The 2022 Canadian GP was a good race, and a good weekend for F1 overall. A wet qualifying gave
everyone an unpredictable grid but come race day
we had a clear track, so everyone was going
to see a return to the “status quo”. Fernando Alonso had a very strong chance to win this race had it stayed wet or similar to conditions in qualifying. As soon as it was dry, it was obvious the race was going to be a Red Bull vs Ferrari duel.
The Race
The start was measured by the grid. Esteban Ocon made a good move on Schumacher but crucially, Verstappen, Alonso and Sainz maintained position. After DRS was enabled on lap 3, Sainz immediately passed his compatriot to move up into second. The cars out of position made only marginal gains, with Perez moving a few spots up and Leclerc moving up to 16th by this stage. The problem with Canada is the field spread really eliminates half the grid in the first 10 laps. Luckily there are usually a lot of Safety Cars deployed during the race.
Magnussen was forced to pit when Ocon sent a radio message complaining about damage on Magnussen’s car, which Ocon could directly see ahead. Magnussen believes the FIA were too easily influenced by this call but it’s fairgame. You can’t race with a damaged car, the FIA is trying to protect the drivers and protect themselves legally too.
Red Bull’s inconsistent reliability struck when Perez was forced to retire on lap 11. lt seems that every driver is subject to technical failures this year and it’s making it hard for anyone to make up ground in the championship.
Zhou Guanyu had outqualified Bottas for the second race in a row and was easily as fast, if not faster during the race. Bottas only finished ahead due to a safety car and Zhou being stuck behind Stroll.
Mick Schumacher continues to have a combination of bad luck and underperformance. He retired almost immediately after Zhou passed him. His car seemed to lose power when Mick’s car came to a halt, the VSC came out a second time. This time it was George Russell pitting, while Hamilton passed Alonso for third at the hairpin.
McLaren were back to mediocrity after a few solid performances it seems. Lando was completely taken out of the race by his own team who fitted the wrong on his car after the 2nd VSC.
The 2nd VSC allowed Seb to pit to for Hard tyres and he aimed to do what Stroll did and make them last another 50 laps. Unfortunately this worked against him, as all the drivers around him managed to get fresh rubber during the last Safety Car period.
When Verstappen pitted for Hard tyres, he came out just behind Hamiton, who pitted shortly thereafter. At this point Max had a comfortable margin but this was all ruined when Tsunoda crashed coming out of the pits on cold tyres. A rookie error yet again from Yuki.
Leclerc charged through to finish 5th, ahead ofthe Alpine cars. A great recovery, but a costly mistake by Ferrari overall in Azerbaijan means they drop more points in the standings.
The Verdict
The championship is beginning to reach an anti-climax. Only reliability or some horrendous driving errors on Red Bull or Max’s part respectively, will cause Max to lose the title. He can be so calm under pressure like he was in this race, or he can be fiery and impulsive. lf the driver behind is too passive, Max seems to enjoy it. If they get their elbows out like Lewis or even Leclerc and Ocon sometimes, Max gets a bitmore nervous.
The finishing order was:-
1.) Max
2.) Carlos
3.) Lewis
