Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Canadian Grand Prix

Photo from the FIA

The Canadian Grand Prix being on the day of racing was fun, yet still feels morally wrong.

Ah well.

Here’s are this weeks winners and losers.

*Losers

5. Arvid Lindblad

Not even starting the race despite being in a good position for points through no fault of his own just stinks.

But that’s racing, sometimes.

4. Alex Albon

Speaking about no fault of his own, we have Alex Albon, who was minding his own business before he got railroaded by Oscar Piastri going into the hairpin, ending his race.

We’ll get to Piastri in a second.

3. Esteban Ocon

There were reports during the break that Haas may be looking to move on from Esteban Ocon, possibly before the season even ends.

So Ocon being handily beaten by his teammate and not getting any points probably doesn’t help those rumors go away.

2. George Russell

The battle between Russell and his teammate Kimi Antonelli was outstanding.

And then, it was over.

Russell’s car broke down, his chance of a win was gone, and the point gap to his teammate is now massive.

There’s still plenty and plenty of time to make up the gap, but I feel I’ve said that the past few races.

At some point, it gets to be a little bit nitty gritty.

1. McLaren

They were the only team that started on intermediates. That was a bad call and effectively ruined their race.

Then, Oscar Piastri had one of the dumbest dive bombs ever and took out Alex Albon and got a penalty for it.

THEN, Lando Norris had a mechanical failure that cost them their only chance at points.

Just a terrible race for McLaren, and right when it looked like things were turning around.

Winners

5. Carlos Sainz

While his teammate was getting taken out by Piastri, Carlos Sainz was getting points for Williams.

Every point counts.

4. Liam Lawson

Liam Lawson has come such a long way from the Red Bull disaster of last year.

He is having a great season so far, and a 7th place finish in Canada just adds to that.

Crazy what some confidence can do.

3. Franco Colapinto

I thought Colapinto had no business being in F1.

I just didn’t see anything that showed he belonged after last year.

But again, this is a sport of confidence.

And Colapinto has a lot now, and it’s showing with his 6th place finish in Canada.

All the credit to him.

2. Lewis Hamilton

It doesn’t matter because Ferrari is so far behind Mercedes in terms of a title fight, but it is good to see Lewis Hamilton battling his peers and coming out on the winning end of those battles.

He’s still got something in there. He just needs a championship car to do it.

1. Kimi Antonelli

There were some sketchy moments all weekend with him and his teammate where Antonelli likely was the one making errors, but the end result is all that matters.

And once again, Kimi Antonelli is on the top step of the podium and extending his championship lead.

It’s still early, but maybe not too early to point out that the youngest F1 Champion of all time was Sebastian Vettel at 23.

Kimi Antonelli is 19.

I’m just saying.