This week the Canadian Grand Prix returned to Formula 1 for the first time since 2019, since the circuit entered the track calendar there’s been many spectacular moments that have occurred over the years, many famous wins, controversial decisions, frightening accidents, and much more.
The Canadian Grand Prix certainly didn’t disappoint this week. We were treated with a magical rain-impacted qualifying that had formed a mixed-up grid. With Hamilton qualifying P4 getting him his best qualifying result all season, as well as Fernando Alonso was lining up on the front row of the grid for the first time in 10 years!
Hero To Zero For Haas
Embed from Getty ImagesHaas had started the race on Sunday in the best position they could, with Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher starting P5 and P6 giving Haas their best qualifying result in their history of the sport.
Their race had gotten off to a dismal start with Mick losing out on 2 positions going down to P8 and Kevin Magnussen getting wing damage which would trigger the black and orange flag forcing him to go into the pits and change the front wing putting him right down to P20 and a long race ahead of him.
On lap 20, Mick Schumacher pulled over to the same run-off as Sergio Perez and was forced to retire due to an unknown issue. Mick since joining Formula 1 hasn’t scored a single point yet and his career so far has been cursed with a vast amount of mechanical failures, today was another prime example of that and he will still be waiting to break the deadlock of scoring points.
Magnussen’s race was completely ruined by the early front wing damage and wasn’t able to make up the time he had lost from the pit stop, meaning it was another race week that Haas would be leaving pointless.
Red Bull’s Reliability Issues Still Lurking Around
Embed from Getty ImagesSince the Australian Grand Prix, Red Bull hasn’t had any engine issues. Many statements have come out saying they have an extremely reliable engine and it should be the second most reliable engine on the grid, behind the Mercedes engine.
However, early on in the race, we saw Sergio Perez pull over to the side because of an engine failure. This could be frightening for Red Bull seeing as they believed they had sorted out the engine issues that had occurred previously yet they now might be forced to return to the past headache over the engine reliability to make sure issues like these don’t occur again.
In the drivers and constructor’s championship, the standings are so close and one DNF can swing the championship in multiple directions. Sergio will be disappointed today that he couldn’t gain any points to Max and will be hoping that in the future Red Bull sorts these issues out with the car and gives him a better chance to go on his own personal title charge.
After today’s results, Perez is second in the driver’s championship and is 46 points behind the championship leader, Max Verstappen.
Mercedes Miracle
Embed from Getty ImagesAt the beginning of the race week on Friday, Lewis Hamilton said “this car is so bad” after the first two practice sessions of the day
Mercedes had decided that on Lewis’ car they would test new set-ups and try completely new ways the car hadn’t been used before in an attempt to try and make the gap up to the field.
However, after trying the new set-up Lewis Hamilton found the car completely undrivable and they decided to switch to George Russell’s setup for the race and see where they could get the car to finish in what appeared to be the circuit the car had looked best at all season.
After a miraculous strategy and timing with the virtual safety cars, Mercedes managed to get both of their cars 3rd and 4th which is where they would stay put and end up finishing the race.
A solid amount of points scored for the team and a significant sign into the future of how Mercedes could improve for the remainder of this season and what results they could end up getting.
Mercedes is 3rd in the constructor’s championship with 188 points, 40 behind Ferrari in second. As well as Russell places himself 4th in the driver’s championship and Hamilton is in 6th behind Carlos Sainz.
After the chaotic race week, Max Verstappen claimed a tough victory which saw him extend his lead in the driver’s championship and give him a comfortable gap to his nearest challenger for the title. Carlos Sainz could only manage P2, despite how close he was to Vertappen he just wasn’t able to make the move and had to accept P2. Lewis Hamilton came past the chequered flag to claim P3 and score another podium this season, showing that Mercedes have gained pace and that they potentially could’ve made ground to Red Bull and Ferrari.
The next round of the season is over to the UK and the famous Silverstone circuit where the Mercedes drivers will both be hoping to preform well at their home race and retain the level of performance the car showed in Canada.
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