Nyck de Vries finished eighteenth in the Grand Prix of Montreal on Sunday evening. Max Verstappen showed that there is currently no size on him. The unapproachable Dutch driver of Red Bull Racing and World Cup leader was extremely dominant on the other side of the world and led from start to finish.
De Vries again did not have a flawless day. The driver, who is still winless this season, wanted to overtake Kevin Magnussen halfway through the race, but this went completely wrong. Russell took advantage and passed both riders.
De Vries then wanted to try again, but he and Magnussen then went off together. The man from Uitwellingerga was clearly to blame for that. They were both able to continue their race, but the chance of a good result was gone. They both couldn’t get rid of the last two spots. De Vries eventually finished eighteenth. That made him the gatekeeper.
Excellent start Verstappen
Verstappen started from pole position and got off to an excellent start. Lewis Hamilton also took off like a comet and immediately took over second place from Fernando Alonso. Verstappen immediately made his intentions clear. After six laps he was already two seconds ahead of his British colleague.
Logan Sargeant was Canada’s first dropout of the day. His race was over after just eight laps, after he was told to stop his car from the wall. The virtual safety that then came onto the track was gone in no time and so racing could resume.
Bird
Meanwhile, Verstappen shouted over the on-board radio that he had hit a bird. However, it did not cause any problems for the Dutchman. That was not the case with George Russell. He banged on the curbs and then hit the wall. A safety car followed, because the Brit had lost a lot of material. So the whole field slid back together and almost everyone from the top went in for fresh tyres. Russell was able to continue after a visit to the pit lane.
Verstappen was excellent at the restart. He was once again well off and had nothing to fear from anyone. Inside no time he had regained a comfortable lead, although he complained about the lack of grip on the hard tyre. Behind the dominant Dutchman, Alonso had passed Hamilton again. The two fought a wonderful battle together. Behind them, the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz drove for Sergio Perez.
Verstappen dominant
On lap 43, Verstappen decided to swap his hard tires for the medium tire again. Because Alonso and Hamilton had come in for fresh rubber just ahead of him, he was able to make a free pit stop: from the lead to the lead. He was nowhere to be seen for his competitors for the rest of the race. It was his team’s 100th win.
The fight behind that was a lot more exciting. Hamilton drove closer and closer to Alonso, but eventually couldn’t get past it. With third place he did keep the honor for Mercedes high, because Russell eventually had to stop the race with brake problems.