Unthreatened to the finish line
Max Verstappen has given his hegemony in Formula 1 new shine with victory in the Grand Prix of Canada. The Dutchman already won his sixth race of the season at the Montreal circuit. With the 41st win in his career, he equaled the number of victories of Brazilian racing legend Ayrton Senna. It was also the hundredth victory for the Red Bull team.
Max Verstappen led the race from start to finish and was further ahead in the championship, as his teammate Sergio Pérez again failed to make it onto the podium. The Mexican finished sixth. Fernando Alonso was the best of the rest in the race. The Spaniard dueled Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton for most of the 70 laps in his Aston Martin. The seven-time world champion rode to third place. Nyck de Vries finished eighteenth in his AlphaTauri and also remained without points in his eighth grand prix.
Verstappen had no problems at the start in Montreal. He sent the Red Bull first into the first corner from pole position. Behind him, Hamilton raced from third to second. He managed to overtake Alonso in the first corner. After more than twenty laps, Alonso Hamilton passed again. George Russell caused the only real commotion in the race after 12 laps; the Brit scraped his Mercedes against the wall and punctured a rear tire. The race management sent the safety car onto the track, after which Verstappen immediately reacted by making a pit stop and swapping his mediums for the hard tyres. Hamilton and Alonso followed the example of the Dutchman. After his tire change, the Brit almost hit Alonso in the pit lane. At the restart, the imperturbable Verstappen kept the lead and gradually distanced himself further. He was able to make his second pit stop after 43 of the 70 laps and drive to victory in a controlled manner. His lead over Alonso at the finish was 9.5 seconds.
Sporting director Jan Lammers joked on Friday that Verstappen may be able to win his third world title at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort at the end of August, but if it continues like this he will not be far off the mark. Verstappen is currently imposing his will on the competition and seems practically unbeatable. Hamilton leads the all-time ranking with 103 victories. Then come Michael Schumacher (91), Sebastian Vettel (53) and Alain Prost (51). Verstappen is currently so superior that he will certainly further increase his number of victories this season.
.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl