Montreal, June 20 (BNA): Max Verstappen maintained his dominance of the Formula 1 championship by fending off a late challenge from Carlos Sainz Jr. to claim his sixth win of the season in a fairly easy ride on Sunday at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Verstappen won from pole position at Gilles Villeneuve to extend his lead to 46 points over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who retired early with a gearbox problem.
“There is still a very long way to go and I know the gap is of course very big, but I also know that this can change very quickly,” Verstappen said of his points lead. He noted that he is 46 points behind Charles Leclerc after the third race of the season.
The Dutchman had no problem dismissing Fernando Alonso, who started his first game on the front row in a decade, then joked that he would attack Verstappen at the first turn to steal victory, the Associated Press reported.
But there was no challenge and by the time Sainz overtook Alonso for second on the second lap, Verstappen had a 2.4sec lead. Sainz was able to close the gap over the last 10 laps and put pressure on the Formula 1 champion but faded on the last lap and finished with a 993sec lead in his Ferrari.
said Verstappen, who added that Sainz had “no experience in terms of overtaking, but he was very close.”
“When I gave it all up, I was risking it all,” Sainz said. “I can tell you I was pushing. I left everything there. For the first time this season I can say that I was the fastest man on the track, which gives me confidence and some hope for the next races.”
Mercedes made a massive rebound from their all-season struggles, which included horrific training on Friday, with seven-times champion Lewis Hamilton scoring his first podium since the season-opening race in March. George Russell finished fourth as Hamilton beat his new teammate for only the second time in nine races this season.
“It feels great to be in between the fight and in the end keeping up with these guys. It gives me and the team a lot of hope,” Hamilton said. “The potential is really there if we can get the setup right and I think that was the hardest thing this year.”
Hamilton was given a standing ovation after he finished and said he had no back problems, which has been plagued by what has plagued him all season due to how the new Mercedes bounces all over the track.
It’s good, she’s back to her young age,” said the 37-year-old. But he added, “We’re still moving, but the difference is between night and day.”
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said the team has raised the ride height of its cars to make them more drivable and to eliminate the “porpoise” influence that has hampered Hamilton and Russell all season. The recoil caused back pain and headaches for its drivers.
“The (wind) tunnel tells us that the lower the car goes, the faster it goes, the greater its ground effect,” Wolff said. “But in reality, you can’t drive the car there, so you need to lift it, lift it, lift it, and then on paper you lose half a second or so in downforce.
“We actually raised it (on Saturday) but the more you lift, the more performance you lose. So it’s always a compromise.”
Meanwhile, Verstappen has now won six of the first nine races of his title defense season.
It was Verstappen’s first win in Montreal, which F1 said hosted 338,000 spectators over the three-day weekend as the series returned to Canada after a two-year hiatus during the pandemic.
Sunday’s crowd was treated to clear, sunny skies after two days of rain that upended qualifying and created the slippery circuit that allowed Alonso – and the other drivers, including Hamilton – to win their most important starting positions this year.
Leclerc grabbed a 10-position penalty for changing the engine in his Ferrari to finish fifth from 19. Estaban Ocon of Alpine finished sixth and teammate Alonso, who said he would be happy with a fifth, finished seventh but was punished five seconds into the race because of the fabric.
This dropped Alonso to ninth, while Valtteri Bottas moved from Alfa Romeo to seventh. Bottas was followed by fellow rookie Zhou Guanyu, who moved up to eighth after Alonso’s penalty and finished second in points for the second time this season. Canadian driver Lance Stroll of Aston Martin finished 10th.
Perez was out of the race after just nine laps due to a gearbox problem, Red Bull’s fourth mechanical failure of the season between Perez and Verstappen. After 11 laps, Mick Schumacher stopped off the track – ending the Haas driver’s attempt to score his first points in Formula One.
Haas had equaled his best qualifying effort in team history the day before when Kevin Magnussen and Schumacher qualified fifth and sixth, but the team failed to turn around. Magnussen damaged his front wing on the opening lap and finished 17th.
“I feel like we made the cake, but we couldn’t put the decorations on it,” Schumacher said.
Toronto native Nicholas Latifi, who has admitted his seat at Williams is unsafe, finished 16th in his first home award of his career.
“It is so great to finally do my first home race and the support I have from my family, friends and all the fans in the stands has been amazing,” Latifi said.
“In terms of going on the right track, we were lacking a lot of pace and needed to try to understand why. Regardless of the outcome, this weekend was one to remember.”
UP NEXT: British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 3. Hamilton won a year ago in what is considered the British home race.