Max Verstappen won the Canadian GP, but Carlos Sainz put good pressure on him in the final rounds. In his own words, Valtteri Bottas was able to take advantage of the safety car’s result on the track for the first time and was eighth.
23:18 • Updated 11:27 PM
Red Bullin Max Verstappen drove from pole position to victory in the Canadian GP on the Montreal street track. For the Dutch, however, the victory did not come. Ferrarin Carlos Sainz came closer all the time and challenged Verstappen in an exciting final round of battle.
However, Verstappen was able to keep his top spot and get to the top of the podium at the end of the race.
– I weighed in full. I didn’t leave an inch of difference in the walls when I braked. I gave my all to pass Max. The positive thing, though, was that we were faster in the race. We were really close to winning today, so I’ll take this into the positive, starting from the third box Carlos Sainz said in a track interview.
Max Verstappen praised the race against Sainz as fun. He also said he gave his all in the final stages of the race.
In the final moments of the race came a new kind of vibration when AlphaTaurin Yuki Tsunoda made a mistake and shook the track. A safety car was needed on the track when Tsunoda’s car was moved off the track.
– At least the safety car didn’t help. Ferrari was strong in the race and they got fresh tires because of the safety car. I had to defend the leadership and luckily I finally succeeded, Verstappen said.
Third behind the lead was Mercedes Lewis Hamilton. The star driver of the success stall in recent years has been in trouble this season. The Mercedes car has not gone as it has in recent years. In the previous race in Azerbaijan, on the other hand, I suffered severe back pain when a Mercedes car bounced violently. Now we saw a happy Hamilton after the race.
– It’s really great to be third. We will remain vigilant and not give up. I’m really inspired. Let’s get closer to the top. I even saw them at the end. Honestly, I’m ecstatic, Hamilton glowed.
Alfa Romeon Valtteri Bottas drove to eighth. The Finnish driver left the 11th box and was able to improve a few places during the race, even though he started with a Chinese teammate Guanyu Zhoun behind. After a good weekend, Zhou finished ninth.
Bottas still managed to challenge the Spanish hero in the final round Fernando Alonson seventh place. The Alpine driver timed in second place in time, but the race was no longer at the same pace.
Bottas considered the race good compared to the starting points. The Finnish driver once again had a broken weekend when Bottas could not drive a single lap in other practice due to an electronics problem.
– It is important that points were reached in both cars. It was good to see the good pace of my teammate. I think we had more momentum than Alpine, Bottas said in an interview with Viaplay.
– There was a feeling that we had the pace we should have in every race.
Bottas played a risky game in the race as he made a long bet on hard tires. Before the departure of Tsunoda, the Finn had not visited the depot, but this time he was able to benefit from a safety car that came to the track.
– For the first time in my life, the safety car came at the right time. It really benefited. There was a nice change, Bottas smiled and hoped for a clean weekend two weeks into the next race in Silverstone, UK.