The 2022 Canadian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 AWS Grand Prix du Canada 2022) is a Formula One motor race, held on 19 June 2022 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the 9th round of the 2022 Formula One World Championship. The race is the 57th edition of the Canadian Grand Prix, the 51st time the event has been included as a round of the Formula One World Championship since the series began in 1950, the 41st time a World Championship event has been held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and the first race in Canada since 2019, as the 2020 and 2021 races were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The race takes place one week after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and precedes the British Grand Prix. It is also Lance Stroll's and Nicholas Latifi's home race. In the Drivers' Championship, Max Verstappen leads with 150 points, 21 points ahead of teammate Sergio Pérez in second, with Charles Leclerc in third. Red Bull Racing leads Ferrari by 80 points, and Mercedes by 118 points in the Constructors' World Championship. After the previous Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Federation initiates an investigation to study how the bouncing of cars down the straight could be dangerous for drivers, not only for on-track safety but also for its impact on their physical condition. The bouncing is particularly pronounced on the long straight of the Baku circuit, raising concerns among the drivers, especially the British Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton, who suffers severe back pain due to the bouncing. Initially, there are doubts about his presence in the Canadian race, but these are later dispelled by Hamilton himself.
The Federation wants to have a complete picture, consulting medical specialists and gathering data from other series, such as rallying. Ahead of the race, the Federation decides to issue a technical directive explaining that, in the interest of safety, it is necessary to intervene and require teams to make the necessary adjustments to reduce or eliminate this bouncing phenomenon. Specifically, the governing body of motorsport decides to focus on certain points, such as a more thorough inspection of the car's floor and the establishment of a metric based on the car's vertical acceleration, which sets a quantitative limit for the acceptable level of vertical oscillations. A meeting between the FIA and the teams is also announced. During this Grand Prix, the Federation limits itself to gathering data during the third free practice session on Saturday, without applying penalties due to the short time available to the teams. Following the incidents in Baku, especially when Spanish Alpine driver Fernando Alonso, toward the end of Q1, took an escape road causing yellow flags that ruined the laps of those following him as they were forced to lift off, many drivers express support for introducing penalties for those who cause a yellow or red flag during qualifying. The maneuver Alonso is suspected of can be subject to potential sanctions during this Grand Prix, being included in the race director’s notes or the regular Friday briefing. Speaking about the Canadian Grand Prix, the Mercedes Team Princioal, Toto Wolff, speaks again of the hopping problems, that seems to hit mainly the Mercedes, affecting the performances, the results and the health of drivers themselves:
"Baku was a tricky weekend for us, particularly with the bouncing issues, but we really maximized the opportunities that came our way and left Azerbaijan with a solid collection of points. We benefited from the misfortune of others, but reliability is an important factor in Formula One and there's no shortage of hard work at Brackley and Brixworth behind getting both cars to the finish line. We once again found ourselves clear of the midfield in terms of pace, but a chunk behind the top two teams . working flat out to close that gap. But with an underperforming package, I loved seeing the fight in the team to pull together and get us the best result possible with the tools at hand. That spirit will bring us back competing at the front. Having not been to Montreal since 2019, we're all excited to return. It's a wonderful city and the Canadian fans are very passionate about F1. The track is a unique challenge, with chicanes separated by long straights. We're looking forwar d to seeing what the weekend has in store and hope we can take a step forward".
After a torrential rain flooded the circuit before the start of the racing weekend, Formula One drivers are finally ready to hit the track again here in Canada, as the sun shines on the beautiful 2022-spec ground effect cars.
A special day for Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after a three-year hiatus since the last Canadian Grand Prix, which on Sunday will finally be contested by home hero Nicholas Latifi, sporting a brand-new helmet livery for the occasion. A patriotic lid is also shown by Lance Stroll, even though the Aston Martin driver had already taken part in his home race, where he even scored his first points back in 2017. On Friday, Ferrari announces the definitive failure of Leclerc’s engine n. 2, which will force the Monegasque driver to change his power unit and then receive a penalty, whose entity will only be determined by Ferrari’s decision on how many components to change on Leclerc’s F1-75. It is the Mx Verstappen who sets the fastest lap of the first free practice session, held under a bright sun on the Île Notre Dame, with a 1'15"158, after a small problem with his rear and some complaints about the ‘clipping’ of his car. However, the Red Bull driver has already shown an impressive pace, and in the classification he is followed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, 0.246 seconds behind. Third is Fernando Alonso, the only driver to set his best lap time with medium tyres. Sergio Pérez is behind the Alpine and is followed by Leclerc, who is differentiating his work ahead of a probable penalty for new mechanical components.
