaders after the safety car restart.
Russell gained under the virtual safety car and was closing in on Mercedes team-mate Hamilton before the leading F1 W13 stopped after Verstappen shot by, after which Russell was also given a second pit-stop and ran behind his team-mate to the flag, with neither pitting under the safety car.
Leclerc’s had a frustrating race as he struggled with rear-tyre grip whilst making his way through the field from 19th on the grid.
The Monegasque driver made steady progress through the lower places but was not making the push through the field he was expecting and was then frustrated for a long time behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon during the middle stage of the Grand Prix.
By this time, Alonso had finally pitted and was hurling back towards the Ferrari, which started on the alternate strategy using the hards for the start and had likewise not come in during the two virtual safety car deployments.
When Leclerc stopped on lap 41, a slow-stop meant he emerged behind a train of cars – Alfa’s Zhou Gunayu, Tsunoda and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo – that were following the yet-to-pit Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
He took a few tours to clear them, with Leclerc passing Stroll before Tsunoda’s crash and he was another driver to not come in during the safety car.
This meant he was behind Ocon and Alonso at the restart – the latter still stuck behind his team-mate due to what Alpine had described a “straight-line speed issue” following his pit-stop.
Despite having older tyres (Ocon and Alonso did stop for the same C4 yellow-marked mediums Leclerc was already running), Leclerc made his way passed the duo with two moves at the hairpin to take fifth – although his overtake on Ocon came after he had got a move into the chicane wrong and had to let his rival by a short while beforehand.
Alonso suggested to his team that Ocon should let him passed before the finish but wound up behind his Alpine team-mate in seventh place.
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas came home in eighth place and was the second-highest one stopping finisher (behind Leclerc), with team-mate Zhou in the second C42 racer ending the race in ninth place
Home-town hero Stroll claimed the final points place for Aston Martin following a late DRS overtake on McLaren’s Ricciardo, who lost time with a lengthy pit-stop during the second virtual safety car period.
The other Aston Martin AMR22 entry Sebastian Vettel finished the Canadian GP outside the top ten in 12th place and in-front of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who was 13th and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who took 14th.
McLaren’s Lando Norris also lost a heap of time due to the Woking-based squad’s double-stack pit-stop, with the Briton also hit with a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.
Norris eventually settled for 15th and ahead of Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and Haas F1 Team’s Magnussen, who ended the race at the rear.
2022 Canadian GP – The Top Three
2022 Canadian GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing-RBPT, RB18:
“The Safety Car didn’t help, overall [Ferrari] were very quick. Following is tricky around here but I could see him pushing, charging, pushing, charging. The last few laps were very fun.”
2nd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75:
“I was pushing flat out; I wasn’t leaving any inch to the walls under braking. I tried everything to pass Max, but the positive thing is we were quicker, we were faster in the race. We were very close to winning today so I’ll take the positives.”
3rd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W13 E Performance:
“We’ve had such an awesome crowd, and it’s quite overwhelming to get this third place. We remain vigilant, never give up and it’s something I’m inspired by. We’re getting closer. I could just about see them [the front runners] at the end! Honestly, I’m ecstatic.”
Formula 1 AWS Canadian Grand Prix 2022 Race Results Classification (70 Laps)
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING RBPT | 70 | 1:36:21.757 | 25 |
| 2 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 70 | +0.993s | 19 |
| 3 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 70 | +7.006s | 15 |
| 4 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 70 | +12.313s | 12 |
| 5 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 70 | +15.168s | 10 |
| 6 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 70 | +23.890s | 8 |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ALPINE RENAULT | 70 | +24.945s | 6 |
| 8 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 70 | +25.247s | 4 |
| 9 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 70 | +26.952s | 2 |
| 10 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 70 | +38.222s | 1 |
| 11 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 70 | +43.047s | 0 |
| 12 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 70 | +44.245s | 0 |
| 13 | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 70 | +44.893s | 0 |
| 14 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPHATAURI RBPT | 70 | +45.183s | 0 |
| 15 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 70 | +52.145s | 0 |
| 16 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 70 | +59.978s | 0 |
| 17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 70 | +68.180s | 0 |
| NC | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | ALPHATAURI RBPT | 47 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 47 | Mick Schumacher | HAAS FERRARI | 18 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING RBPT | 7 | DNF | 0 |
* Provisional results. Sainz scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1113/canada/race-result.html
Click here for the 2022 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.
Round ten of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the legendary Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, Towcester, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom for the Formula 1 Lenovo British Grand Prix 2022 from Friday July 1-Sunday June 3.
#CanadianGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen claims pole as @alo_oficial shines. #F1
#CanadianGP FP2: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @CharlesLeclerc. #F1
#CanadianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets ahead of Spanish duo. #F1
