Max Verstappen maximizes his opportunity to take the top step of the podium in Montreal.
The Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix of 2024 included many unanticipated elements, including rain, safety cars, strategy bets, performance swings, several errors, and an exceptionally long retirement list. Despite this, the race was highly exciting.
You would be gravely incorrect if you believed that the Monaco GP champions' Canadian hangover would end after their 11th and 12th place qualifying finishes.
arduous issue with dependability? Check. Horrible risk with slick tires? Check. A lot of interaction? Verify. A spin that costs points? Check.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had a very bad Sunday with very little good moments.
Not even Sainz's little run in the points meant he was challenging Williams and Alpines, let alone challenging the top four teams.
All of this enables McLaren to significantly reduce Ferrari's lead for second place in the constructors' championship and casts doubt on any slim dreams Leclerc may have had of challenging for the drivers' crown.
Ferrari is the team that leaves Montreal with the most questions unanswered regarding lost performance, and the weekend stands out as a very poor anomaly in a season where the team has made so much progress.
Even though George Russell started from pole position and led the majority of the race, Mercedes should still be ranked third in general.
Yes, if this happened at all within the years 2014–2021.
Mark Hughes: "The reason Mercedes was Canada's quickest Formula One vehicle. However, it isn't. Mercedes is not even on the podium until Canada this season, and it is far from being a title contender."
Being in the running for the kind of results Mercedes was battling for in Montreal is quite promising, especially considering the position it's normally in these days. it reveals a great deal about its existence after 2021. However, the overthrow of Mercedes is already ancient news. Alternatively, perhaps this was just another fabrication, or perhaps the beginning of the story of recovery.
In Canada, Max Verstappen won his sixth race of the season and his second in three grand prix; yet, things may have turned out differently.
He followed Russell for the majority of the first lap and appeared to be preparing a move for the lead when a dry line appeared. However, a mistake at Turn 1 lost him three seconds and put him in Lando Norris's path.
However, during the first safety car, Verstappen seized the chance to pit for a fresh pair of intermediates, and he went on to take the lead when Norris was obliged to complete a further lap behind the safety car before changing tires.
Verstappen won by 3.8 seconds and scored 25 points in the dry conditions after mastering the second safety car restart. However, things weren't quite so easy for the Red Bull driver who had been leading the race before.
Mercedes had pitted its drivers for new tires during the second safety car, but Verstappen and the McLarens stayed out. Verstappen's triumph and the reconstruction of his championship lead to 56 points came from a late-race struggle between the McLarens and Mercedes.
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