At the moment, Tsunoda is the only one who is already sure about starting from the back of the grid. Pierre Gasly is accused of blocking by Valtteri Bottas: the Flying Finn had to slow down after finding the Alpha Tauri in his way at Turn 6. A similar behavior was shown by Pérez: like Gasly, the Mexican impeded Latifi on a flying lap by going slowly at the entry of the last chicane. Fortunately, nobody hits the infamous ‘Wall of Champions’ in this FP1, even though some drivers run wide approaching the last chicane: among them there are Albon, Schumacher, and Magnussen. The only one to experience mechanical problems is Esteban Ocon: a paper towel obstructs the unlucky Frenchman’s brake duct, setting the brake on fire and forcing him to pit. Finally, it would not be the same in Canada without groundhogs: in FP1, the drivers already had some close encounters with these cute but brave animals, who recklessly cross the track, without minding the world’s fastest cars sweeping behind them. Luckily, no harm or damages for the moment. Several drivers including Verstappen, Leclerc, and Alonso already begin their race simulation, as a higher chance of rain forecasted for FP2 can disrupt the teams' work. A dry track welcomes the drivers again for FP2 and witnesses Max Verstappen top again the classification with a time of 1'14"127, followed closely by Charles Leclerc (+0.081s), who however will have to reset his mind for the rest of the weekend after Ferrari decides to install a new turbo on his F1-75 after facing some issues with a used one, which will cost him ten places on the grid:
"It’s really good to be back at this track! It has a lot of character, and it’s always fun to drive on circuits where you have to ride the kerbs so much. It was a positive first day overall. We did a good job improving our set-up from FP1 to FP2. Track evolution is usually quite big at this track, which was also the case today. The wind was quite strong, but it didn’t affect my running much. Our main focus going forward will be in preparing our race in the best possible way".
Charles Leclerc is followed by his teammate and the two are separated by slightly more than a tenth. Sainz is generally satisfied with his Friday:
"It’s great to be back in Canada, at a circuit that is demanding, bumpy and full of kerbs, so it’s definitely a challenge for these new cars. I’ve enjoyed the first practice day and we have been able to progress well through the two sessions. It got very tricky at times due to the strong and gusty wind, but we managed to complete all our programme without any issues. Understanding the tyres will be very important come Sunday and we gathered good data with today’s run plan. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s qualifying".
Two World Champions place behind the two Ferraris, with Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso claiming fourth and fifth position. Both remarkable results, which are counterbalanced by Sergio Pérez’s dull FP2, as the Mexican struggles to find the right feeling with his car and is not able to go further than 11th place, over a second behind his teammate.
A couple of unsafe releases characterize the session, with first Vettel and then Sainz Jr. risking the collision respectively with Magnussen and Norris. Both drivers, however, do not receive grid penalties. Another difficult day in the office for both Mercedes drivers, especially for Lewis Hamilton: the seven-time World Champion has suffered a lot of bouncing which has prevented him from finding performance in his car. And despite FIA’s new technical directive, his situation has gotten worse. Not even a new floor has helped Hamilton, who defines his car undrivable while talking on the radio with his engineer. The Brit reflects on what seems to be a standpoint for the Anglo-German team, apparently lacking of effective technical solutions to their problems:
"It was pretty much like every Friday, experimenting with lots of things. We tried a new floor on my car this morning which didn't really work and it seems a lot of things we try on this car struggle to work. We experimented with very different set ups on the two cars in FP2 just to try and see if one way works and one way doesn't. Whatever we do on this car to improve it just makes it more unhappy but we have to keep working, it is what it is. One touch of the kerbs here and the car goes flying, it's so stiff and here in Montreal, you really need to ride the kerbs. It's not the Montreal that I'm used to and that I've driven throughout my career, it's the worst I've felt any car here so I'm hoping we make some solid progress overnight. You are putting on a momentous fight just to keep it out of the wall, you're catching a car that's jumping, it definitely keeps you on edge - we raised the car but it didn't make any real difference".
