Red Bull have finished atop the podium for the one-hundredth time courtesy of a Max Verstappen masterclass at the Canadian Grand Prix this morning.
The championship leader was a force off pole position, coming home 8 seconds ahead of a fast finishing Fernando Alonso, who left seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton to finish third.
The three were quick to break away from the pack off the start, with George Russell joining until he made contact with the wall on Lap 12, damaging his right-rear. A Safety Car was required to clean the debris, with the Brit rejoining at the back of the field after limping to the lane.
Verstappen would pull clear off the Lap 17 restart, leaving Alonso and Hamilton to battle it out for second spot. The two-time world champion would eventually upstage the seven-time champion on the final turn of Lap 22.
Brake temperature became an issue for the Spaniard, however, which saw the gap between second and third fluctuate as the race progressed. A second round of stops brought the two close again, with Alonso able to pull away to take second over his rival by 4.5 seconds.
Ferrari ran a tidy one-stop strategy for Charles Leclerc to finish fourth and Carlos Sainz to finish fifth on hard tyres, coming home ahead of Sergio Perez who boxed late for softs in a bid for the fastest lap point, which he managed to claim.
Alex Albon delivered his best result of the season in seventh, also using a one-stop strategy and keeping Russell at bay for an extended period. Russell would eventually retire due to his damage, but Esteban Ocon filled the gap to ensure Albon had to work for his spoils.
Ocon did manage eighth following a late duel with Lando Norris, who was subsequently relegated from the top 10 after receiving a five-second penalty post-race for slowing too much under the Safety Car to build a gap for a double stack at McLaren.
This saw Lance Stroll promoted to ninth, and Valtteri Bottas claiming the last point in tenth.
Oscar Piastri was the unlucky 11th, one spot ahead of Pierre Gasly, with Norris classified 13th.
Nyck De Vries was the last of the classified runners having run Kevin Magnussen off-track following a lockup late on, finishing 18th with Russell and Logan Sargeant as non-finishers.
Verstappen now leads Perez in the Drivers Championship by 69 points, with Alonso a further nine behind in third.
Mercedes retain second in the Constructors Championship from Hamilton’s result, with Aston Martin now only 13 points behind. Ferrari have also closed the gap and are 45 points off Mercedes.
Formula 1 returns on June 30-July 2 with the Austrian Grand Prix.
Header Image: Getty Images
