Red Bull’s accomplishment in winning 100 races in Formula 1 has been hailed as “incredible” by Max Verstappen after winning the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Max Verstappen won the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Sunday with ease. His 41st career victory tied Ayrton Senna’s record and marked the 100th Red Bull victory since the team’s F1 debut in 2005.
Fernando Alonso dropped to second place after Lewis Hamilton overtook him at the start of the race, but the Aston Martin driver came back to overtake Hamilton once more in the final stages of the race.
Ferrari also made a strong comeback, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finishing ahead of Sergio Perez in fourth and fifth place respectively.
One safety car was on hand after George Russell lost control at turn 9. Having originally being able to continue, he ultimately pulled out on lap 55, joining Williams’ Logan Sargeant, who had to stop after eight laps due to technical issues.
It was pleasant to see clear skies and sunshine over the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve as the drivers made their way to the starting grid for the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix after all the rain that has fallen so far this weekend.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull upheld the pole position as usual, but behind him there had been a major shakeup as a result of Saturday’s weather and several post-qualifying penalties.
Nico Hulkenberg was the most conspicuous casualty in the grid as his Haas which was second fastest in qualifying dropped to seventh due to a red flag infraction penalty. As a result, Fernando Alonso moved up to second, where he had started the race last year as Mercedes secured the second row with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
In the back rows, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, and Yuki Tsunoda were moved to positions P11, P16, and P19, respectively, due to impeding penalties.
Verstappen got off to a fantastic start and quickly pulled ahead when the lights went down. Hamilton, who was able to ambush Alonso for second place in the initial turns, also got off to a strong start on the cleaner side of the grid. With Sergio Perez starting in 11th place on hard tyres, the top ten all got off to medium compound starts. The only driver to get started on soft tires was Pierre Gasly, who advanced quickly from P15 to move up to 13th.
Despite a few near misses for some drivers with the Wall of Champions, it was a clean opening lap. Verstappen had already distanced himself from Hamilton by a second, and Alonso had consolidated his position in third place ahead of Russell. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon had edged out Hulkenberg for fifth place.
Oscar Piastri had also used the clean side of the grid to pass his McLaren teammate Lando Norris for seventh. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc gained a position ahead of the relentless Alex Albon in the freshly upgraded Williams running in the points in tenth place ahead of Sainz and Perez.
Later, Oscar Piastri had advanced ahead of his McLaren teammate Lando Norris for ninth. When DRS was activated, Hamilton was left vulnerable as Verstappen was too far in front for him to trigger the activation, but Alonso was close enough to be able to put pressure on the Mercedes.
A virtual safety car was activated on lap 8 after Logan Sargeant received a “critical message” instructing him to stop the Williams at turn 6. This provided Hamilton with a little relief as no one was tempted to make an early pit stop under the VSC despite Tsunoda being in at the conclusion of lap 1.
Norris missed the opportunity to leapfrog Piastri who had gotten to sixth place before the stoppage after he had managed to pass Hulkenberg before the interruption. Leclerc was all over the MCL60’s back as Norris restarted in eighth.
On lap 11, Verstappen’s lead over the field had grown to almost four seconds, and Alonso appeared to have given up on his attempt to overtake Hamilton for the time being. Gasly made the decision to pit to change out of his soft tyres and return, hoping to gain an advantage by emerging in clear air.
Hulkenberg had been holding the pack but on lap 12, he also entered the pits, freeing up those who had been building behind in growing frustration. Verstappen reported a possible close contact with the area’s wildlife, but it didn’t appear to have hampered him. But as soon as a full safety car came into play, he seized the chance to enter pit lane for his first service of the day and a switch to the hard tyres.
There was a reference to the stewards for a possible risky release by Mercedes as Hamilton and Alonso followed suit, but no further action seemed necessary. The sister Mercedes had served as the reason for the safety car; Russell had taken too much kerb in turn 9, sending him crashing into the wall with significant front wing damage.
He miraculously managed to resume the race and make it all the way back to pit lane, where the engineers conducted a safety review and ultimately decided he could continue. To everyone’s surprise, this was despite the fact that he was now in last place and had suffered enough damage to make it challenging to get ahead.
Verstappen, Hamilton, and Alonso were still leading the race on lap 17, but Leclerc and Sainz had moved up to fourth and fifth after choosing not to pit during the caution. Perez moved up to sixth place in a similar fashion, followed by Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas. Ocon, Piastri, Norris, and Albon were the next four vehicles to stop.
The safety car’s timing had done Gasly absolutely no help, and when the vehicles resumed action, the Alpine found himself down in 18th place with only the battered Mercedes visible in his rearview mirrors.