The seven-time Montreal winner closes his day in 13th position, around four tenths off the pace of his teammate. George Russell tries not to lose his smile, after consistently placing in the top ten (6th and 7th) and not too far from the leaders in terms of lap times, but at the same time cannot help but acknowledge the same problems that are hindering his teammate and the whole season for the Silver Arrows:
"It's fun to drive around this circuit, it's old-school and very challenging, with the cars bumping over the kerbs. Our performance wasn't where we wanted it to be, we're quite a way off the pace to the front two teams and there's also a couple of guys - Fernando and Seb - who look very strong, so we've got work to do. It's still very bumpy out there, the stiffness of these cars is pretty brutal. We can't run the kerbs as much as we used to, we got the car as soft as we can but there's something about this iteration of cars stopping us really doing that. In FP2, that was probably the biggest deviation in set up between Lewis and I, we went in completely different directions, so we'll be able to find a happy medium between the two overnight. We need to qualify ahead of the mid-field, we have a strong race car which is probably the third-quickest but if we allow one or two cars in front of us, that could make things tricky".
The Saturday Free Practice session takes place on a wet track. The track conditions, different from those on Friday, cause a major shake-up in the standings. The fastest is Fernando Alonso, who is the first driver to tackle the track on intermediate wet tires. The Alpine driver sets the best time, just a few milliseconds ahead of Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel. After the other Alpine driver, Esteban Ocon, the two McLaren cars follow, on which the floor with two struts was not mounted for fear of a potential protest from other teams if it were used in qualifying. The Red Bulls are not comfortable. Their aerodynamic choice fails to provide enough vertical downforce on the car, leaving them in eighth and ninth places. Pérez makes a mistake at the first corner, going long and losing direction, but the Mexican manages to avoid hitting the barriers. The Mercedes perform even worse, with Russell in seventh and Hamilton only fifteenth. Due to the penalty for changing several technical components on his Ferrari, Leclerc does not set any valid times. A few hours later, the qualifying session starts on a wet track, with rain continuing to fall. The drivers fit extreme wet tires and begin to set lap after lap to secure a time for advancement to the next phase, anticipating better driving conditions. After George Russell, Max Verstappen takes the lead, only to be beaten by Carlos Sainz Jr., and then by Russell again. Pierre Gasly is in third place, while Sainz Jr. continues to progress, getting within 0.176 seconds of Russell. Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda are also in the top positions, with Zhou Guanyu interspersed between them.
The French Alpine driver sets the second-fastest time, just before Kevin Magnussen, who sets the best time of 1'34"893. The Dane is later beaten by Valtteri Bottas. Russell is the first to go under 1'34"0, with Hamilton improving to second. Verstappen regains the lead, followed first by Alonso, then by Sainz Jr., who drops below 1'33"0. Charles Leclerc participates in the session, but due to his penalty, he starts from the back row, alongside the other penalized driver, Tsunoda. Ocon grabs second place, while Gasly makes a mistake and is forced to abandon qualifying. Leclerc moves up to second before Verstappen regains the fastest time. Sainz Jr. makes a driving error in the first sector but manages to get back on track. The track conditions improve, and some drivers switch to intermediate wet tires. Pérez narrowly advances to the second phase, while Gasly, the two Aston Martins, Nicholas Latifi, and Yuki Tsunoda are eliminated. Leclerc, having qualified without problems for Q2, does not participate in the session, content to have beaten Tsunoda, who will join him at the back of the grid. With track conditions improving further, several drivers, including Alonso, Magnussen, Ocon, Schumacher, and Albon, opt for intermediate wet tires. Hamilton sets the reference time of 1'33"060, which is beaten by Russell by a tenth. Alonso reduces the time to 1'30"910, while Albon hits the barriers in sector two, but without causing irreparable damage to his Williams. Soon after, Pérez goes off track at turn three, and his Red Bull ends up in the barriers, with the driver unable to return to the track. Given the car's position, the race direction halts the session to allow the marshals to recover the car safely. When the session resumes, the race direction grants another nine minutes to complete it. Bottas moves up to third, while Magnussen does better, setting the first time of 1'30"612.
