The career of Canadian GP It was a real roller coaster two safety carsmoments of rain and a battle that would be won by the one who failed the least.
Max Verstappen took first when Lando Norris stayed out a lap longer than him during the Safety Car caused by Logan Sargeant’s accident, and then resisted the attempt to undercut of McLaren to, on a day where it seemed vulnerable, achieve its 60th victory in the top category.
Norris, who had overtaken Verstappen and Russell before stopping, had to settle for a second place that may not be enough. The Englishman seemed the fastest of the day, and became the leader, but he saw victory slip away due to a strategic error.
During the second Safety Car, Mercedes tried to get George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in so they would have new tires for the restart. Both were able to pass Oscar Piastri, fifth, and fought for the podium, which ended up taking Russell who had made a mistake in the first part of the race (both Norris and Verstappen overtook him) and also failed in his first attempt to overcome to Piastri. However, he will be investigated for a possible touch with the Australian.
Fernando Alonso saved the honor of the Spanish-speaking pilots. He overtook Daniel Ricciardo at the start, then passed Lewis Hamilton during the slow pitstop, but in the end he had no pace to fight with the Englishman and finished sixth. For their part, Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz retired, losing control of the car in the same turn 6 of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit almost on the same lap.
It was the worst possible Sunday for Ferrari. Verstappen’s biggest rival in the championship, Charles Leclerc, experienced an ordeal. After the first stop, he had engine problems, and then the Scuderia resorted to an inexplicable strategy of putting hard tires on him while the rest were on intermediates. He was lapped and, now without options and still with concern in the power unit, he abandoned on lap 42.
Lance Stroll finished seventh, scoring more points for Aston Martin Racing, with Daniel Ricciardo, penalized for jump start, eighth. Alpine closed the top 10, with Pierre Gasly ninth and Esteban Ocon tenth and close to him, but without drama this time.
F1 2024 Canadian GP Race Results
F1 2024 Canadian GP Race Summary
The Haas star at the start of the Canadian GP
The race started with the track very wet, and it just started to rain in some parts of the circuit at the time of starting. The start was stopped, and there was a lot of caution, which allowed Russell to maintain the lead ahead of Verstappen. Behind, Gasly and Pérez touched each other, but there was no penalty for either of them. Alonso did pass Ricciardo in the first corners, and the two Haas, the only drivers with extreme rain tires, made a lot of progress: Magnussen reached the first crossing of the finish line in 8th (started 14th) and Hulkenberg 13th (started 17th).
Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24
Magnussen continued to gain positions, and passed Hamilton to be sixth, before accounting for Alonso before the start of lap 3, when Hulkenberg was also in the points zone. In the next lap, Magnussen overtook Piastri on lap 4, but that was where his adventure ended, and little by little he began to not be as fast. It was not raining and Hulkenberg, eighth, threatened but could not pass Hamilton.
Alonso went off the track and Hamilton followed him, but the Briton also went off in the first corner and had to return to position. Magnussen entered the pits at the end of lap 7 to ride intermediates and returned to the track 12th, with a very bad stop.
Defending himself from Hamilton, Alonso suffered two injuries from the car but managed to avoid the crash. Ahead, Verstappen began to be faster than Russell and gradually got closer, and on lap 11 he was already within reach of DRS.
Race management announced an investigation into Ricciardo for a possible false start, and Hulkenberg, even with extreme rain tires and without stopping, generated a small train of cars that could not pass him despite going faster. At the same time that they announced a 5-second penalty for Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, who was already seeing how they overtook him, finally stopped, falling to 19th place.
Norris flies to the lead, the podium changes completely
Russell blocked Verstappen. The track was increasingly dry, but since rain was expected, no one dared to enter. The Dutchman went off in turn 1, and Norris, with a fast lap, got very close. On lap 19, the Briton was about to attack him, but he did not want to leave the dry lane. However, Verstappen left enough space on lap 21 and Norris did not hesitate to overtake him, to begin the hunt for Russell.
Norris quickly passed Russell, and then Verstappen also did so, taking advantage of the fact that Russell missed the last corner, so the Mercedes driver went from first to third. The silver car was suffering, and Piastri came very close behind.
Sargeant and Safety Car crash alters Canadian race
On lap 25, Logan Sargeant crashed, bringing out double yellow flags, before the Safety Car neutralized the test. As there was very little time left for the rain to arrive, everyone hesitated about whether to enter and what tire to put on. Verstappen, Russell and Piastri stopped to put in intermediates, as did Alonso and Hamilton.
With a slow stop from Aston, Hamilton overtook Alonso during the pit stop. Norris entered the next lap, losing place to Verstappen, who became the new leader, and to Russell. A double pitstop by Ferrari had lost time for Sainz, who dropped to 14th place, but gained a place when Leclerc returned to the pitlane with an apparent engine problem and put on hard tyres.
The race resumes after Safety Car and Ferrari sinks
On lap 29, the test was relaunched and Verstappen maintained the lead. Leclerc, with hard driving, lost a lot of time, while Ferrari told him on the radio to stay on the track, that it would rain but would quickly dry out. Albon, from behind, gained two positions with a brave overtake. Being terribly slow, Leclerc had to stop again for intermediates on lap 32.
To make matters worse, Sainz touched Bottas at the hairpin from behind and damaged the endplate of his wing. On lap 36, Verstappen overtook his closest rival in the championship, Charles Leclerc who was far from even the penultimate. The rain did not stop coming, and the cars began to dry out the track, and the time began to come to change to hard.
Pierre Gasly was the first ‘brave’, on lap 41, riding hard, and Magnussen emulated him. Norris went off track trying to pass Russell, and had to stay behind, an incident that was noted. On lap 43, with nothing to gain, Charles Leclerc returned to the pitlane to retire.
Stops arrive to fit dry tires
Hamilton took a chance entering on lap 44, being the first of the top 10 to do so. Ferrari did the same with Sainz, and Red Bull with Pérez. On lap 45, Piastri, Alonso, Tsunoda and more drivers entered, and on the next lap Verstappen did, as did Russell. Norris took a chance to regain first place by staying on the track, and on the next lap he made the fastest lap. At the end of lap 47, Norris entered and left ahead of Russell but in parallel with Verstappen who took the opportunity to overtake him as he left Turn 2 with more speed.
One lap later, Norris made a mistake braking at Turn 10 and, with a fast lap, Russell overtook him. However, the Mercedes driver also failed in the next turn and Norris returned it to him.
Pérez and Sainz accidents, and Safety Car
On lap 52, Checo Pérez spun while braking in turn 6 after hitting the wet part. He ended up hitting the rear of his car against the wall, breaking the spoiler. In that same corner, Sainz also spun, and when crossing the track he took Albon ahead. Both ended up out: the Ferrari after reaching the pit, and the Williams stopped at turn 7, causing the Safety Car to exit. Pérez also abandoned in the pitlane, after receiving a warning for driving with an ‘unsafe car’.
Russell and Hamilton took the opportunity to enter, attacking later with fresher tires, and Piastri rose to third place.
Last part of the race, fierce fight for the podium
The race was restarted on lap 59 of 70, and Verstappen kept the lead, while the McLarens tried to chase him and Russell tried to surprise the papaya cars. On lap 62, Russell attacked Piastri, but the Australian also had DRS as he led Norris and resisted. On the next lap, Russell attacked again, and they were about to touch. He had to jump the curve to avoid the crash, and Hamilton overtook him.
Then Hamilton would have no problem accounting for Piastri, and neither did Russell finally finish fourth. From behind, Tsunoda went off the track and was about to be hit by Magnussen. Up front, Russell attacked and overtook Hamilton.