The most entertaining part of the restart turned out to be a heated argument between Piastri and Norris, with Albon lurking in the shadows in the hopes of intercepting a pass. Albon was able to pass one McLaren using DRS, and Norris took advantage of the opportunity to move up to ninth as Piastri locked up at the final chicane.
Magnussen was impeded by the need to give Ocon back a spot for failing to maintain position under the safety car as he emerged from the pits, and Norris picked up another position at that very moment.
Unlike Alonso, who executed a similar but far smoother move on Hamilton to finally retake second place on lap 23, Piastri was unable to fend off the Dane down the back straight. Albon was itching to follow suit in the much-improved FW45 as Piastri finally overtook Magnussen two laps later.
Verstappen started to complain after 30 laps as his hard tyres did not have enough traction, but he still led Alonso by four seconds and was well out of Hamilton’s DRS range.
The three cars that had not yet stopped were behind them, with the exception of Hulkenberg, who stopped for a second time on lap 32—not even halfway through the race. The second-place qualifier from Saturday was now in the back, where he was joined by Gasly, who made another pit stop on lap 34.
After a brutal duel between Magnussen and AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries, who went side-by-side into turn 3 and caused both cars to skid off the circuit, the pit crew rushed to get ready for a potential safety car. They were ultimately able to reverse out under local waved yellows and proceed back to pit lane for fresh tyres.
Russell emerged as the big winner from the crash as he inched his way back into the top ten thanks to a number of cars ahead making their second stops. Norris was among them, although he had already received a five-second time penalty for behaving in a “unsportsmanlike manner” by dragging the pack behind during the earlier safety car interval so that McLaren could ‘double stack’ its cars in the pits.
Perez finally made his pit stop on lap 39 for medium tires as Sainz made his pit stop the following lap for a new set of hard tires. On lap 40, it was Leclerc’s turn.
In order to counter Ferrari’s threat, Hamilton made his second pit stop on lap 41. This allowed him to resume on his favored mediums for the remainder of the race. Verstappen and Alonso both made pit stops on laps 42 and 43 for hard tyres and medium tyres, respectively. This didn’t affect Verstappen’s commanding advantage over the Aston Martin.
The top six seemed locked after Leclerc was notified that Sainz wouldn’t try to pass him and Alonso was instructed to lift and coast due to a suspected rear brake issue. They were far ahead of Albon in P7, who was now being pushed by the recovering Russell, despite the fact that both cars had only stopped once and might have fallen behind Ocon, Norris, Stroll, and Piastri if they had stopped a second time.
The issue was finally resolved when Russell was forced to retire the Mercedes on lap 55 due to extensive damage to his left-front brakes from an earlier crash.
Verstappen overpowered Alonso and Hamilton by a comfortable 9.5 seconds at the finish line. In the closing laps, Hamilton had put pressure on Alonso, but he warned the Aston pit wall, “Leave it me!” and kept his word, finishing in second place. After their qualifying hiccups, Leclerc, Sainz, and Perez had successfully executed sound tyre strategies to do some good damage control to finish behind Hamilton.
On lap 69, Perez made a last-minute pit stop to pick up a set of soft tyres so he could finish without losing a spot, earning him the bonus point for the fastest lap. Albon struggled to hold onto seventh place marking a strong start for the new Williams upgrades and Albon’s first time scoring since the season opener in Bahrain.
Ocon’s attachment due to an aggressive challenge from Norris to the finish line in the closing seconds had worked to Albon’s advantage. Given that Norris received a five-second “unsportsmanlike” post-race penalty and dropped out of the top ten as a result, Stroll and Bottas were able to fill his points positions.
2023 F1 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX – RACE RESULTS
| POS | DRIVER | NAT. | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | NED | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 70 Laps |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | ESP | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team | + 9.570s |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | + 14.168s |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | MON | Scuderia Ferrari | + 18.648s |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | ESP | Scuderia Ferrari | + 21.540s |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | MEX | Oracle Red Bull Racing | + 51.028s |
| 7 | Alex Albon | THA | Williams Racing | + 60.813s |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | BWT Alpine F1 Team | + 61.692s |
| 9 | Lance Stroll | CAN | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team | + 64.402s |
| 10 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake | + 64.432s |
| 11 | Oscar Piastri | AUS | McLaren F1 Team | + 65.101s |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | BWT Alpine F1 Team | + 65.249s |
| 13 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren F1 Team | + 68.363s |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | JPN | Scuderia AlphaTauri | + 73.423s |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | GER | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | + 1 Lap |
| 16 | Zhou Guanyu | CHN | Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake | + 1 Lap |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | DEN | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | + 1 Lap |
| 18 | Nyck de Vries | NED | Scuderia AlphaTauri | + 1 Lap |
| 19 | George Russell | GBR | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | DNF |
| 20 | Logan Sargeant | USA | Williams Racing | DNF |
