6 Winners and 5 Losers from Montreal – Who capitalised on the ...

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Max Verstappen came out on top in five-car battle for the win in a dramatic Canadian Grand Prix. But while the Red Bull racer left Montreal on a high having returned to winning ways, others were left rueing what might have been. Lawrence Barretto picks out his winners and losers…

Max Verstappen had another challenging weekend, only this time he bounced back from a loss of track time on Friday because of an electrical issue and a general frustration with how the car felt over the bumps and kerbs to take only his second win in four Grands Prix.

The defending champion matched George Russell’s qualifying time on Saturday and then minimised the mistakes on Sunday. While he lost out to the Safety Car in Miami, in Canada he was the beneficiary as it was rival Lando Norris who lost a chunk of time and the lead.

READ MORE: Verstappen hails team for staying calm in ‘crazy race’ as he takes victory in eventful Canadian GP

This was Verstappen’s 60th career victory and 50th in the last 75 races. It was also his third straight win in Canada and with Charles Leclerc not scoring, the Dutchman almost doubled his lead in the drivers’ standings to 56 points.

Verstappen celebrated getting back to winning ways in Montreal

Just days after he signed a new contract, Sergio Perez suffered a “total disaster” of a qualifying (his words, not mine) to get bumped out in Q1 for the second race weekend in a row.

His afternoon became even tougher when he collided with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly at the start and picked up damage, and he was unable to make any progress.

READ MORE: Perez hit with three-place grid penalty for Spanish GP after infringement in Canada

His afternoon got even worse when he made a mistake and spun, damaging his rear wing and forcing retirement. And then to add insult to injury, he was handed a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Spain after he was judged to have driven back to the pits with a “significantly damaged car”.

A messy race resulted in a DNF for Perez

It was a bittersweet weekend for Lando Norris, the McLaren driver first missing out on pole position by just 0.021s to start third - giving the team their best start in Canada since 2012.

The 24-year-old then delivered a sublime performance on the intermediate tyre, lapping up to two seconds quicker than the pack to take P1 and build a sizeable lead, only to see that eradicated by the arrival of the Safety Car.

READ MORE: Norris ‘won’t complain’ about Safety Car as he takes positives from ‘amazing pace’ en route to P2 in Canada

Norris fought back brilliantly to take second – making it the fourth time in five races he has finished 1-2 (in both configurations) with Verstappen. He is also now the only driver in the field to have scored in every Grand Prix so far this season.

The loser column in this feature is unfamiliar territory for Yuki Tsunoda in 2024, the Japanese driver having arrived in Canada off the back of four points finishes in five races.

Norris grabbed another podium in Canada

And ahead of qualifying – where he would go on to secure his first appearance in Q3 in Montreal – it was announced RB had rewarded his immense form by taking up their option to run him for the 2025 season.

He ran long on the intermediates – which gained him three places – but a mistake late on pitched him into a spin and out of the points.

George Russell was incredibly hard on himself in the immediate aftermath after finishing third in Canada – having started on pole for only the second time in his career.

However, once the dust had settled, the Briton can look back with great pride at a weekend that yielded his and Mercedes’ first podium finish of the season.

READ MORE: Russell rues ‘missed opportunity’ in Canada but hails Mercedes' first podium of the season after P3 result

The Briton continued to outperform his more decorated team mate Lewis Hamilton and managed to get more out of a much improved Mercedes package that has given the team confidence they are on the right path to consistently make it a four-way fight at the sharp end in upcoming races.

2024 Canadian Grand Prix: Russell takes back P3 from Hamilton to seal podium finish

Things were looking so encouraging for Williams after qualifying, Alex Albon having made it into Q3 for the second race on the bounce and Logan Sargeant achieving his best grid spot of the season with 13th.

But both were in the wars on Sunday, with Sargeant first dropping to the back of the field when he slid off track and then bringing out the Safety Car when he lost the rear in tricky conditions and crashed.

Albon was very much in the mix to score points when he was unluckily collected by Carlos Sainz’s spinning Ferrari, pitching him into the wall and out of the race.

FACTS AND STATS: Verstappen secures Montreal hat-trick as Stroll surpasses Villeneuve’s home record

This was a much brighter weekend for Aston Martin, with the green team outperforming high-flying rivals Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso outqualified team mate Lance Stroll for the first time in four races, while Stroll made it into Q3 for the first time on home soil with his best lap since race three in Australia.

A strong drive yielded sixth for Alonso in Canada

Come race day, both judged the conditions well. Alonso ended a two-race pointless streak with a solid sixth, while Stroll battled up to seventh to score points in Canada for the fifth time in his career.

While Aston Martin shone, Ferrari – winners of the last race in Monaco – faded into the shadows with an uncharacteristically poor weekend when both Leclerc and Sainz struggled for pace.

The duo struggled to get the tyres working in qualifying, triggering exits in Q2 and on race day Leclerc had to manage a power unit issue. Then, following a bold call to move to slicks that proved to be too early – putting him a lap down – he ultimately retired the car.

READ MORE: ‘This one hurts’ – Leclerc pinpoints issue for Ferrari to look into after disastrous double DNF in Canada

Sainz didn’t fair much better, the Spaniard unable to push up into the points, and a spin that led to contact with Albon forced his DNF. It was the first time Ferrari have failed to score with either car since Australia last year.

Neither Sainz nor Leclerc managed to finish the race in Canada

Alpine had one unhappy driver on Sunday evening in Canada, after they instructed Esteban Ocon to cede position to Pierre Gasly to allow the latter to attack Daniel Ricciardo – and then didn’t ask Gasly to give the place back when he couldn’t get passed because it was, in the words of the team, “too risky”.

However, they will look back fondly on a Grand Prix where both cars scored points for the first time this season.

READ MORE: Ocon unhappy with team orders in Canada despite double points finish for Alpine

Gasly’s ninth place was the team’s best result this year, while Ocon recovered eight places to score the final point (following a first Q1 exit since race two in Saudi Arabia).

This was one of Kevin Magnussen’s strongest weekends of the year, the Dane out-qualifying team mate Nico Hulkenberg for only the third time this season and then making up an astonishing 10 places in the opening few laps to run a sensational fourth as he made the most of being the only driver other than Hulkenberg to start on the full wet tyre.

However, a slow stop dropped him further back into the pack than hoped and he was unable to recover back into the top 10.

Magnussen made hay in the opening laps on the full wet tyres, but ultimately fell back outside the points

Hulkenberg also made up 10 places in the opening phase, but even with a clean first stop, the early nature of it – with conditions improving to necessitate an intermediate tyre – meant he too fell out of contention for points, extending the team’s pointless run to four races.

Daniel Ricciardo silenced his critics, including 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve who questioned why the Australian was “still in F1”, with his most complete weekend of the year.

READ MORE: Ricciardo admits relief at ‘needed’ points finish in Canada as he explains jump start drama

He mastered tricky conditions to take fifth – his best qualifying of the year, 10 years to the day he secured his first Grand Prix win at the same venue.

Despite losing a couple of places at the start – and suffering a five-second grid penalty for a jump start, he still finished eighth for his first points score in a Grand Prix in 2024 (his other score came in the Miami Sprint).