Max Verstappen recorded Red Bull Racing’s 100th victory in Formula 1 with a lights-to-flag victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The championship leader was unstoppable in his bid to secure the team’s landmark achievement, as the outfit becomes the fifth constructor in the sport to score 100 victories.
He beat Fernando Alonso with a winning margin of 9.5 seconds, as the Aston Martin driver overcame a fast-starting Lewis Hamilton to secure the runner-up position in the race.
Verstappen was able to lead away from the start line, as a lightning start from Hamilton carried the Mercedes driver above Alonso for the opening stages of laps.
The early battle among the front-running trio was joined by George Russell, but the Mercedes hit the Turn 9 exit wall on lap 12 and knocked his right-rear tyre off the rim. The debris clean-up required a full safety car, and Russell was able to rejoin the back of the field having limped back to the pits.
This did not deter Verstappen, who rocketed off into the lead on the lap 17 restart and soon began to put enough distance between himself and Hamilton, despite complaining that he was less comfortable with the hard tyre compared to the medium he had kicked off the race with.
The bulk of the field had pitted under the safety car and Alonso’s pace on the hard tyre appeared to be stronger than that of Hamilton, allowing him to close in on Hamilton.
On lap 22, Alonso mounted his charge having got within DRS range, and blasted past Hamilton ahead of the final corner to reclaim second place.
Alonso subsequently had to maintain enough pace to ward off Hamilton on a softer set of tyre, while also trying to lift and coast to manage his brake temperatures.
This allowed Verstappen to start creaking open the gap to his fellow two-time champion, taking it to over six seconds with 20 laps remaining in the race.
The gap expanded to eight seconds as Alonso’s braking issues came to light over Hamilton’s radio, and the seven-time champion began to home in on his former team-mate, but Alonso started to pick up the pace to extend his lead over the Mercedes.
Although there was a brief chance that Alonso could start catching Verstappen over the final 10 laps of the race, with the gap coming down to 7.7 seconds, the world champion shrugged off a small mistake and started opening the gap even more.
Alonso had to maintain enough pace to ward off Hamilton, who had moved onto a softer compound of tyre amid the second round of stops. The seven-time champion began to home in on his former team-mate, taking the buffer down to 1.4 seconds, but Alonso started to pick up the pace to extend his lead over the Mercedes.
Hamilton completed the podium, 4.5 seconds down on Alonso, to claim Mercedes’ sole batch of points as Russell eventually retired from the after-effects of his early wall-bang.
The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz claimed fourth and fifth as the team executed a strong one-stop strategy, having stretched out the medium-tyre stint at the start and resisting the temptation to pit under the safety car to ensure the cars had track position.
The two switched to hard tyres at around half-distance, and the drivers tacitly agreed not to fight between themselves to get points on the board.
Sergio Perez recovered to sixth with his own long opening stint on hards, only making it a two-stop to fit soft tyres close to the end and snatch the fastest lap point – which he duly did so.
Alex Albon produced a measured defensive drive on a one-stop strategy to claim seventh place for Williams, holding firm from Russell and then Esteban Ocon when the Mercedes team retired the car.
Ocon could not make inroads into Albon with DRS, while a wobbling rear wing threatened to derail any progress towards the end and thankfully remained intact.
The Alpine driver came under attack from Lando Norris towards the end, who copped a five-second penalty for slowing down too much under the safety car to try and make room for a McLaren double-stack in the pitlane.
This dumped the McLaren out of the points, with Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas completing the top ten.
So congratulations to Max Verstappen in achieving the team’s 100th victory in the sport and this is his sixth win this season. It’s looking good for the championship.
Canadian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:33:58.348
2 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +9.570s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +14.168s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +18.648s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +21.540s
6 Sergio Perez Red Bull +51.028s
7 Alex Albon Williams +60.813s
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +61.692s
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +64.402s
10 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +64.432s
11 Oscar Piastri McLaren +65.101s
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine +65.249s
13 Lando Norris McLaren +68.363s
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +73.423s
15 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +1 lap
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
18 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +1 lap
George Russell Mercedes DNF
Logan Sargeant Williams DNF
Canadian Grand Prix race review as reported by 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 several occasions throughout the race, Hamilton getting the jump at the start but falling back behind when the various 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 some split strategies.
Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were two of only five drivers – along with Red Bull’s Perez, Haas driver 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 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 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.
Having dropped from second to fifth on the grid due to his red flag breach in qualifying, Nico Hulkenberg had an anonymous afternoon en route to 15th, behind the lead AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda, with Haas again losing competitiveness on race day.
