Sunday debrief: 5 retirements and a hat-trick of wins for Verstappen in Montreal
- mallikarull
- Jun 10, 2024
- 5 min read
Max Verstappen took a third consecutive win in Montreal, winning the race from P2 in a wet/dry race. Lando Norris making it a habit this season to finish on the podium, coming home in P2, fending off George Russell who finished in P3 from pole start, to make the first podium for Mercedes in 2024.
image: motorsport.com
Qualifying
Going into Q1, Sergio Perez, who announced a contract extension earlier in the week, had another dreadful qualifying session, as he failed to make it out of Q1 once more this season. Along with Perez, Zhou, Hulkenberg, Ocon and Bottas also failed to progress further into the session.
Q2 brought big concerns for Ferrari fans, as both drivers failed to make it into Q3, meanwhile, on the other side of the pitlane, both RB’s and Aston Martin drivers had managed to make their way into Q3. Sargeant had an impressive qualifying session, with a stellar performance to get out of Q1, but unfortunately, we would not see the young American progress into Q3. The order of elimination in Q2 read, Gasly, Magnussen, Sargeant, Sainz, Leclerc.
Over the three practice sessions, Mercedes appeared to have extracted new potential out of their W15, that being true for one of their two drivers. George Russell was able to produce a solid lap time of 1:12.000 to take pole position, while the Mercedes magic seemed to have disappeared for Hamilton in Q3 as he went from topping FP3 to finishing Q3 in P7. On the front row, to accompany Russell was Verstappen who managed to set an identical lap time as Russell to finish P2.
Race
Ahead of the race, the rain fell and stopped ahead of the 5 lights, making for a wet track to start the race. Both Sauber’s began the race from the pit lane after changing their set up following qualifying, promoting Ocon up into P18 after he took a 5 place grid penalty following the incident between himself and Gasly at the Monaco Grand Prix, which saw Ocon retire out of the race.
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With a wet track and high spray, over the opening laps the drivers slid across the track, tiptoeing around the corners. All drivers apart from the two Haas beginning on intermediate drivers, the Haas drivers gambling for wets. This gamble proved to be the right decision, by lap 3 Magnussen was able to pick up 9 places and move into P5, while Hulkenberg made up 6 putting him up into P8. Both Haas drivers putting the pressure on the drivers ahead with quicker lap times. Magnussen made an early pit stop on lap 8, a slow pit stop for intermediates, that would see Magnussen drop out of the points from P4 to P13. Hulkenberg would follow suit 5 laps later on lap 13, coming out in P19.
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13 laps into the race, and the stewards handed Ricciardo a 5-second time penalty for a false start.
DRS was enabled on lap 19 with track conditions improving, but rain still on the radar to hit in the next couple of laps. With the help of DRS, Norris was able to steal away the race lead from Russell going down the start/finish straight, Verstappen following Norris’s lead also managed to get by the Mercedes.
Sargeant undoing all his progress this weekend on lap 6 when he went straight into the barriers at turn 6, Sargeant only grazing the tyre wall, keeping his engine on to get back in the race, but would continue from the back of the grid. Unfortunately for Sargeant this wouldn’t be the worst part of the race for him, Sargeant bringing out the safety car on lap 25, when his Williams spun on the track at turn 4 and was stuck facing the wrong way. Sargeant becoming the first of 5 retirements in the race.
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Under the safety car, all drivers entered into the pits for fresh inters. Alonso being the first to enter the pits followed by Hamilton, the pair having battled in the opening 25 laps, Hamilton managing to get ahead of the Spaniard coming out of the pits, after 25 laps behind his former teammate. Norris came into the pits at the end of lap 26, allowing Verstappen to inherit the lead, Norris coming out the pits just ahead of his teammate in P3. Leclerc was last to enter the pits taking a gamble for the hard compound tyres. The safety car coming in at the end of lap 29 with just over 40 more laps in the race.
At the restart, Leclerc managed to build a 45second gap between himself and the race leader as his tiptoed around the track, struggling to find grip in those hard tyres. On lap 32 with the gamble not paying off, Leclerc returned to the pits for inters. Leclerc race not going the way the team had hoped with Leclerc being told to retire his car on lap 42, Leclerc also facing issues with his power unit in the race.
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Out of the front runners, Hamilton took the gable on lap 42 to come in for medium tyres, dropping the Mercedes driver from p5 to p8. Sainz, Perez and Ricciardo following suit, the three running outside the points. Piastri who was previously under threat from Hamilton came into the pits on lap 44, managing to stay ahead of Hamilton on his way of the pits, coming out in P4 4 seconds ahead of Hamilton in P5.
Norris took back the lead on lap 45, while Verstappen and Russell in P1 and 2 came into the pits. Norris pitting on lap 48 and managing to get out just ahead of Verstappen, but with the extra grip, Verstappen was able to quickly clear the McLaren.
Perez was next in line to retire out of the race with a collapsing rear wing on lap 53, Perez managing to get back safely into the pits. While Perez managed to avoid a safety car, the safety car was doomed to come back on lap 54 after Albon was in the wall and stuck, meanwhile, Sainz was spinning in the grass before managing to get back into the race. Sainz and Albon would become the final pair to retire out of the race.
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Hamilton and Russell taking advantage of the safety car and coming into the pits once again, Hamilton for a set of hards while Russell pitted for mediums. Hamilton with a free pit stop holding onto P5, while Russell conceded a place to Piastri falling into P4. The safety car returned to the pits on lap 58 with 12 laps left in the race.
By lap 63, Russell was able to make his way past Piastri and back onto the podium, going wheel to wheel with the Australian driver. Russell shortly losing a place to Piastri again, which he would regain on lap 67 on the final chicane. Russell having conceded a place to Hamilton on the previous lap, but was able to get back ahead and into the final podium place on lap 68 with the help of DRS, Russell warned on the radio to ‘keep it clean’.
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