This weekend the teams took a brief detour across the pond to Montreal for the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2023 at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve. Despite a wet start to the weekend, the race presented dry conditions. It was more of the same for the top team and driver this season, with both securing another comfortable victory in the season.
Fernando Alonso had a poor start from second on the starting grid, allowing Lewis Hamilton to sneak by the Aston Martin on the run down to the first corner. George Russell was fighting to overtake Alonso in the first sector, drawing alongside the Spaniard, but he had to back off in the first chicane.
Further back, Sergio Perez had a better start than Carlos Sainz off the grid, allowing Perez to take the position in the first and second corner. Sainz held onto the back of the Red Bull, trying to dive into the inside of the second chicane. He ran wide and cut the chicane, forcing Sainz to give the position back to Perez. But the battle wasn’t over, as Sainz tried his luck around the outside of the hairpin, unsuccessfully. But down the long back straight, Sainz was able to out-pace the Red Bull to take the position, as Kevin Magnussen nearly ran into the back of the duo after missing his braking point into the final chicane.
Logan Sargeant was the first retirement of the race, parking his Williams by an escape road in turn 6. The virtual safety car was deployed, but it was brief as the marshals made quick work of pushing the stranded Williams back to safety.
When the race resumed, Nico Hulkenberg found himself at the front of a DRS train that included most of the drivers. Hulkenberg qualified in the top 5, despite a penalty for a red-flag violation, but the Haas race pace is slow. On lap 12, he pitted to avoid pressure from behind, unleashing the rest of the field.
However, George Russell brought the race to a crawl as he hit the barrier on the exit of turn 9. The Brit took too much of the kerbs on the inside of chicane, unsettling the Mercedes. He limped back to the pit lane and was able to continue the race. The safety car was deployed to clean the debris, prompting many drivers to make their pit stop.
There was some drama in the pit lane, as Hamilton rejoined narrowly ahead of Fernando Alonso. Alonso claimed he had to brake and swerved violently from side-to-side, although the reaction appeared to be largely theatrical. The incident was investigated by the stewards, who eventually decided that no further action was required.
The race resumed on lap 17 and Max Verstappen resumed his commanding lead of the rest over the rest of the field. Alonso continued to chase down the Mercedes ahead of him. After about six laps, the Spaniard had enough of looking at the rear wing of Hamilton’s car, zooming into P2 with DRS down the penultimate straight and diving up the inside into the final chicane. Hamilton tried to fight back down the main straight and into the first corner, but was unable to mount a challenge.
The was some drama on lap 35 as Nyck de Vries and Kevin Magnussen squabbled over non-points scoring positions. De Vries dove up the inside of the Haas in the first corner, but ran Magnussen out very wide. Magnussen had to bump de Vries to stay on the circuit into the right-hand second corner. The two were side-by-side into the first chicane. De Vries again tried to take the inside line, but locked up and went straight off into a runoff area, taking Magnussen with him. Both were able to back out onto the circuit again, albeit now in last place.
With around 30 laps remaining in the race, the top three drivers made their final pit stops in the two-stop strategy. First to blink was Hamilton, who pitted for medium compound tyres. Fernando Alonso pitted for hards the following lap to cover off any undercut attempt from the Mercedes. Verstappen followed Alonso in a lap later, taking the medium tyres.
After making his second pit stop, Lando Norris was awarded a five-second time penalty for unsportsmanlike behaviour. This was for driving too slow in hairpin while under the safety car, creating a gap so that he could double-stack with his teammate.
Some 40 laps after his initial crash early in the race, George Russell became the second retirement of the race. The team forced him to retire with 15 laps remaining in the race, citing high brake wear.
Mercedes also believed that Russell was not the only driver with a brake issue. The team advised Hamilton they believed Alonso was nursing a rear brake issue. The Aston Martin was lifting and coasting for the later portion of the race, allowing Hamilton to chase down the second place driver. As the race ticked down, Hamilton could see the car ahead and was just outside of DRS range. However, upon learning this, Alonso cranked up the pace and increased the gap to a more comfortable level.
Further back, Lando Norris was making his way through the DRS train led by Alex Albon. Norris noticed that the rear wing on the Alpine of Esteban Ocon appeared to be broken, as it was seen wobbling violently late in the race. The stewards noted the rear wing, but the car was allowed to continue racing. With no chance of staying in the points due to his penalty, Norris gave it his all to try and beat Ocon, fighting all the way into the final corner.
Just behind, Lance Stroll narrowly beat Valtteri Bottas in a drag race to the line for P10, although both scored points after Norris’ penalty was applied. But it was Alex Albon who was Driver of the Day, with his P7 finish giving Williams their highest victory since the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen cruised to another victory in Canada, giving the Red Bull team their 100th victory as a Formula One constructor. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton stood alongside him on the podium. It was Sergio Perez who took the bonus points for the fastest lap of the race, stealing it from Hamilton on the final lap.
Formula One will return to Europe for the final stint before the summer break. Next up is the Austrian Grand Prix on the weekend of June 30.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. Verstappen | 25 | |
| 2 | F. Alonso | 18 | |
| 3 | L. Hamilton | 15 | |
| 4 | C. Leclerc | 12 | |
| 5 | C. Sainz | 10 | |
| 6 | S. Perez | 9 | |
| 7 | A. Albon | 6 | |
| 8 | E. Ocon | 4 | |
| 9 | L. Stroll | 2 | |
| 10 | V. Bottas | 1 | |
| 11 | O. Piastri | ||
| 12 | P. Gasly | ||
| 13 | L. Norris | ||
| 14 | Y. Tsunoda | ||
| 15 | N. Hulkenberg | ||
| 16 | G. Zhou | ||
| 17 | K. Magnussen | ||
| 18 | N. de Vries | ||
| DNF | G. Russell | ||
| DNF | L. Sargeant | ||
