Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Canadian Grand Prix
Photo by Clive Rose from Getty Images
Because of COVID, this is the first time Formula 1 has been to Montreal since 2019.
And boy oh boy did I miss this track.
Here are this weeks winners and losers.
Losers
5. Fernando Alonso
Maybe it’s too harsh to put him here. I don’t know.
He qualified 2nd in a midfield car, and that’s incredible. And he finished 7th which is still a good result based on their pure pace.
But he finished behind his teammate still, and he also ignored two options to pit for new tires which could have maybe kept him ahead.
It’s still a good result, but it feels like he left something on the table.
4. Sergio Perez
It’s been a good run of form for Checo recently, but a crash in qualifying followed by a mechanical failure in the race made this a weekend to forget for the Spaniard.
3. Lando Norris
In qualifying, he had an engine that wasn’t working properly.
In the race, they put in an old engine which had degraded so much that he couldn’t find any pace and basically just drove around for a while to finish 15th.
Just not a very good weekend.
2. Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki was fighting for points, came in to pit and get fresh tires, and then forgot how to turn a car and drove into the wall.
Not only that, but he put Verstappen’s win at risk, which is a big no no from the junior team to the senior team.
1. Haas F1 Team
It is not Haas’ fault that they are up here.
Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher had such a good qualifying session that they started 5th and 6th, the best combo the team has ever had.
Kevin made very slight contact with Lewis while battling for places on the opening lap and just barely lost a piece of wing that forced him to pit while running 5th. He finished 17th.
Mick was running 7th and battling hard with Zhou Guanyu before his engine failed and he had to retire the car.
What should have been a very promising weekend for the American team ended up being heartbreaking.
Winners
5. Zhou Guanyu
He should have been on the winners list last weekend because he was having a great race before his car failed.
But he didn’t let it get to him.
Another very good race from the Chinese driver gives him 2 more points to add to his total.
Nothing flashy, but in a quality midfield car like Alfa Romeo it doesn’t need to be.
4. Lance Stroll
There is just something about Lance Stroll in Canada.
He can’t qualify worth a damn, but it motivates him to have an even better race.
It was a good strategy, and very good defense on those behind him to get the Aston Martin one point.
One point isn’t a ton, but when you start 17th it’s pretty dang good.
3. Carlos Sainz
Carlos needed this one.
He was very close to his first win, but maybe more importantly he had a very good race and was consistent enough to avoid any potential mistakes, especially when battling for the win at one of the most difficult corners in F1.
I’m sure he’s bummed to not win, but he can still take some positives from this race.
2. Lewis Hamilton
On Friday, Lewis said that the car was just all around terrible.
On Sunday, he had comparable pace to the leaders and brought it home for his second podium of the season.
It was a very good race at a track Mercedes themselves said they had some doubts they would succeed at.
1. Max Verstappen
One year ago, when battling with Lewis Hamilton for his first ever championship, Max Verstappen made some pretty costly errors that potentially made the battle closer than it needed to be. He also drove borderline dangerously at times.
I have mentioned that Max seems to be more mature behind the wheel this year and avoiding those mistakes, and there was no better example of that than today.
At a track where the DRS was considered overpowered, Verstappen still managed to not only keep Carlos Sainz behind him while Sainz had better tires and DRS, but he did so in a way where Sainz could never even look to make a move.
It was perfect defensive driving, something that wasn’t always in Verstappen’s repertoire.
Now that he has it, it’s going to be awfully hard to stop him…
