Canada: first podium
Tyre obstacle, heat, DNF's
A warm and sunny day in Montreal, with the track's temperature constantly rising, so was the pressure for many of the drivers today. Here’s what happened during the Canadian Grand Prix!
An amazing day for Mercedes today as George Russell wins for the first time at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve! He has had 4 podiums so far this season, as his teammate Kimi Antonelli finishes P3 for the first time, becoming the third youngest podium finisher! It must be a perfect day to be down at the Mercedes garage with the celebrations ongoing today. A seemingly simple and easy race for both the drivers, as Kimi dealt with light pressure from the others. However, was anyone else expecting to see some more action between Max and George? After yesterday’s qualifying, George had said in the post-qualifying interview that “I’ve got a few more points on my licence to play with!” He referred to the fact that Max is only one penalty point away from a race ban after the controversial crash that occurred between the two in Barcelona. Many fans were intrigued on how the race start would play out, with George starting P1 and Max P2. Yet, when the race began, it was all surprisingly calm. Both drivers got away, with Max putting pressure onto George. He eventually had to back up and build a gap to him due to the dirty air George was sending back.
Although Max played this race out on a calmer route, Red Bull weren’t overly pleased with George’s win. They had ended up protesting his win, with the argument that during the SC, Russell was driving erratically and braking unnecessarily in front of Verstappen, which resulted in Max overtaking George, however he returned the position swiftly. Along with committing unsportsmanlike conduct. However, after further investigations by the stewards, George Russell got to keep his race win. I will get onto the reason why there was a SC out later on, as that’s a show of its own!
Now, how did the race play out for some of the other drivers? Well, Alex Albon still wasn’t getting much peace after Spain. He was battling Franco Colapinto before running wide and over the grass at turn 8. This unfortunately made Albon drop down to P12 from his original position of P10! Due to this incident, lots of debris was sprawled around the circuit from the trees, grass, etc. After all, this is very much a living racetrack, as it's surrounded by nature. The drivers aim to avoid collecting the debris within their air intakes and cooling systems, as this could provide many issues later on. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of problems for Alex. On lap 13, Albon was told that the team were “monitoring an issue similar to Barcelona with the PU, not as bad”. Seems like the Mercedes power unit that the Williams car holds is once again giving some trouble. On top of all this, the communication between Alex and the pit wall seemed to be very poor. On lap 22, Alex was on the radio saying “I don’t really know why you don’t listen to me” regarding his input on the race strategy that was ignored. Later on, his race engineer told him to box, which in response we heard a flurry of disagreement from Albon. Seems like Williams learnt a few things from Ferrari regarding communications! He’s carried his tyres so far and doesn’t want to pit, as he’s stuck in no man’s land between two different strategies! Many fans, along with me, were hoping that the Williams car would pull through till the end of the race! Well, spoiler alert, that wasn’t the case. On lap 49, Alex retired due to the PU issue he was nursing from the start. Better luck in Austria!
Teammate Carlos Sainz had a slightly better race, with only a few mishaps. On lap 18, Sainz was close to potentially retiring and joining his teammate when he locked up, coming close to nearly collecting Gabriel Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman! Overall, Sainz finished in P10, however if he hadn’t been impeded in qualifying by Isack Hadjar, could he have started higher up in positions rather than P17 and gained some more points?
Tyre degradation was a massive issue highlighted during this race. The reason could be due to the softer tyre compounds that were selected by Pirelli, along with the high temperatures and smoother track surface. Due to these conditions, many drivers were on the radio complaining about how the “tyres aren’t great” as said by Charles, and that “they’re very fragile” as Max said. Oscar Piastri mentioned how he’s had an increase in graining. Many drivers pitted much earlier to get rid of these poor tyres, with Max being the first on only lap 13! It was definitely best not to risk your race over a bad pair of tyres. Many followed suit, also pitting. The race pace was off for many, with Pirelli’s Chief Engineer Simone Berra stating “The higher the graining level, the higher the wear rate, and the higher the degradation.”
Ferrari, oh Ferrari! So close to the podium, yet too many issues were preventing that from happening. Both drivers finished in the points, with Charles in P5 and Lewis in P6. On lap 13, Hamilton pitted for the first time, yet it wasn’t an ideal pit stop, as the timings didn't work out. Lewis had to slow down as Lando overtook him, causing him to lose a tenth or two. As the race progressed, we saw Lewis’s pace decrease as he built up an 11-second gap behind Piastri at the time, complaining on the radio that “he’s nowhere in the race”. Well, it was only on lap 24 when his engineer told him about some sort of damage affecting his downforce, and unfortunately, the damage was a groundhog that had been hit on lap 9! Devastation was evident in Lewis during the post-race interviews when discussing it. Unlucky groundhogs, they should build a grandstand for them to avoid future incidents! Charles Leclerc was having his own issues with the radio messages regarding strategies! Not a surprise anymore at this point. Charles was adamant about staying on the medium tyres, confident in being able to pull off a one stop. Still, Ferrari pitted him for a pair of hard tyres on lap 29, with Charles “not understanding this choice”. Despite this, Charles had a great race pace on the hards and managed to pull through some good lap times, even better ones if he didn’t have to “lift and coast” to manage engine temperatures.
Home hero, Lance Stroll, was almost meant to miss the race this weekend due to a wrist injury he sustained, yet he managed to attend and drive, as a small incident occurred between him and Pierre Gasly. During lap 45, Lance pushed Pierre wide on the final chicane, resulting in Gasly being forced off the track and onto the grass. Due to this, his front tyres also locked up, which resulted in him needing to use the run off area. Race control noted this incident as the stewards handed Lance Stroll a harsh 10-second time penalty for forcing another driver off the track. He completed the penalty during a later pit stop.
On lap 57, Liam Lawson had to unfortunately retire from the race due to a power unit problem, along with suffering from a cooling issue. Not ideal as he was already handed a 50-place grid penalty! This was due to the changes the team made to the car before the race, as each element changed warrants a 10-place grid penalty. What a cherry on top to an already awful race weekend.
Remember how I mentioned a safety car earlier? Well, it was for Lando Norris! A long battle occurred between teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the final laps of the race. Due to the traffic, Piastri was being held up, which allowed Lando to gain up to him with some DRS. A few unsuccessful attempts from both, with Lando seeking out to overtake and Oscar protecting his position, as it seemed all was calm until lap 67. Oscar gained a valuable slipstream from Kimi Antonelli to stay ahead of Lando, driving out in tandem, out of the hairpin and into the chicane as they made it to the start-finish straight. Lando attempted to pull ahead through a narrow gap to the left of Oscar before he clipped his front tyres into Oscar’s rear and collided with the wall. His vehicle sustained enough damage to have to inevitably retire from the race! Seems like they replicated the Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton crash from 2011! Lando had taken the blame for the crash as he apologised to Piastri and the team. Seems like they are on good terms, as this incident wasn't intentional by any means.
Notable mention to Fernando Alonso! Did anyone see those flawless overtakes he was doing during the race? Despite him starting P6 and finishing P7, he had one fantastic drive I’d say!
Wow, wow, wow, what a race it was this weekend! Thank you for reading my post! Let me know if you have any suggestions or improvements for me! What else would you like to see me write about? See you next time for the Austrian Grand Prix!