The times improve rapidly. The top positions alternate between Hamilton, Russell, Sainz Jr., and Verstappen, who sets a time of 1'27"764. Verstappen's time appears unbeatable. Alonso, just behind the Dutchman, is more than a second off. Soon after, Alonso's time is beaten again by Magnussen. Sainz Jr. sets 1'26"588, before Verstappen reclaims the top spot with 1'26"270. Albon moves up to fifth, just behind Zhou. Verstappen improves once again, while Russell and Schumacher move into second and third positions. In the final moments of Q2, Alonso sets the best time, before Hamilton climbs to fourth, and Verstappen beats the Spanish Alpine driver's time. Bottas, Albon, and the three drivers who did not complete the session - Pérez (who crashed), Lando Norris, and Leclerc - are eliminated. For the start of Q3, the track seems to be drying, but none of the drivers risks using dry tires. Hamilton finishes in 1'24"360, while Russell sets 1'24"006. Verstappen remains the fastest with 1'22"701, while Sainz Jr., in second, is 1.111 seconds behind. Alonso is just 37 milliseconds behind the Ferrari driver. Mick Schumacher moves up to second, only to be beaten by Sainz Jr., who gets within two-tenths of Verstappen's time. Alonso also improves, moving up to third place. In the final part of Q3, Russell is the only driver to attempt a lap on soft tires. The Briton goes wide at turn two and ends up on the grass, though he manages to get back on track, despite damage to his rear wing. Magnussen moves up to third before Verstappen lowers the bar again to 1'21"620. Hamilton rises to second, while Verstappen improves further. Sainz Jr. regains second place, before Alonso beats him at the last attempt. Max Verstappen secures his fifteenth career pole position, his second of the season, and for the first time, starts from pole position at the Montreal circuit. The world champion lines up in first place for his 150th Grand Prix in Formula 1. Says Max Verstappen, ath the end of Qualifying:
"Today was simply lovely. The conditions were very tricky out there, it was very slippery, but we stayed calm, we made sure we were there at the right time and we managed to put in some solid laps. It's been a nice day and overall we're having a good weekend, it's a shame for Checo but hopefully he can make up the places tomorrow during the race. Tomorrow, we need to focus on the first lap and then concentrate on our own race, I still expect there to be a good battle. It's been a while since Fernando and I have been alongside each other on the grid, I used to look up to him as a young kid watching Formula One, with him being up there winning races and championships, so it's great to be sharing the front row with him".
Christian Horner finds Max’s performance in these conditions impressive, and explains what happened to Checo that made him to lose the chance to get through Q3:
"It was a very impressive qualifying from Max today and despite the conditions he was on top of the circuit through all three sessions. With the track drying out and ramping up like that towards the end it can be very tricky to make sure you get the best time in the bag, so it was a good job by the whole team to make sure we finished on pole. It was unfortunate for Checo, I think he just misjudged his breaking and ended up in the barrier. The car was wedged under the barriers and he just couldn't reverse out to get started again. But this is a track you can overtake on, so hopefully he can secure the team some solid points. It was a fantastic qualifying from Fernando and I'm sure he's going to be motivated for tomorrow, but Max has just got to focus on a clean start, getting ahead into the first corner and then pushing on. We are expecting a dry day tomorrow, so hopefully it should be a good race".
Sergio Perez apologises to his team for the elimination from Q3:
"I think we had the pace to be a lot further up the grid so today is a painful one. It was a mistake from my side, I messed up and I am very sorry for my Team because I let them down today. I was struggling with the brakes a little, they were cold and I locked up at turn 10 on the lap before and flat spotted. That probably meant I was out of shape going into turn three. I could have maybe waited and took things more cautiously at the time but I was just trying to get temperature into the tyres and unfortunately I went over the limit, locked up and became a passenger. I am already looking ahead to tomorrow and I am hopeful we are able to recover and get into strong points. I will attack from lap one and see where we end up, we have a very quick race car".
Charles Leclerc finds that today’s result was the best they could get this weekend:
"That’s the best starting position we could secure this weekend. What’s important is that the feeling in the car was good and I could do a few more laps ahead of the race. We gained a place by qualifying ahead of Yuki. It’s only one position, but every little detail can help on a weekend like this. Our focus is on giving it our all tomorrow".
Fernando Alonso is extremely happy for his P2:
"It’s an amazing result for us to take second place today, so I’m feeling very pleased. It was impossible to know the grip levels on each lap in those conditions and that made it even more challenging. In the end, I think it’s a little bit unexpected to be on the front row, but it will be very nice to line-up there tomorrow. Let’s see if we can fight with Max [Verstappen] into turn one, though, that said, aiming to score strong points will be our main goal. The team deserves a big congratulations as they have been working flat out on updates and this is an example of this. It’ll be a long race in different conditions again, but I’m confident, so let’s see what we can do on the day".
