Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed the win from pole with a two-stop strategy – but he didn’t quite complete the grand slam, as the fastest lap honour went to Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who chased the Dutchman down to the finish on an identical strategy. Virtual safety cars and a full safety car influenced the strategy today, with Verstappen and Sainz making their first stops on the back of separate virtual safety car periods and Sainz later making his second stop under a full safety car – ensuring that he started his final stint right on Verstappen’s tail, to set up an exciting finale. After heavy rain yesterday, the sun was out again in Montreal with similar temperatures to those of Friday, at around 25 degrees ambient and 40 degrees on track. Most of the drivers started on the P Zero Yellow medium tyre as predicted, but five started on the P Zero White hard. These included the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who finished fifth after starting from the back.
HOW THE COMPOUNDS MADE THE DIFFERENCE
- HARD C3: Showed excellent durability with low degradation today: most notably exemplified by Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, who completed 63 laps on this compound. Four of the five drivers starting on the hard completed the race with just one stop, while everyone else stopped twice.
- MEDIUM C4: Provided a solid balance between speed and degradation, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso completing a 28-lap opening stint on the medium as he tried to defend his second place on the grid.
- SOFT C5: While around half a second quicker than the medium, it didn’t have the range in today’s ‘green’ track conditions, with a risk of graining, to be useful in a race where flexibility was key.
MARIO ISOLA, MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR: “It was nice to see our new 18-inch tyres providing close competition in Canada all the way down the grid, delivering some hard-fought battles. The same strategy but slightly different timings for Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz set up a thrilling fight to the finish, in which they were able to follow each other right to the flag. The P Zero medium and hard tyres allowed all the drivers to push to the maximum from start to finish, enabling a duel for victory and a brilliant fightback from the bottom of the grid for Charles Leclerc.”
