Scott Stinson: At the Canadian Grand Prix, a championship story throwback


Max Verstappen turned in another dominant performance on Sunday, and his rivals are running out of time this season

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MONTREAL — The great swaths of fans who came to Formula 1 in recent years after binging the popular Netflix documentary series about it were treated to uncommon drama last season, the first time many of them watched a championship story unfold in real time.

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But the 2022 season is quickly turning into a throwback F1 competition, with one driver racing out to an imperious lead.

Max Verstappen turned in another dominant performance at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, withstanding tremendous pressure and more than a little poor luck to hold off Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz for his fifth win in six races and six in nine in the still-young season. The 24-year-old Dutchman, the reigning world champion, didn’t finish two of the first three races due to mechanical problems, but when his car hasn’t failed entirely, he has been almost flawless.

“It was a bit more difficult than I expected,” said Verstappen after his 26th career win. “But the last 15-16 laps we were flat-out, and I knew I couldn’t make a mistake. It was a great race.”

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The victory stretches Verstappen’s lead in the championship to 46 points, after his teammate Sergio Perez retired with a mechanical problem and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc could only claw back to fifth place after starting the race in 19th due to a pair of engine-replacement penalties.

But Verstappen shook off any suggestion that the lead is daunting.

“It’s still a very long way,” he said of a season that has 13 more scheduled races. “It can turn around very quickly. After Race Three, I was 36 (points) behind.”

Sunday’s biggest surprise came from the third- and fourth-place finishes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, the two Mercedes-AMG drivers with back-from-the-dead performances after disastrous practice sessions on Friday had looked to turn a tough year even worse.

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“It feels great today to be in among the battle,” Hamilton said. “It’s given me and the team a lot of hope.” The seven-time world champion said he had hoped to even chase the two leaders at the end, but they were just a bit too quick.

Her, or him, whatever you call a car

Lewis Hamilton

“It was really nice to have a good battle with her today,” he said of his Mercedes. “Her, or him, whatever you call a car.”

Verstappen had been strong all weekend, delivering fast times in Friday’s dry weather and then claiming pole position in Saturday’s wet qualifying session. Behind him, things were a touch chaotic, with his two closest rivals, Perez and Leclerc, unable to start close to him on the grid. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who at 40 years old used to race against Verstappen’s father, Jos, started next to the championship leader on the front row, and since qualifying on Saturday there had been much fun speculation about whether the crafty veteran Spaniard could pip the young upstart in the opening turns at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Alonso had said with a wink that he would “attack Max at the first turn” and his team principal, Otmar Szafnauer, said in a pre-race interview that “Fernando wouldn’t yield.” A first-turn shootout? How exciting!

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Or, not. Verstappen was quick off the line at the start and stretched out to a comfortable lead, and the possibility of an old-master-schools-young-rival story evaporated as Alonso dropped back.
Early safety-car appearances — one of them courtesy of his teammate, Perez — resulted in differing tire strategies from the race leaders, but by the time the Canadian Grand Prix was two-thirds completed it looked like Verstappen was on his way to a casual, cruising victory.

Or, not. Instead, a late Yuki Tsunoda crash on the 47th of 70 laps allowed Sainz to take on fresh tires and put himself right at the rear of the Dutchman under the safety car. Suddenly, Verstappen had to fend off a car that was just as fast as his — maybe even a touch faster, he said — and which had the aid of the Drag Reduction System to make attacking easier. For the whole of the last 16 laps, a pattern emerged. Sainz attacked in the DRS zones — where increased airflow gives the trailing car a boost of speed — and closed the gap to under half a second, but Verstappen was able to gain some space back coming out of the turns. Sainz would attack, Verstappen would just hold him off. Repeat.

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“It was a tough, intense battle with Max,” Sainz said. “Got close a couple of times, but not enough to try a move down the inside.”

Verstappen said there was no real strategy to staying the lead over the closing laps. He felt he had just enough pace to stay ahead, but he also knew the margin for error was nil.

“It was all about just pushing to the limit and not making a mistake,” Verstappen said. “It was proper racing. It was really on the edge, but it was good to see.”

And so now, even with much of the season left, the only chance of another championship fight will come if Verstappen and his Red Bull team falters. Ferrari has been right there with them all season in terms of pace, but neither Sainz nor Leclerc have been consistent enough to hang with him on Sundays. Mercedes has been very consistent, but even on a good day they didn’t have the speed to match the top two teams.

It’s a long way to go, as Verstappen said. And yet, his rivals are also running out of time.
Postmedia News

sstinson@postmedia.com

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