Lewis Hamilton is extremely happy for today’s P4:
"Honestly, I feel amazing, so happy! P4! P4 has never felt so good to be honest. Maybe when I was like in my first year of racing, my first year here in 2007 when I got my first P4 in quali, it felt great then. I think this kind of feels like that, but particularly because it's been a really, really difficult year. We did a lot of work on the car overnight, we went in two different directions yesterday just to try and get the information. We have slightly different set ups for the race still, but we're in a great position so hopefully I can try and hold position at least. With this car you need everything, and more, to come together. You know what, I think this car works... I like to think that I've got rhythm and at this track, and particularly in this session you need to have rhythm. I feel like this car works on a completely different beat. It doesn't work on a normal beat and that's been difficult to get used to".
So he adds:
"The rain always open up opportunity and I love this track, while it's been a struggle so far this weekend and there's still a lot of work to do tomorrow, I hope all the team are feeling positive. My message to them is: please continue to push. We need you. I need you. We all are working as hard as we can, and I believe in them so much. I hope at some stage we can stop this bouncing and move forwards".
The teammate, George Russell, adds:
"Today was high risk, high reward - switching to Slicks was our only chance to get pole position today. It was literally just turn 1, had that been as dry as the other corners we could have been in a really good place. We showed some really strong pace today but as I said on the radio, I'm not here to settle for P4/P5, we need to try things and at the end of the day, points are tomorrow and I'm glad we tried something different. In Sochi last year, I made a similar gamble and it paid off to get P3 for Williams so I'm always open to making the switch, particularly as we've had worse qualifying sessions this year in normal circumstances. For tomorrow, we should be able to pass the cars around us, starting P8, and move back up to P4/P5. Obviously, we have Checo and Charles behind us fighting their way back through so I just need to make sure I get up there as soon as possible tomorrow".
Mercedes' Team Principal Toto Wolff recognises that today the equipe was highly competitive and they achieved the best they could - P4 and P8. On Hamilton, he finds that he made a good job but was unlucky as in Q3 he did not get the best condition of the track:
"We were pretty competitive in the wet conditions today and finishing P4 and P8 is below what we could have achieved. Lewis did a great job in Q3 to take P4 but unfortunately he was out of phase with the other cars and set his time one lap earlier, so he didn't get the track at its best condition. So potentially it could have been P2 when we look at the relative performance across the field. As for George, I loved the call he made today and it was worth rolling the dice. This is the moment when we can take risks and I'm up for bold calls like that - it could have been a hero moment but today it didn't work out. Looking to the race, we have a mixed up grid and a forecast of warmer, dry conditions - so there's going to be plenty of opportunities with the strategy and cars around us out of position".
Carlos Sainz is overall satisfied with today’s pace and result:
"Today we had good pace and overall it was a good qualifying given the tricky conditions. On the very last sector I felt it was a bit of an all or nothing situation and I pushed a bit too much at the last chicane. Unfortunately, it cost me the front row, but I’m not too disappointed, as it was a great battle to the very last moment, I had to go for it, and P3 for tomorrow is not a bad starting position on this track. The pace has been there all weekend and tomorrow we’ll give it everything we’ve got. It should be an interesting race and I’m really looking forward to it".
Laurent Mekies agrees with the general feeling that today was extremely complex due to evolving track conditions and the lack of Leclerc’s car in Q3, so with less information:
"It was a complex qualifying, because the track conditions were evolving all the time and, as from Q2, we were down to one car which meant we had less information to work from. Carlos drove well and, as a team, I think we made the right choices in terms of strategy and tyres".
In contrast to Baku’s circuit, overtaking is less diffucult on this track.
"It was a shame he missed out on second place by a tenth, but track conditions were really tricky and it was difficult to put together a perfect lap. Well done to Max who was simply quickest today. As for Charles, his day was less complicated but possibly rather more frustrating, as we called it a day after Q1 given that he starts from the back of the grid tomorrow. We decided to introduce new elements on his car - control electronics and power unit - thus incurring penalties, because we felt it was the best way to react to what happened in Baku. Here in Montreal, overtaking is less difficult than at other tracks, even if we saw on Friday that it’s not that straightforward. Also, there are often incidents in this race such as Safety Cars or stoppages which could provide opportunities to move up the order. Charles is fired up to make up a record number of places".
