Max Verstappen wins the Canadian Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris

After struggling in Monaco, Max Verstappen and Red Bull recovered to win the Canadian Grand Prix. They overcame rain showers, several Safety Car periods, restarts, and a fierce challenge from behind to lead Lando Norris home.
Verstappen trailed pole-position Mercedes driver George Russell in the early going of the race, but as the weather cleared up, a charging Norris passed them both. However, an unfortunate Safety Car intervention—caused by Logan Sargeant's crash—caused the McLaren driver to drop to third.

After clearing Russell, Verstappen skillfully restarted and survived more showers to hold onto his lead. He did the same when the track dried out and the field shifted from intermediate to slick tires, and once more after another Safety Car period that was brought on by a collision between Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.

Although the current world champion eventually led the way to the finish line, Norris secured the second position after a competitive mid-race battle with Russell, and the latter finished third following some late-race scrapping with teammate Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri's other McLaren.

Heart rates on the Mercedes pit wall spiked when Russell and Hamilton, who had both stopped for new, slick tires during the second Safety Car period, went wheel-to-wheel multiple times, with the younger Briton making the winning move for P3 on the penultimate lap.

Fernando Alonso and home favorite Lance Stroll secured a double points finish for Aston Martin behind the top five finishers, while Daniel Ricciardo secured his first Grand Prix point of the year in eighth place after a solid qualifying effort.

As the race came to a close, Yuki Tsunoda, the teammate of Ricciardo, made a mistake that caused him to slide across the grass and fall down the order. This allowed Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon to advance, giving Alpine a double top-10 finish.

Being the only drivers to begin the race on wet tires instead of intermediates, the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen initially shot to the top of the order. However, they narrowly missed a prize as they crossed the line in 11th and 12th place, respectively.



After his costly error, Tsunoda finished in 14th place behind Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu of Kick Sauber. In what turned out to be one of the most exciting races of the 2024 season so far, only 15 of the 20 cars made it to the finish line.

Points leaders Sainz and Albon retired shortly after their coming together, and Ferrari failed to score a single point following their victory in Monaco due to ongoing power unit problems that also forced Charles Leclerc to retire.

Sergio Perez was the fifth and last retiree, joining the previously mentioned Sargeant, after he spun off the track and damaged his rear wing. This forced the Mexican driver back to the pits and increased the pain of that Q1 exit in qualifying.

Verstappen, Perez's winning teammate, leaped to joy as the podium finishers entered parc ferme, increasing his championship lead from 31 to 56 points and capitalizing on Leclerc and Ferrari's misfortune.

An erratic and dramatic qualifying session at the Circuit was produced by a weekend of mixed weather. Gilles Villeneuve, after Perez pulled out of the first round, Ferrari losing both of their cars in the second round, and Russell stunningly outpacing Verstappen to take pole with exact lap times.

A little more than an hour before the 1400 local scheduled start time, the resurfaced track remained drenched in water despite the venue having been thoroughly soaked by heavy rain when the paddock reassembled on Sunday morning.

The laps to the grid, which included a lot of drifting, saw the use of intermediates and wets due to more drizzle. Ocon, who had been penalized by Monaco, lined up at the very back, while Bottas and Zhou moved to the pit lane after Kick Sauber changed their rear wings.

More dark clouds were gathering and spits of rain were falling when the tyre blankets came off. It was then discovered that most drivers had started the race on intermediate tires, with Haas being the only team to play it differently by starting Magnussen and Hulkenberg on the wets.

Starting from pole position, Russell maintained his lead over Verstappen into the first corner, closely followed by Norris and Piastri of McLaren, and Alonso and Hamilton overtook fifth-place qualifier Ricciardo.

At Haas, it seemed that the wet-tyre strategy was paying off as Magnussen rose to eighth place, surpassing home favorite Stroll, who nearly got collected by Leclerc at the last chicane after the Monegasque misjudged his braking point and went for the run-off.

Then, as predicted, another band of rain moved in, giving the Haas drivers even more of a lead. Magnussen quickly passed Alonso, Hamilton, and Ricciardo to run a brilliant fifth, while Hulkenberg moved into the points, finishing just behind Stroll.

The message to leader Russell at this point was, "This level of rain is the worst we expect." Verstappen was trailing Mercedes by a few seconds, while Magnussen was still on a charge, rapidly catching up to the back of Norris and Piastri's McLarens.

Magnussen quickly overtook Piastri for P4, clocking in more than a second quicker than the cars in front of him. Meanwhile, teammate Hulkenberg moved up to eighth place by passing Stroll and Ricciardo, providing plenty of joy to those in the Haas camp who made the alternate call.

