There were 15 drivers – including the entire top 10 – starting the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on medium tyres, as the formation lap was under way in Montreal. Five drivers were on the hard compound, including Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc, who began the race from 13th and 19th, respectively.
Max Verstappen makde a brilliant getaway and comfortably got to the first corner ahead of Fernando Alonso, while Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton remained third and fourth, as everyone made it through the first corners safely, despite the fact that Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen were going wheel-to-wheel early on. Charles Leclerc gained two places and is was to 18th, with Sergio Perez in 11th.
On lap four, Carlos Sainz moved up to second, as he cleared Fernando Alonso, yet he had already given up a 2.5s advantage to Max Verstappen. Further down the field, Charles Leclerc passed Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll to move up to 16th as we moved onto Lap 5. But after just seven laps, Carlos Sainz was complaining about graining on more than one occasion and it was clearly hampering his chances of chasing down Max Verstappen at that stage of the race. Kevin Magnussen got the black and orange flag signalling he needed to change his front rear wing due to the damage to it. Also coming into the pits for early stops were Gasly and Vettel, who both switch to the hard tyres.
Somewhat surprisingly, Carlos Sainz was not able to pulled away from Fernando Alonso, as the Alpine remained within a second of the Ferrari and maintained the use of DRS. Lewis Hamilton dropped a couple of seconds back from Alonso in fourth. The first major incident took place on lap nine, as Sergio Perez retired with an engine failure! That was a miserable end to what had been a terrible weekend for the Mexican. A virtual safety car came out and of course we saw some pit stops.
Race-leader Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton both went into the pits following the virtual safety car, and both were onto the hard tyres. Carlos Sainz continued on track though and he now held the lead, with Fernando Alonso second. Max Verstappen was third, with Lewis Hamilton sixth as we got ready to go racing again. Charles Leclerc was now sitting in 13th, prior to the yellow flag he was struggling to make progress behind a DRS train in front of him. The Ferrari driver remained behind Alex Albon, Valterri Bottas and Lando Norris.
Meanwhile, his team-mate was the leader and being chased by both Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen. But Max Verstappen opened up his DRS on the back straight and easily passed Fernando Alonso, as he sat five seconds back from Carlos Sainz, but had of course got fresher tyres after that pit stop under the VSC
Bottas and Albon had been duking it out over the final points place for a couple of laps and this time the Alfa Romeo driver makes it stick, going down the outside on the straight and then passing just before the final chicane. Charles Leclerc took advantage to move past Albon as they head over the start-finish line to move into 11th as well and the Williams driver had lost two places in the space of two corners.
Unfortunately for Mick Schumacher, his race ended due to another Ferrari power unit failure, while he was in the points. There was a flurry of pit stops with that latest VSC: Carlos was also called to make his pit stop from the lead and came out in third just in a few tenths in front of Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver was back up to 4th as his team-mate George Russell also came in for a new set of hards.
Max Verstappen held an eight-second led ahead of Carlos Sainz, as the Spanish driver was slightly faster than his Red Bull rival, but not enough to close the gap. While Lewis Hamilton had fallen 10 seconds behind Carlos, with George Russell another 8.5s back, Charles Leclerc lost precious time behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon in sixth, with the Monegasque driver unable to overtake even with the DRS. On lap 42, Charles Leclerc made his tyre change and due to a slow pitstop (5.3s) returned behind massive DRS train, in the middle of Zhou, Tsunoda, Ricciardo and Vettell all scrapping over the minor points places.
Max Verstappen then made a second stop from the lead: he came out behind Lewis Hamilton but immediately got past the Brit, who comes in for a stop of his own. The Red Bull driver was 10 seconds back from Carlos Sainz now. Charles Leclerc was sitting behind Yuki Tsunoda after his pit stop and started to do some damage control. He was on medium tyre and had the pace to overtake the AlphaTauri to move into the points.
With 20 laps to go, Yuki Tsuonda crashed and we a safety car! The AlphaTauri went into the barrier at Turn 2 and the window opend for more pit stops. That’s worked perfectly for race leader Carlos Sainz as he comes into the pits to switch to a new set of hard tyres. Swift work from Ferrari’s mechanics and he comes out right behind Max Verstappen.
The safety car was coming in and we had a thrilling 15-lap shootout! Max Verstappen managed the restart well and held his lead, as there was no change directly behind with Lewis Hamilton remaining third behind Carlos Sainz and George Russell fourth. Charles Leclerc was chasing Alpine driver Alonso for sixth place and hoped to maximise DRS to get past him. And it was a nice move from the Ferrari man up the inside of Alonso at the hairpin as he was then off in pursuit of fifth-placed Ocon once again.
Carlos Sainz was getting closer and closer to Max Verstappen, but not near enough to pass the Red Bull. He had nine more laps to make his move and get that much-awaited first Formula 1 win. Charles Leclerc doesn’t make the same mistake twice trying to pass Ocon and this time the Ferrari man makde the move stick to take the other Alpine at the hairpin.
Carlos Sainz was back within DRS range but Max Verstappen did not budge! The Dutchman was staying just far enough in front to prevent Carlos from getting a proper look at an overtake. Lack of traction and top speed did not allow the F1-75 to attempt an overtake on the fast RB18 car. The Ferrari man had his DRS open whenever he got the opportunity, but it was not enough to get close enough to try an overtaking move. It will probably be scant consolation for him, but Carlos did at least manage to pick up a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race.
P2 for Carlos Sainz and P5 for Charles Leclerc, as Ferrari recover a few points against Red Bull.
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