Verstappen celebrated his 26th career win on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and extended his championship lead to 46 points. Second in the World Cup is his teammate Sergio Perez, who was eliminated.
Behind Hamilton, his stable rival George Russell finished fourth in sunshine, while Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari finished in fifth place. Fernando Alonso, who started from second place, did not get past seventh place in the Alpine.
“It was really exciting at the end. I gave everything,” explained Verstappen. “This year we’re pretty fast on the straights,” which may have been the decisive factor in the duel with Sainz. “I went full throttle. I was almost in the wall and tried everything,” said Sainz, who still has to wait for his first win. “But we didn’t have that speed in the end.” Hamilton was delighted with his second podium of the year. “The car was a bit better today,” said the Brit. “Red Bull and Ferrari are still a little faster, but we’re catching up.”
Verstappen got off well from pole position and set the pace. Sainz soon followed him in second after overtaking his Spanish compatriot Alonso. After Perez’s retirement due to a technical problem in his Red Bull, there was already a virtual safety car phase in the 8th lap. Verstappen used this for a cheap tire change.
Mick Schumacher was the next to say goodbye a little later due to a defect, which again triggered the virtual safety car. This time Sainz followed suit with the tire change. When the pit crew was working on the Spaniard’s car, the race was normalized again – so the hoped-for time gain over Verstappen did not come about. At that point, his team-mate Leclerc had already worked his way from the last row of the grid without a pit stop. Halfway through the race he was in sixth place but then got stuck behind Esteban Ocon in the Alpine for a long time.
On lap 43, Verstappen turned into the pit lane a second time, having previously reported signs of wear on his tyres. Six laps later, the race director deployed the safety car after Yuki Tsunoda went off the track. Sainz immediately picked up fresh tires for the finish and was second immediately behind Verstappen. With DRS support – and with Hamilton in tow – he chased the Red Bull star but couldn’t get past him.
Source: Nachrichten
