Having missed out on Formula One racing for the last two years, the Canadian fans were once again treated to action around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal for the FORMULA 1 AWS GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2022. After a wet qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, the grid was slightly out of order for Sunday, leading to an entertaining race.
Max Verstappen got away well from pole position. Fernando Alonso had a slow start from the front row of the grid, allowing Carlos Sainz to challenge on the inside of the first corner. Alonso managed to hold on to second position.
Kevin Magnussen suffered some damage to his front wing endplate while racing side-by-side with Lewis Hamilton into the chicane. With a piece of the wing dangling around, Magnussen was shown the black and orange flag, requiring him to pit for a new front wing. This dropped him to the back of the field from P6.
Sainz was able to climb to P2 on the third lap, overtaking Alonso down the long back straight. By that points, Verstappen had already opened a sizable lead over the rest of the field.
The virtual safety car was deployed for the first time on lap 8 to recover the stationary Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Perez suffered what appeared to be a gearbox failure, as his car got stuck in gear. Both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton took the opportunity pit under the VSC for hard compound tyres.
The safety car was deployed again on lap 20, as Mick Schumacher’s car came to a stop in the same area of the circuit as Perez. This triggered more cheap pit stops for George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Guanyu Zhou and both McLarens.
McLaren had a disastrous double stack pit stop. Daniel Ricciardo pitted first and had a slow stop due to some issues with the front-right tyre. Lando Norris pitted right after, but his tyres were not ready and he lost a lot of time as the team scrambled to get tyres from the garage.
After the race resumed, Fernando Alonso began to drop down the field, having not pitted for tyres under either VSC period. On lap 22, he was overtaken by Sainz and then by Hamilton a couple of laps later. He made a green flag pit stop on lap 29.
Further back, a train of cars began to accumulate behind Canadian Lance Stroll, who had not yet pitted for tyres. Zhou, Yuki Tsunoda and Ricciardo were stuck behind the Aston Martin.
By lap 42, Charles Leclerc had made a great recovery drive up to P6 and pitted for the second time in the race. His stop was slightly slow and he rejoined the race at the tail end of the Stroll train. However, after a few laps, he made his way through the train.
Max Verstappen pitted for tyres on lap 43 and rejoined alongside Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen was forced to drop behind the Mercedes driver, but it was only temporary, as he was able to overtake Hamilton down the long back straight. Hamilton pitted himself at the end of the lap and his teammate followed the lap later.
On lap 48, Stroll finally pitted for the first time, unleashing the cars behind him. Yuki Tsunoda pitted for tyres the following lap, but locked up on the cold tyres at the pit exit, slamming into the wall on the outside of turn 2. The full safety car was deployed for the incident.
The safety car was beneficial for Sainz, who was leading the race at that point in the race because he had yet to make his second pit stop. He took the opportunity to pit under the safety car, as did both Alpine drivers.
The race restarted for the final time on lap 55, giving Sainz just 15 laps to chase down Verstappen for the race victory. The two drivers pushed each other further into the lead of the race, creating a large gap to the Mercedes drivers in P3 and P4. He was able to stay right on the back of the Red Bull, but was never able to make a move.
In the end, Verstappen won for the first time at the Canadian Grand Prix and Sainz was forced to settle for P2, with the added bonus of an extra point for fastest lap. Lewis Hamilton finished on the podium for the second time of the season, making it the first time he’s beat his teammate this year since the first round of the championship in Bahrain.
The teams and drivers now have two weeks to make their way back to Europe for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on the weekend of July 3.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. Verstappen | 25 | |
| 2 | C. Sainz | 19 | |
| 3 | L. Hamilton | 15 | |
| 4 | G. Russell | 12 | |
| 5 | C. Leclerc | 10 | |
| 6 | E. Ocon | 8 | |
| 7 | F. Alonso | 6 | |
| 8 | V. Bottas | 4 | |
| 9 | G. Zhou | 2 | |
| 10 | L. Stroll | 1 | |
| 11 | D. Ricciardo | ||
| 12 | S. Vettel | ||
| 13 | A. Albon | ||
| 14 | P. Gasly | ||
| 15 | L. Norris | ||
| 16 | N. Latifi | ||
| 17 | K. Magnussen | ||
| DNF | Y. Tsunoda | ||
| DNF | M. Schumacher | ||
| DNF | S. Perez | ||
