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Canadian Grand Prix 2023

Verstappen dominates Canadian Grand Prix for historic Red Bull win

It's a sixth victory of the season for Max Verstappen as Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton complete the Montreal podium.

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To news overview © XPBimages

Max Verstappen dominated the Canadian Grand Prix for his sixth win of the season - and earn his Red Bull team their 100th Formula 1 victory.

From pole position, Verstappen led all 70 laps at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for his fourth straight win having not been troubled for most of the afternoon.

Behind the Red Bull, Fernando Alonso made up for a slow start with a brave move on Lewis Hamilton to take second place with the seven-time Montreal winner coming home to complete the all-World Champion podium - as the top three finished where they started.

Clever Ferrari strategy enabled Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to use the overcut to salvage fourth and fifth, while Sergio Perez could only manage sixth - meaning Verstappen extended his points lead to 70.

Result Race - Canadian

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Alonso slow off the line

At lights out, Verstappen pulled away while Hamilton rocketed past the Aston Martin of Alonso - who then fended off the advances of George Russell as Sainz lost position to Perez but was able to get it back at the final chicane on the opening tour.

The top four of Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso and Russell then began to pull away from the pack with the leader just out of DRS range, but on Lap 12, Russell triggered a Safety Car after getting loose at Turn 9 and hitting the wall - breaking the right rear wheel, but was able to limp back to the pits.

Under this pitstop, the leading trio were all able to come in and swap the Medium tyres that they started on for Hard tyres as both Ferrari drivers - also on Mediums - elected to stay out to gain track position and escape the DRS train that had been forming behind Nico Hulkenberg.

On the Lap 16 restart, Verstappen quickly dropped Hamilton and Alonso with the two-time champion diving past the seven-time one at the final chicane on Lap 22 - pulling away himself.

By Lap 35, half-distance, Verstappen enjoyed about a five second lap over Alonso, with a second round of pitstops beginning with Lando Norris pitting on Lap 37.

Across Laps 38-42, Perez, Sainz, Leclerc, Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen all pitted to cover off the threat of the undercut of the car behind - with Hamilton and Verstappen both fitting the Mediums for the final stint to Alonso's Hards.

Despite the Spanish driver being told to lift and coast and a series of fastest laps from Hamilton, the Mercedes was unable to find a way past.

Verstappen would eventually take his 41st career win - equalling the tally of Ayrton Senna in 10 more starts - by 9.570s from Alonso and Hamilton.

			© XPBimages
	© XPBimages

Ferrari salvage fourth and fifth

By electing to run both cars long under the Russell Safety Car, Ferrari were able to use the clear track ahead to leapfrog the midfield pack and rescue fourth and fifth.

Despite his protests, Sainz was told not to attack Leclerc, with the Monegasque taking his second-best result of the season, after third in Azerbaijan.

Sainz took fifth with Perez only managing sixth from 12th on the grid for his third straight finish off the podium, although he did take fastest lap.

Seventh place went to Alex Albon - who used the Williams' straight-line speed and big upgrade package to firstly fend off the struggling Russell and then after his retirement, Esteban Ocon in the Alpine, who was eighth.

Valtteri Bottas used a similar strategy to the Ferrari drivers to claim ninth for Alfa Romeo while Norris took 10th on the road, but was hit with a five-second time penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct on track.

This promoted home driver Lance Stroll into the final points position.

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	© XPBimages

Haas troubles strike

Norris also fell behind teammate Oscar Piastri in the final classification, with Pierre Gasly 13th, having seen his gamble of starting on the Soft tyres fail.

Yuki Tsunoda was 14th for AlphaTauri ahead of Nico Hulkenberg - who quickly fell back from fifth on the grid and was only 15th at the flag.

Zhou Guanyu was the meat in a Haas sandwich in 16th, as Kevin Magnussen lost a heap of time along with Nyck de Vries after both locked up and simultaneously ran wide at Turn 3.

de Vries was the last classified driver as Russell and Logan Sargeant were the only two retirements - the Williams dropping out early on, leading to a brief deployment of the Virtual Safety Car.

F1 2023 Canadian Grand Prix RN365 News dossier

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