Rain Spices Up the Action in Montreal

After two lackluster races in Imola and Monaco, Formula 1 delivered an absolute classic with the 59th running of the Canadian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen won the race but that doesn’t tell half the story. With a quarter of the grid not finishing the race, it was a tough 70 laps to endure. From a surprise pole position to a number of shocking DNFs, let’s have a look at the highlights of the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix.

Qualifying

As yet more rain threatened to mix up the grid even more, Q1 saw the regular business of Verstappen topping the timing sheets. Traffic began to affect the lap times of many drivers including Oscar Piastri and Lance Stroll. The lap times suddenly improved at the end of the session with everyone putting in personal bests. Yuki Tsunoda placed his RB in P2 which pushed Sergio Perez to the fringe of the elimination zone and was later knocked out following a brilliant lap by Alex Albon, yet another Q1 exit for the Mexican.

Out in Q1 were:

16 - Sergio PEREZ

17 - Valtteri BOTTAS

18 - Esteban OCON

19 - Nico HULKENBERG

20 - ZHOU Guanyu

Q2 was less eventful despite the rain finally falling on the Circuit Giles Villenueve. The rain meant that drivers had to adapt their driving styles to avoid the narrow streets of Montreal, something George Russel found out after a close shave with the ‘Wall of Champions’. The Ferrari drivers seemed to struggle for grip as they were on the brink of elimination. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz failed to put in a good enogh lap time to lift them into the top ten, resulting in a rare sight, no Ferraris in Q3.

Out in Q2 were:

11 - Charles LECLERC

12 - Carlos SAINZ

13 - Logan SARGEANT

14 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN

15 - Pierre GASLY

The final qualifying session was looking pretty interesting with the McLarens and the lone Red Bull of Verstappen the favourites to take pole. This was before George Russell and Lewis Hamilton set scorching lap times, pushing Verstappen down to P3, leaving a provisional Mercedes front-row lockout.

Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso set amazing lap times to line up P5 and P6 respectively. The McLarens were sent out early but couldn’t match the pace of Verstappen nor Russell that would shortly follow, they lined up P3 and P4. Russell took pole with a time of 1:12.000, which Verstappen equalled. As per the rules, Russell set that time first and therefore took his second career pole position.

Really? 2 more years?

At the start of the weekend Red Bull announced that it would retain its lineup of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez until the end of 2026 at least. This came following a string of poor performances from Perez, which is surprising given his strong start to the season. In the first five races, Perez scored podiums in all but one race in Australia.

Perez spun around at Turn 6, similar to Sebastian Vettel’s iconic crash in 2011, which damaged the Mexican’s rear wing. Perez crawled to the pits for the majority of the lap, refusing to take to the escape roads, which would have brought out a safety car.

Since his most recent podium in China, the Mexican hasn’t had the best record, with two successive DNFs, including this one at Canada. Although you could say that his DNF at Monaco was not his fault, it still says a lot about how many points the Red Bull driver has cost his team, with only 51 points separating Red Bull and second-place Ferrari.

**Christian Horner on Sergio Perez:**

“We need both cars scoring, we got away with it today, but we need Checo back to where he was at the beginning of the year from Barcelona onwards.”

Perez will receive a three-place grid penalty for the Spanish Grand Prix as he broke Article 26.10 of F1's Sporting Regulations, which states: "If a driver has serious mechanical difficulties, he must leave the track as soon as it is safe to do so."

What’s next for Red Bull and Perez remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure - he must deliver what Red Bull demands.

Mamma Mia

The Ferrari team members that were jumping into the Mediterranean in celebration of Charles Leclerc’s monumental home victory just a fortnight ago spent this weekend picking up the debris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc’s weekend to forget as the Ferraris came home pointless.

The weekend got off to a bad start with neither Sainz nor Leclerc making it to Q3. Despite the frantic wheel-to-wheel action due to the slippery terrain, the Ferrari cars seemed to have every bit of bad luck they could have possibly received.

**Fred Vasseur on Ferrari’s weekend:**

“At the beginning everything went wrong, and I hope that we put all the tough, s***** parts of the season on the same weekend!”

Leclerc had to retire due to an ongoing engine issue on Lap 43 after taking an audacious gamble to be the sole runner on slick tyres on a completely wet track. Sainz suffered a horrible fate this race too, crashing with Valtteri Bottas’ Sauber. The Spaniard eventually had to retire due to a collision with Alex Albon on Lap 53, sealing a terrible weekend for the Scuderia.

The Silver Arrows fly again

It was a turn of fortune for Mercedes as it had some good luck for a change with a potential win on the cars for George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Whilst the team seemed certain for a front-row lockout in Qualifying but the pace of Lewis Hamilton meant that the Brit could only start P7, leaving questions whether the W15 is suited to Hamilton’s driving style.

Russell led the opening 20 laps of the race before Lando Norris overtook the Brit and lost a further position to Verstappen shortly afterwards. The young Mercedes driver then engaged in close battles with Piastri and Hamilton, which saw some close contact between the Mercedes pair.

Hamilton came home in P4 but had pretty strong views about his performance.

**Hamilton on his race pace**

“Then today, just one of the worst races that I've driven. Just lots of mistakes. But of course, if I'd have qualified better I would have been in a much better position.”

We’ll be sure to bring you our views on all the key talking points from this race in the next episode of the Race Reaction Podcast, so keep an eye out for that!

Final race classification

1 - Max VERSTAPPEN

2 - Lando NORRIS

3 - George RUSSELL

4 - Lewis HAMILTON

5 - Oscar PIASTRI

6 - Fernando ALONSO

7 - Lance STROLL

8 - Daniel RICCIARDO

9 - Pierre GASLY

10 - Esteban OCON

11 - Nico HULKENBERG

12 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN

13 - Valtteri BOTTAS

14 - Yuki TSUNODA

15 - ZHOU Guanyu

DNF - Carlos SAINZ

DNF - Alexander ALBON

DNF - Sergio PEREZ

DNF - Charles LECLERC

DNF - Logan SARGEANT