On Sunday, June 19, 2022, and the sun shines at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, the temperature is 20 °C and the track temperature 40 °C. This means that the day is perfect for racing. This race is different from the others for the Ferrari team, as Charles Leclerc will start from the last position due to a Power Unit change. The Italian team will still try to earn the podium with Carlos Sainz, who starts from P3. Good for the Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth position after the struggles in Baku. Great performance in qualifying for Mick Schumacher who took the sixth position on the grid. Fernando Alonso, who on Saturday took the second position after an eccellent qualifying, said to the journalists that he wanted to lead the first lap of the race. But, when the race starts, Red Bull's Max Verstappen refuses to let it happen, immediately taking the lead over the Alpine. Behind them, Mick Schumacher loses his position and moves down to eighth, as he was quickly overtaken by Esteban Ocon and George Russell. Lewis Hamilton goes side-by-side with Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, causing wing damage to the Dane and bringing out a black-and-orange flag that forces him to enter the pits. Back to the front, Carlos Sainz manages to pass Alonso on lap 3 and is now ready to do the same with the leader Verstappen. But Red Bull Mexican driver Sergio Perez pulls up on Lap 8 with what probably is a gearbox issue, so is forced to retire and put an end to his unhappy adventure in Canada. The Virtual Safety Car is enabled, so Verstappen pits to swap from medium to hards, emerging third, behind Sainz and Alonso who stayed out. Also Hamilton, Tsunoda and Latifi chose to do a pit stop. Meanwhile, Verstappen overtakes Alonso on lap 15 and takes the second position, while another Virtual Safety Car is called because Schumacher has pulled up in the same spot as Perez on Lap 20.
This allows Sainz, Russell, Zhou, Ocon, Vettel and the two McLarens of Ricciardo and Norris to pit. Bad pit stop for Mclaren: the team is slow with Ricciardo, and the fact to let both the drivers in worsens the problem, as Norris’s tyres are not ready and he emerges last. On lap 21, Charles Leclerc is up to seventh position after passing Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo into Turn 13; he also opted not to pit under both Virtual Safety Cars after starting on hards. It Is to add that the Monegasque complained of a lack of grip, and the Ferrari team had trimmed the rear wing off his car to improve his straight-line speed. Carlos Sainz pits under the second Virtual Safety Car, and by lap 25 the order is Verstappen, Sainz and Hamilton, while Fernando Alonso Is now fourth ahead of Russell. Verstappen runs in the lead with a comfortable detachment from the others of 8 seconds, while Alpine let Alonso in on Lap 28, and he emerges behind Leclerc in seventh position. On Lap 35, Verstappen leads Sainz by 8 seconds, who was himself 8 seconds ahead Hamilton in third place. Russell is 10 seconds back ahead of Ocon, who is managing to keep back Leclerc, with Alonso and Bottas running in the top eight. Behind, there is an exciting battle between Stroll, Zhou, Tsunoda and Ricciardo. Almost everyone, at this point of the race, is experimenting tyre degradation. Only Leclerc, Stroll and Bottas are yet to stop, while those who stopped under the Lap 8 VSC are having difficulties and the teams wonder if they can run with the same tyres until the end, or is required another stop. Verstappen is called to pit again on lap 43, emerging side by side with his 2021 rival Hamilton, and passes him taking the second position. Hamilton then immediately pits, followed by teammate Russell a lap later. Leclerc finally pits on Lap 41, but the team is slow, so emerges behind the Stroll-Zhou-Tsunoda-Ricciardo fight.
