WINNERS 

Max Verstappen 

An absolutely flawless performance from Max Verstappen all weekend long in Canada as he dominated qualifying and held o﷽ff a late-charging Carlos Sainz to register his sixth victory in nine races this season. 

It was a real champion’s drive from Verstappen. Having largely controlled the race, he appeared completely unflustered when Sainz emerged right on his gearbox with a tyre advan🧜tage following a late Safety Car period. 

Verstappen worked out how to keep Sainz behind 💮and never once flinched under some intense late pressure to resist h👍is rival and seal a sixth straight win for Red Bull. 

Given his relentless and remarkably consistent form, the reigning world champion is starting to lo༺ok untouchable. With a convincing 49-point advantage over Charles Leclerc, Verstappen appears on course to land a second world title this year.

Carlos Sainz 

In the absence of his teammate Charles Leclerc from the lead battle due to being hit with engine p💦enalties that left him starting at the back, responsibility fell on Sainz to offer a challenge to Verstappen. 

Sainz wast🌳ed no time getting himself past Fernando Alonso and up to second, before engaging with Verstappen in a direct head-to-head for the race victory. 

Sainz slowly reeled Verstappen in during the second stint and benefitted from a late Safety Car which gave him a six-lap tyre adv♋antage over the Red Bull. But he ultimately came up just short after following within a seco💟nd for the final 15 laps. 

In reality, Sainz’s Ferrari was ౠalways lacking the true performance needed to be able to pull off a move on Verstappen, whose slight pace advantage and sm𒀰art driving enabled him to prevail. 

It was another near miss for Sainz෴ in his ongoing quest for his maiden grand prix win but a much-needed performance and result for the Spaniard. 

Mercedes 

Mercedes enjoyed a stronger showing than exp💃ected in Canada as Lewis Hamilton returned to the podium for the first time since the opening race of the s♔eason and ended a run of difficult races.

Hamilton finished a few seconds up the road from teammate George Russell, who rose from eighth to fourth as both Mercedes cars🅷 demonstrated encouragingly-competitive race pace. 

The seven-time world champion ended the race ꦺjust seven seconds behind winner Verstappen, and at times he was able to 🍰match Verstappen and Sainz’s pace. 

But Hamilton would have likely been much further behind had it not been for the late Sa𓃲fety Car, while Mercedes’ final result was boosted by Sergio Perez and Leclerc being out of position from the start. 

Mercedes unquestionably still have a lot of work to do before they can truly join the Red Bull-Ferrari fight, but there were some positive signals to take away from Mon♓treal.

It was an important result for Hamilton, who brough💝t an end to Russell’s recent momentum and stopped his younger teammate from beating him for a record eighth race in a row.

Guanyu Zhou/Alfa Romeo 

Following a streak of mechanical failures, Gua💟nyu Zhou finally ended his run of misfortune at the ♊Canadian Grand Prix with his best display in F1 yet. 

F1’s first-ever Chinese driver was one of the star performers in Saturday💙’s wet qualifying as he secured his maiden Q3 appearance and out-pac🌜ed Alfa Romeo teammate Valtteri Bottas for the second successive event. 

Although Bottas go🍰t the better of him in the race, Zhou turned in a really impressive drive🔯 to finish ninth on the road, before being promoted to eighth after Alonso’s post-race penalty. 

Zhou has already demonstrated he is a capable grand prix driver, even if his results haven’t reflected it. But on Sunday he finally reaped the rewards for what 🌺has been an impressive start to his rookie season. 

A double points finish for Alfa Romeo means the Swiss squad have closed to within six points of fifth-pl🦩aced Alpine in the constructors’ championship. 

Lance Stroll

Things looked pretty bleak ♈for home hero Lance Stroll after being dumped 🙈out of Q1 and lining up from a lowly 17th on the grid. 

But St𝔍roll steal🧸thily worked his way through the field - including a late overtake on Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren - en route to fighting his way back into the points in P10. 

It was a solid drive from the Canadian, who ended a run of three races outside of the points with his third 10th place of the season.ꦦ 

LOSERS 

Sergio Perez 

✱After his excellent recent form had turned him into a genuine championship contender, all of Perez’s hard work was undone as he endured a ꦡnightmare weekend in North America.

Sliding off into the barriers in Q2 meant he was left with it all to do from 13th on the grid, but the Mexꦑican’s afternoon had barely got going before his car broke down nine laps in.

Perez’s second retiremenꦚt of the season marks a huge blow to his title hopes, with ꧟teammate Verstappen’s fifth win in the last six races opening up a massive 46-point margin between the pair. 

Fernando Alonso

Alonso h🌸ad hoped to challenge Verstappen for the lea🧜d on the first lap after securing his first front-row starting spot in a decade following his sensational qualifying performance. 

After initially running second durไing the early stages, the two-time world champion’s race totally unravelled. Alonso lost out to both Mercedes and Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon after Alpine failed to take advantage by pitting under two Virtual Safety Car periods. 

The timing of the VSC ruined his race but Alonso was also left to battle an engine problem on his car that prevented him from passing Ocon despite being “100 times faster”.🦹 

To rub salt into the wounds, Alonso was demoted two places to ninth with a post-race time penalty for weaving on the straight and im♛peding Bottas. 

Mick Schumacher/Haas

After Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher equalled Haas’ best-ever qualifying result by locking out the third row of the grid, the race started with huge promise for the American outfit.&nbs🦄p;

But Haas ultimately came away with nothing to show for their efforts in what turned out to be a day of disappointment a🙈s neither driver scored points.&nb💙sp;

Magnussen dropped out of the top 10 when he was shown a black-and-orange flag for car damage after a first-lap clash with Hamilton, and the Dane never reཧcov♉ered.

Meanwhile, S🦹chumacher’s hopes of a first-ever points finish went up in smoke when he suffered a race-ღending power unit issue while running seventh. 

McLaren 

It was a truly 🌄horrible Canad🌺ian Grand Prix for McLaren as both Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris finished outside of the points. 

An✃ attempt to double-stack their drivers went spectacularly wrong when Ricciardo had a ꧙slow pit stop, which in turn delayed Norris. Things went from bad to worse when McLaren initially fitted the wrong tyre onto Norris’ car, costing him yet more time. 

Ricciardo found himself in ninth after the late Safety Car but was🌟 relegated to 11th by Zhou and Stroll come the chequeꦬred flag. 

McLaren’s🌊 misery enabled midfield rivals Alpine to capitalise and close to within eight points of the fourth-placed🐠 team. 

AlphaTauri 

A rea🍰lly frustrating weekend for AlphaTauri as the Faenza outfit were well off the pace in Canada. 

Yuki Tsunoda’s race ended up in the Turn 1 barriers when he r🌱ather clumsily lost control of his car on cold tyres when exiting the 🌞pits, while teammate Pierre Gasly didn’t fare much better.

The Frenchman finished a lowly 14th after st💦rugglin🧸g with grip and pace throughout.