Zhou Guanyu was 16th in the second of the Alfa Romeo machines, while Magnussen and 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 retiree when the Williams rookie was asked to park his car in the early stages.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-wins-canadian-gp-to-claim-red-bulls-100th-victory-and-equal.7A6g45iAe5jqGGUc5k153Y.html
Max Verstappen says that matching three-time Formula 1 champion Ayrton Senna on 41 wins at the Canadian Grand Prix is “incredible”, and hopes he can far exceed that tally.
Senna collected his victories between 1985 and 1993 prior to his death in 1994. For years, the Brazilian’s record was dwarfed by only Alain Prost’s total of 51 wins but has since been surpassed by Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen has now reached that level with his win in Montreal, his sixth of the season, and also helped Red Bull reach the milestone of 100 F1 victories.
Speaking about reaching those respective win counts, Verstappen explained that it would have been far beyond his imagination before the start of his F1 career, and added that he now wants to help Red Bull reach the next step of 200 victories.
“I hate to compare different generations but, from my side, the only thing I can say is that when I was a little kid driving in go-karts, I was dreaming about being a Formula 1 driver, and I would’ve never imagined to win 41 grands prix,” Verstappen said.
“So, of course, to tie with Ayrton is something incredible. I’m proud of that, but of course, I hope it’s not stopping here. I hope that we can keep on winning more races.
“I have won 41 of [Red Bull’s 100 wins], so we’ll talk about maybe a new contract because of that!
“No honestly, it’s a great achievement for the team. You know, we knew that this was the first opportunity to do so, and I’m happy that’s done with a hundred.
“But again, I hope we win more than a hundred – so the new target’s 200!”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-incredible-to-match-sennas-tally-of-41-f1-victories/10484995/
Fernando Alonso reckons he spent the entirety of Formula 1’s 2023 Canadian Grand Prix delivering “qualifying” laps and he had no time to “relax” on his way to finishing second.
The Aston Martin driver lost out to third-starting Lewis Hamilton initially into Turn 1 and was later required to briefly touch the brakes at the first round of pitstops when the Mercedes appeared to be released into his path.
This incident was reviewed but passed without a penalty from the stewards.
Alonso then recovered his original starting position with the aid of DRS to pass his former McLaren team-mate into the final chicane on lap 22 of 70.
Hamilton did give chase to close to within two seconds during the final 10 laps before Alonso dropped his times to secure his place as runner-up behind dominant race winner Max Verstappen.
Given the Mercedes threat, Alonso said there was no “one lap where I could relax a little bit” in what he reckoned was an “amazing battle”. The two-time champion added that for the duration of the race, he drove as though it was “qualifying”.
He said: “I think we were hoping to challenge a little bit more the Red Bull, but we lost a place at the start with Lewis.
“Then it was a battle with the Mercedes and Lewis was pushing all the race so I didn’t have one lap where I could relax a little bit. So, it was an amazing battle.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alonso-says-f1-canadian-gp-70-laps-of-qualifying-for-him/10484903/
Lewis Hamilton has explained where Mercedes struggled in Formula 1’s 2023 Canadian Grand Prix and reckons upgrades have taken rival Aston Martin “a little bit of a step ahead”.
The seven-time world champion completed the podium behind Fernando Alonso and dominant race winner Max Verstappen, who claimed Red Bull’s 100th championship win by 9.57 seconds.
Hamilton enjoyed a strong launch and initially jumped front-row starter Alonso into the first corner.
He then stayed ahead through the first round of pitstops – notably escaping any penalty for a potential unsafe release that forced the Aston Martin driver to hit the brakes.
Alonso continued to give chase and was able to reclaim second place with the aid of DRS into the last chicane on lap 22 of 70.
While Hamilton was able to close to within two seconds during the final stint, Alonso responded by dropping his lap times to cement the runner-up spot.
Hamilton reckoned Mercedes lost out to the AMR23 – which sported new sidepod bodywork and a revised floor this weekend – through the low-speed corners that dominate the Montreal lap.
He said: “Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace today. We knew that this weekend, this wouldn’t be our strongest circuit as we struggle in the lower speed corners particularly.
“That’s really where I was losing to Fernando and to Max, just on traction out of Turn 2, out of pretty much every corner.
“But we’ve got a lot of work to do just to add rear downforce to the car, and a little bit more efficiency.
“But we’re chipping away as I said, and I do believe we will get there at some stage.
“Max was a little bit gone. But I think our pace was a little bit closer today. So, we’re going in the right direction.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-low-speed-corners-hurt-mercedes-in-canadian-gp/10484929/