With new tyres he makes short work of those drivers. Tsunoda is called into the pits on lap 47. But when he emerges on hard tyres, goes straight into the Turn 2 wall, bringing out a Safety Car. ThIs is favourable for Sainz, who is able to take a stop and hold his second position. Double pit-stop for the Alpines of Ocon and Alonso, the Alfas of Bottas and Zhou, and Ricciardo and Albon. The Safety Car goes out on lap 55, and the leader Max Verstappen runs away after Turn 13. He quickly tries to pull a gap to Sainz to escape the DRS range, while Hamilton is still third, showing good pace in that Mercedes W13 who made him unhappy during Friday’s free practice. Lap after lap, Sainz tries to overtake Verstappen’s Red Bull. The Spaniard tries everything but fails to stop the reigning World Champion, who sweeps across the line at the end of Lap 70 for his sixth win of the season. This is also his fifth win in the last six races, while Red Bull Racing won the last six Grands Prix. After a difficult start to this season, it is to say that Carlos Sainz has done a good race in Canada. The same for Lewis Hamilton, who takes the third place, gaining the first podium of the season, while teammate Russell ends fourth, mantaining his record of finishing in the top five in the opening nine races this year. Leclerc has done a great work: he started last and ended fifth, while Red Bull's Perez failed to score. Fernando Alonso was passed by his teammate in the closing stages of the race, but was told by the team he has been 100 times faster this weekend. However It was Ocon himself who gave Alpine the best finish of the year. Fernando Alonso is given a five-second time penalty after the end by the stewards, dropping him from seventh to ninth. In fact, he was seen to be weaving on the straight on the penultimate lap, as he defended from Bottas’ Alfa Romeo. The Spaniard was found to have changed direction more than once while defending a position, so the stewards decided to penalise him. Bottas takes the eighth position, one place up on Zhou Guanyu, while Lance Stroll gives the home fans something to cheer about with a point earned for his tenth place. McLaren ended outside the point area: Ricciardo P11 and Norris P15. At the end, he drove the last 10 laps without mistakes, gaining the victory:
"The weekend went pretty smoothly for me, and we can be happy with that. Overall the Ferraris were very quick and strong in the race. It was really exciting at the end; the last two laps were a lot of fun, I was flat-out racing and I was giving it everything I had. The safety car towards the end of the race of course didn’t help, Carlos had fresher tyres so that made it difficult, I would have preferred to attack than defend, but luckily it worked out. Also, this year we seem to be quick on the straights so that helps a lot. The next race is Silverstone, I’m looking forward to going back to the more traditional tracks. We have to keep focused as a team and find improvements wherever we can".
His team mate Sergio Perez had a bad afternoon. He parked up down at Turn 8 with a suspected gearbox problem for his second DNF of the season:
"We think it was a gearbox issue and I got stuck in gear unfortunately. Things were looking good, I had a good start, I was on the hard tyre and making progress. I had finally got Daniel in the McLaren out of the DRS zone and it should have been a race where I could have worked my way through the field, so it’s a big shame. I felt I had plenty of potential in my race to make up a lot of places and recover good points. We need to keep on top of the reliability because a zero, when you are fighting for the Championship, is very painful and costly. You go into new regulations and there is always going to be new problems to face. Today hurts a lot, it has been a weekend to forget for me, so I want to forget about today and move onto Silverstone".
It is satisfied the Red Bull’s Team Principal Christian Horner, even if in his words there is a little bitterness for Perez’ race:
"Max was amazing today, he was under so much pressure, particularly at the end of the race, he’s been superb all weekend - every session through practice, qualifying and then the race. The Ferrari was very quick today, with the DRS zones the way they are here he couldn’t break it and Carlos was cruising up to the back of him and you could see them recharging their battery to have another go time-after-time, but Max kept his concentration really well and it was an absolutely amazing performance. It was a frustrating weekend for Checo and we think he had a suspected gearbox issue, so we’ll need to get the car back and have a look at what happened. It’s exciting to now head towards Silverstone".
After having overtaken Alonso, Carlos Sainz Jr. ran second. But then, a pit under the late Safety Car left him right on Verstappen’s tail in the closing stages. He followed the Red Bull driver very closely, never letting him escape but to he still came home second:
"That was a solid race and an intense battle with Max to the line. The pace was very good during the entire race, but unfortunately we lost the lead after the last Safety Car. From there, I gave it my all to pass the Red Bull, but to overtake here you need a bit more than two or three extra tenths. Even though I’m disappointed at not getting the win, there are many positives to take from Canada. We were the fastest on track today and I felt much better in the car, being able to push constantly throughout the race. Now we need to build momentum and carry this feeling onto the next race. Next stop, Silverstone".
Leclerc started from the back of the field, but recovered some positions. He lost a lot of time behind Ocon and then because of a slow pit stop, but he came home fifth thanks to some good overtakes:
"I gave it my all. It never feels good to finish in P5, but considering where we started and the way that the race unfolded, it was the best result we could bring home today. The first part of the race was quite frustrating, as we were stuck behind a DRS train, so it was all about practicing patience. After our pit stop, we came back out behind another DRS train and started fighting our way back up. This part was much more fun, because I had to be quite aggressive to make it work. It was just one of those races where you had to maximize the points and that’s exactly what we did today. I'm looking forward to Silverstone now. It’s one of my favourite circuits on the calendar and hopefully we can score some big points there".
