Verstappen Holds Off Sainz For Montreal Win
Calum Gill 21:28 19/06/2022
Max Verstappen narrowly denied Carlos Sainz a first Formula 1 win victory in a tense finish to the Canadian Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s sixth win from nine races in the 2022 F1 season so far was another big championship boost as his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Pérez retired early and Charles Leclerc was fifth from the back row of the grid following his engine penalties. With Sainz rapidly clearing front row starter Fernando Alonso’s Alpine in the hot and dry race, the event became a slow-burning duel between Verstappen and Sainz on slightly different strategies. Verstappen took advantage of a virtual safety car for team-mate Pérez parking from 10th on lap nine with a suspected gearbox failure to a very early pitstop, with Sainz staying out another 11 laps. That didn’t look like it would ultimately make much difference, but Sainz was able to make his second pitstop during a late safety car caused by Yuki Tsunoda crashing his AlphaTauri on his way out of the pits.
At the restart, Sainz was therefore right on Verstappen’s tail with six-lap-fresher tyres. The Red Bull never managed to drop the Ferrari out of DRS range over the remaining 15 laps, but Sainz never quite managed to get close enough to try a proper move either. Verstappen’s win means he’s now 49 points clear of Leclerc in the championship, with Perez still between them, three ahead of Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton returned to the podium to lead a Mercedes 3-4 ahead of George Russell in one of the team’s stronger races of 2022 so far. Leclerc made it through to sixth from 19th in his first stint but was struggling with tyre wear late in it and then had a slow pitstop that dropped him back into heavy traffic.
Late moves on the two Alpines allowed him to salvage fifth ahead of Esteban Ocon and Alonso. A 28-lap-long first stint proved to be the wrong strategy for Alonso, with the combination of poor pace on old tyres late in that run and rivals having pitted under VSCs tumbling him down the order. The two Alpines only just came home ahead of the Alfa Romeos of Valtteri Bottas and 2022's sole rookie Guanyu Zhou, returning to the points for the first time since the Bahrain opener. However, Alonso was later penalised for weaving on the main straight, dropping him two places behind the Alfa Romeos. Lance Stroll came from 17th on the grid to take tenth place in his home race for Aston Martin, in a rather rare strong showing from the Montrealer.
Both McLarens finished outside the points - Daniel Ricciardo losing ground in the final laps to end up 11th and Lando Norris down in 15th thanks to a confused pitstop in which the wrong tyre was briefly fitted to his car. Sebastian Vettel brought his Aston Martin home in twelfth, ahead of Williams' Alexander Albon. AlphaTauri had a rare non-score after Tsunoda's retirement, with Pierre Gasly only managing fourteenth, ahead of Norris and Nicholas Latifi, who suffered yet another wretched showing in 2022 at his home race Haas’s brilliant third-row qualifying effort didn’t bring it any points. Kevin Magnussen was ordered by race control to pit early to change a front wing that had sustained damage in a first-lap brush with Hamilton. He finished 17th and last. Team-mate Mick Schumacher retired early with a mechanical problem.
