(Reuters) – Team by team analysis of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (round eight of 22, teams listed in current championship order):
RED BULL (Max Verstappen 1, Sergio Perez 6)
Verstappen started on pole and took his sixth win of the season and fourth in a row. His career 41st equals the tally of late triple champion Ayrton Senna and was Red Bull’s 100th from 355 starts. Verstappen has led every lap since Miami in May – 224 laps and more than three races. He won in Canada for the second year in a row. Red Bull have won all eight races this year, nine in a row including last year’s finale. Perez started 12th on the hard tyre and missed the podium for the third race in a row. He pitted late on to secure a point for fastest lap.
MERCEDES (Lewis Hamilton 3, George Russell retired)
Hamilton started third, Russell fourth. The seven times world champion passed Fernando Alonso at the start and stayed ahead until lap 22. They then fought to the finish. Hamilton stopped on laps 12 and 40 on a medium-hard-medium strategy. Russell brought out the safety car when he hit the wall on lap 12. He returned last and rose to eighth before retiring with front brake wear.
ASTON MARTIN (Fernando Alonso 2, Lance Stroll 9)
Alonso started on the front row and took his sixth podium in eight races despite losing out to Hamilton at the start, having to save fuel and brushing the wall. Stroll started 16th after a three-place drop for impeding. Both did two stops, Stroll pitting a lap before the safety car. The Canadian passed Valtteri Bottas in the late stages.
FERRARI (Charles Leclerc 4, Carlos Sainz 5)
Leclerc started 10th and Sainz 11th, the latter with a three place grid penalty. Ferrari changed Leclerc’s floor “plank” on the grid before the start due to damage. Both stopped once, going from medium to hard and staying out during the safety car period – a decision that allowed them to get track advantage over a strong pack of cars.
ALPINE (Esteban Ocon 8, Pierre Gasly 12)
Gasly started 15th, after being impeded by Sainz in qualifying, and Ocon sixth. Ocon was fifth at the end of lap one while Gasly had moved up to 13th. Gasly pitted just before the safety car period, while Ocon came in during it from fourth place. Gasly then pitted on lap 34, Ocon 37.
MCLAREN (Oscar Piastri 11, Lando Norris 13)
Norris finished ninth on the road but collected a five-second penalty for “unsportsmanlike behaviour” for slowing too much behind the safety car. The aim was to allow a “double stack” pitstop with the minimum of delay. Both pitted twice and Norris passed Ocon at the end.
ALFA ROMEO (Valtteri Bottas 10, Guanyu Zhou 16)
Bottas’ point allowed Alfa to move clear of Haas. Bottas made up four positions. He was passed by Stroll at the end and dropped to 11th but Norris’ penalty restored the point. Zhou started from the back of the grid.
HAAS (Nico Hulkenberg 15, Kevin Magnussen 17)
Hulkenberg started fifth on medium tyres after qualifying second but then collecting a penalty. The German pitted on lap 11 before the safety car was deployed and fell back due to tyre degradation. Magnussen started 13th on hard tyres and stayed out when the safety car was deployed. He and Nyck de Vries then ran down an escape road while battling for position, losing half a minute. He made a second stop on lap 54.
WILLIAMS (Alex Albon 7, Logan Sargeant retired)
Williams put upgrades on Albon’s car and they paid off with his best result for the team, lifting them above AlphaTauri with only their second points finish of the season. Albon made one stop and completed 58 laps on a set of hard tyres. Sargeant pulled over with an oil leak affecting the power unit.
ALPHATAURI (Yuki Tsunoda 14, Nyck de Vries 18)
De Vries tangled with Magnussen, locking up and running down the escape road. Tsunoda had a three place grid drop for impeding and switched from one stop to two.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Sonali Paul)