Mattia Binotto, Ferrari’s Team Principal, focuses on the reliability problems the cars had, which the team is going to fix:
"We came into this weekend knowing it would be a case of damage limitation, given we would have one car at the back of the grid and we came away from it having closed the gap slightly in the Constructors’ classification, after a race that demonstrated that reliability problems can affect everyone in the current Formula 1. We have some of these issues and, back in Maranello, we are working flat out to fix them definitively. Charles did his very best, making up 14 places from the back row to finish fifth. Carlos drove a great race, which demonstrated just how much confidence he now has in the car. Now we head to Silverstone, where we expect our rivals to introduce some updates, but we certainly intend to be competitive there".
Both Mercedes were quick in Canada. Russell climbed back through the field from the eighth position. He finds the car’s pace very similar to that of the Red Bulls and Ferraris:
"I had total confidence we'd have been able to carve our way past the Haases and the Alpines. We were certainly concerned that Leclerc and Checo would be able to come through and we were fortunate enough to keep them behind us. Ultimately our race pace was closer to Ferrari and Red Bull than we've seen all season, but we've had performance issues and they haven't. Everything is easier in hindsight and I probably would have liked to have pitted under the first VSC but at the end of the day, I don't think it would have changed my finishing result. The pace was really strong in the first stint, on the second stint it was strong, and the final stint after the restart, I don't know why but I just couldn't get my tyres working. So that was a bit of a shame, to drop back slightly and not be in the fight. Nevertheless, P4, good points for the Team and it's great to be back on the podium as Mercedes".
Lewis Hamilton took the second podium of the season, for which he thanks the team’s perseverance:
"It's quite overwhelming honestly, to get this third place. It's been such a battle this year with the car as a Team, but we continue to stay vigilant, focused and never giving up. That's something I'm so proud of and I remain inspired by my crew so thank you, to everyone who's here in Montreal and back at the factory. The guys are the front are a little bit quick for us at the moment, I was giving it everything, but we're getting closer. We've just got to keep pushing and keep pushing and hopefully we'll be in the fight with these guys. I could just about see them in the end thanks to the Safety Car! Honestly, our pace was quite good, particularly in the second phase of the stint. We did a lot of work, back in the simulator but also here to get the set up right. So honestly, I'm ecstatic. I think, as I said, I didn't expect this coming into the weekend. This is my second podium of the year, and it was really special. Especially where I got my first Grand Prix win! I love it here in Montreal so big thank you to all the Canadians".
Mercedes‘ Team Principal Toto Wolff is satisfied:
"Montreal has always been a happy place for Lewis and today he was really good, with a car that was a handful so we can be quietly satisfied. The race pace was good, particularly when the tyres started to degrade - Max and Carlos actually came towards us and that was nice to see. After a bold gamble yesterday which left him further down the grid, George made smart overtakes at the start and then showed good pace to bring the result home behind Lewis. The past two weekends have showed the collective spirit of the team to extract a solid haul of points, even if we lack the pace to be challenging the guys at the front".
As for Alpine, Fernando Alonso did not manage to pass Verstappen in the first corner. He ran second, but then became third then fourth, while the team chosed not to pit the Spaniard under the two VSC. For this, when he came in he dropped down the field:
"I think this weekend we deserved better than ninth position, but it’s still good for both cars to score points in the end. We ultimately lost a big opportunity to fight for a potential podium as I felt like I had the pace to do so. We were hit with a badly timed VSC just before our first stop. I was on the main straight when it was deployed, and then missed a pit-stop opportunity before it ended. We then had an engine problem from lap 20, which we were trying to manage. We didn’t retire the car and used the DRS to defend, as we were losing a lot of time on the straights. It’s disappointing especially after yesterday’s performance, but we’ll head to Silverstone, try to get on top of our reliability issues and score more points".
Now it is Max Verstappen to lead the World Championship, 46 points ahead of team mate Sergio Perez. In third position, with three points of detachment, there is Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. All the eyes are now on Silverstone, site of the British Grand Prix, which will be held on Sunday, June 3. Last year there was the famous controversy after Verstappen and Hamilton collided. So the question is: what kind of things will the 2022 British Grand Prix serve up?