The Monaco Grand Prix winner's situation worsened when his engineer reported that "we are seeing something strange engine side" and that the team was "looking into it." Meanwhile, Ferrari drivers Leclerc and Sainz stayed in the midfield and outside of the points.

The rain stopped again and a blue sky appeared, just as Magnussen appeared ready to take on Norris. This caused the track conditions to quickly return to intermediate levels and forced the Dane to pit for the green-marked rubber on Lap 8, even though the Haas mechanics were not prepared for him.

Alonso had a few moments at the last chicane and when leaving Turn 1, Hamilton ran too deep at Turn 1 and went over the grass, and Sargeant had a scare at Turn 6 and slid towards the barriers on the outside of the track as the grip level fluctuated.

Replays from the first lap showed that Perez and Gasly had made contact in the rear-of-the-field bottleneck through Turn 2, resulting in some bodywork damage for both drivers. The stewards also suspected Ricciardo of making a false start.

"Impossible to overtake with this issue, to be honest," Leclerc complained in a string of irate radio calls to the Ferrari pit wall, despite the fact that he had at least moved up to 10th place and the final points-paying spot at this point due to his engine problems.

As the conditions improved, Russell continued to lead the way at the front, but Verstappen closed the gap to 1.2 seconds as the lap chart entered double digits. Norris was roughly six seconds behind Russell in third, and Piastri was behind his teammate by a similar amount.



Ricciardo surged past the Haas into the final chicane to take P7 with Hulkenberg still on the wet tyres and a dry line beginning to appear. However, moments later, he was given a five-second time penalty for that false start. After that, Hulkenberg pitted to take on some intermediates because he had enough.

As Verstappen put increasing pressure on race leader Russell, the next message said, "Expecting another rain shower 20 minutes from now." “Tell me what you’d like me to do then… These tyres are going to wear very quickly,” he replied.

Verstappen was all over Russell's car on Lap 15, and Norris was also lighting up the timesheets and closing the gap to the leaders as both drivers searched for wet patches to nurse their intermediate tyres. Would there be enough drying out of the track for slicks prior to any more rain?

Only a few laps later, Verstappen took to the grass at Turn 1, clattering over the kerbs as he rejoined the track. Over the next few tours, Norris pursued the Red Bull, taking advantage of the DRS overtaking assistance being enabled.

As Lap 20 came to a close, Verstappen had filled all of his mirrors and was powerless to prevent Norris from finishing a move down the back straight with the help of DRS. After gaining ground on Russell's vehicle and finishing the lap, Norris skillfully executed the same maneuver to take the lead.



Following Norris' move, Russell continued straight through the final chicane. When he returned to the racetrack, Verstappen ducked to the left to avoid the Mercedes driver and passed him for second. The stewards immediately announced that they would be investigating this incident.

Russell was quickly caught by Piastri, but Norris was able to pull away from Verstappen with a string of fastest laps in clear air. However, there was a dramatic moment that could have changed the outcome of the race when Sargeant spun out of the Turn 3/4 chicane, resulting in two yellow flags and a Safety Car.

The leaders, Verstappen, Russell, Piastri, Alonso, and Hamilton, all pitted right away and added more intermediates. However, Norris, who had miraculously gained a 10-second lead, seemed to have missed the opportunity and was forced to finish another lap.

Verstappen and Russell gained the upper hand over Norris as drivers regrouped after their stops, with only Tsunoda, Ocon, and Bottas choosing not to swap out their tyres. “What goes around, comes around. That’s Miami back,” was the radio message to Verstappen.

Even though another band of rain was menacingly appearing on the radar, Leclerc pitted again just before the Safety Car pulled in at the end of Lap 29, believing he had nothing to lose by trying out a set of slick tires.

With Verstappen leading Russell into Turn 1, Albon executed a brilliant double move on Ricciardo and Ocon into the final chicane to move up to ninth. Norris held third place from Piastri, Hamilton, Alonso, Tsunoda, and Stroll.

Leclerc was told to "just keep the car on track" before the rain came and he had to return to the intermediate pits. It was not going much better for team mate Sainz, who picked up some front wing damage in the midfield scrapping, leaving Ferrari with a lot of work to do to salvage even a point.

Verstappen led Russell by just over a second as the race calmed down and the stewards investigated an incident involving Sainz, Bottas, and Ricciardo at the restart that appeared to have caused the Spaniard's damage. Drivers had already begun using the track's damper areas to keep their intermediates under control.

