Canadian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen holds off Lando Norris and George Russell in Montreal

June 9, 2024

It wasn’t an easy weekend for Max Verstappen and Red Bull in Montreal.

But the race ended the same way as the previous 59 Grand Prix had, with Verstappen standing on the top step of the podium and the Dutch national anthem being played.

This Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix was a whirlwind of twists and turns as rain and wet conditions forced the 10 teams to make different strategy decisions and made it difficult for the drivers. For a moment, it looked like Lando Norris would pull away from Max Verstappen and the other drivers to claim his second F1 victory, his first coming just a few weeks after his first.

But there was another surprise in Montreal. Logan Sargent’s spin brought out the safety car, which Verstappen found lucky with its timing. Perfect for the Red Bull driver, but terrible for McLaren’s Norris. Verstappen made his pit stop first, and was ahead of Norris when the latter made his pit stop a lap later.

The same situation unfolded differently at the Miami Grand Prix, where Norris led after a restart to win. “It goes back to what you make of it,” Red Bull race engineer Giampiero Lambiase reminded Verstappen during the race.

There were still many hurdles for Verstappen to overcome, including a late restart after Carlos Sainz Jr. spun out and made contact with Alexander Albon, but Verstappen managed the final restart to take his seventh Grand Prix win of the season.

“It was a pretty crazy race… I think as a team we did really well today,” Verstappen told Martin Brundle at the side of the track. “It was a lot of fun.”

“We won, and that’s what matters most.”

Still, it hasn’t been an easy weekend for Verstappen and the team. Despite their win, Red Bull have seen McLaren inching closer to them in the constructors’ championship standings. The field is really close now and the battle for the title is on.

Perhaps today’s win will be important for Verstappen as the F1 season progresses.

Full Canadian Grand Prix results, along with other winners and losers, are below.

Winner: McLaren

McLaren, meanwhile, might be wondering what would have happened had it been this way. Lando Norris had taken the lead and pulled away from the pack early in the Canadian Grand Prix. But Logan Sargent’s safety car went against Norris as he crashed into the barriers, allowing Verstappen and the others to pit before him. Norris pitted a lap behind the leader, but was forced to rejoin the fight in third place.

Then on the final lap, Norris took second place and Piastri third, giving the team a chance to secure a double podium, but Piastri ultimately fell behind George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

The final result? Norris in second place, Piastri in fifth.

but …

In the long run, this was a big result and a big weekend for McLaren.

Despite Verstappen’s first place, McLaren still managed to pick up three points as they chased Red Bull in the constructors’ championship standings, and Ferrari also saw both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. retire from the race, leaving McLaren 28 points behind second-placed Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, with just 40 points separating the Scuderia.

“To be honest, I felt like I had a good race,” Norris told Martin Brundle at the side of the track. “Something always comes into play. Max had a good race and made no mistakes.

“I’m not going to complain. [about the safety car]We are good friends. I’m glad we’re good friends again.”

And now they are even closer to the top of the standings.

Loser: Sergio Pérez

It’s the start of an unforgettable week for Sergio Pérez.

It ended up being a weekend I’d like to forget.

Perez and Red Bull announced a new contract earlier this week that will keep him with the team through to the 2026 season, but it was all downhill for the Mexican driver from there, as he failed to make it out of Q1 on Saturday and will start from the back of the grid.

He then slid off the track and into the barriers, causing fatal damage to the rear wing of his RB20 and bringing his race to a premature end.

After Saturday’s session, Perez called the day a “total disaster,” which was the case for the entire Montreal weekend, as the team left the Canadian Grand Prix with nothing to show for the week’s work.

Other than the new contract, of course.

Winner: Mercedes

On Saturday, Mercedes took its first pole position of the season.

On Sunday they reached the podium for the first time.

George Russell started from the front at the Canadian Grand Prix and, although he couldn’t hold off the leaders Verstappen and Norris, he managed to hold on to the final spot on the podium to take the trophy home to Brackley, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth to give Mercedes their best result of the 2024 season.

“It felt like a missed opportunity to be honest,” Russell told Martin Brundle at the side of the track. “My first podium of the year. We had a really fast car this weekend.

“We’re taking advantage of all the good things about the weekend.”

The main positive for Mercedes? The talk of progress coming from the team seems like more than just empty words so far. The upgrades Mercedes started to roll out at the Miami Grand Prix have seen real improvements in both qualifying and race pace. Speaking to media at the Miami Grand Prix, Hamilton noted that he and Russell were always on the “tightest line” with the W15, with the car’s operating window being small and leaving little room for error.

That certainly seems to have changed for the team.

Will it be enough to turn a three-way fight for the title into a four-way battle? That seems too difficult at this point.

But they are much more advanced than they were just a few weeks ago.

Loser: Ferrari

Two weeks ago, Ferrari became the “Winners of Monaco”. Charles Leclerc finally won his home race, and his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. also made it onto the podium in third place. The result captivated the entire F1 world, and fans, including the tifosi, went to bed at night with dreams of a title fight dancing in their heads.

This weekend, those dreams turned into a nightmare in the tragic Montreal attack.

In qualifying on Saturday, both Leclerc and Sainz failed to make it past Q2, and as a result, both drivers started the Canadian Grand Prix outside the points. It was going to be a tough battle for Ferrari from the start, but things got worse during the race. Leclerc battled power issues with his SF-24 and gradually lost ground. Then, with the weather worsening, the team took a gamble with slick tyres, hoping that the weather pattern would avoid the circuit and the gamble would pay off.

However, results were not good and Leclerc was soon being lapped by the leaders and was forced to pit again for intermediate tyres, eventually leading the team to retire the car and end his day early.

At the other end of the garage, their day also came to an early end: Sainz was still outside the points and in contention for the points, but on lap 54 he spun out, came back onto the racing line and made contact with Alexander Albon, taking the Williams driver out of the race as well.

A disaster for Ferrari.

Winner: Alpine

Today Alpine has achieved something never before achieved.

Double points finish.

Their first points came at the Miami Grand Prix, when Esteban Ocon held off a late battle with Nico Hulkenberg to finish in 10th place and give the team their first points of the year. They doubled that tally at the last Monaco Grand Prix, when Pierre Gasly overcame an opening lap incident (with Ocon, of all people) to finish in 10th place for the team and give Gasly his first points of the year.

Both drivers scored points today, with Gasly in 9th place and Ocon in 10th.

What makes the result at Enstone even better is that it came at the end of a difficult fortnight following an equally difficult start to the season for the team.

The team came out of pre-season training knowing that their current contender, the A524, was overweight and in need of significant work, and adding to that the opening lap crash between Gasly and Ocon in Monaco, nearly two weeks of discussions over Ocon’s position within the team (both in Montreal and going forward), plus the announcement that Ocon and Alpine are parting ways at the end of the season, the team has a lot to deal with.

Concluding the double points result is the first of the season and will go down in history as a big win for Alpine.