In the challenging and unpredictable conditions, Norris once more dominated the timesheets, finishing over a second quicker than Russell and Verstappen in the lead. This suggests that there will be another exciting battle for the lead, with Piastri and Hamilton attempting to catch up in positions P4 and P5.

Russell radioed his team on lap forty, stating that each corner bar Turns 1 and 2 were dry, Gasly decided it was time to switch back to slicks, with rival teams undoubtedly keeping a close eye on his sector time while the leaders waited.



Turn 1 saw Norris lock up and run wide, undoing some of his fast lap times and giving Piastri a chance to close the gap on his teammate and take a shot at third. “I lost a lot of time from Norris, avoiding action. One-and-a-half seconds,” reported Russell afterwards.

Over the next few laps, a series of stops were initiated by Gasly switching to hard tires. Hamilton, Ricciardo, Sainz, Perez, Bottas, and Magnussen were among those who responded by switching to medium tires. Leclerc pitted too, but his problems were so severe that he had to retire with Sargeant.

The next round of competitors included Piastri (mediums), Alonso (hards), Tsunoda (mediums), Stroll (hards), Ocon (mediums), Albon (mediums), Hulkenberg (mediums), and Zhou (mediums). The top three finishers, Verstappen, Russell, and Norris, all chose to continue for one more lap.

Verstappen and Russell moved to medium and hard rubber the following time, joining the majority of the field on slicks, but Norris continued to lead the way for a few more tours, setting competitive times on his intermediates.

At the end of Lap 47, Norris pitted at last, battling through mediums and emerging alongside Verstappen, who charged with his warmer tyres. The pressure was then increased by Russell and Piastri, the former of whom benefited from a mistake made by Norris at the hairpin a tour later to easily pass with DRS along the back straight.

Subsequently, Russell committed an error in the Turn 3/4 chicane, which let Norris retake the lead and repeat his "holy moly" moment from qualifying, evoking an expletives-filled radio broadcast. Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes, responded, "George, focus."

As Russell and Norris argued, Verstappen extended his lead past the five-second mark. Meanwhile, Perez, his teammate, lost control of his vehicle while braking for Turn 6 and skidded backward into the barriers, sending him to the pits to retire alongside Leclerc and Sargeant.

When Sainz and Albon, who had been vying for points, unexpectedly came together at Turn 7, there was even more drama to come. Replays revealed that Sainz spun at the corner's exit and that Albon's Williams managed to pick up the Ferrari in spite of Sainz's best efforts.

Russell and Hamilton chose to pit for medium tires after the Safety Car was deployed once more. As a result, they started the race behind Verstappen, Norris, and Piastri, while Alonso, Stroll, Tsunoda, Ocon, and Ricciardo took the final points positions.

Although Verstappen and Norris triumphed, Piastri, Russell, and Hamilton engaged in a fierce battle for the last podium position and nearly eliminated each other from the race.

First, on Lap 64, Russell and Piastri collided with the final chicane; the stewards are investigating this incident, which caused the Mercedes driver to fall behind teammate Hamilton. Two laps later, the seven-time world champion passed Piastri at the same spot to move up to third.

But it did not end there. On lap 67, Russell managed to get past Piastri and charge up to the back of Hamilton's vehicle. Amid radio calls from the Mercedes pit wall to "keep it clean," he took third place on the penultimate lap.

Meanwhile, rival drivers managed to avoid Tsunoda when he lost control of his vehicle at the Turn 8/9 chicane and slid over the grass. Even though he managed to turn the car around, the newly resigned RB racer was far out of contention for points.

After leading the final lap flawlessly, Verstappen secured his sixth victory out of nine races this season. Russell finished third, followed by Norris. as fourth, ahead of Piastri and the Aston Martins, with Ricciardo and the Alpines – via some team orders that frustrated Ocon – completing the points.

Haas just missed out on points in P11 and P12, as Tsunoda rued the consequences of his mistake in P14 between Kick Sauber pair Bottas and Zhou. Sainz, Albon, Perez, Leclerc, and Sargeant all watched the finish from the sidelines after their respective incidents.



Verstappen remarked, "It was a pretty crazy race." “A lot of things were happening and we had to be on top of our calls. I think as a team we just did really well today, we remained calm, and I think we pitted at the right time. Of course, the Safety Car worked out nicely for us, but even after that I think we were managing the gaps quite well. I loved it – that was a lot of fun. Those kinds of races, you need them once in a while!”