Max Verstappen scored the 41st grand prix victory of his career by taking the chequered flag in Canada to equal the haul of legendary three-time F1 champion Ayrton Senna and score Red Bull’s 100th race win to boot.
In leading a third successive race from start to finish, Verstappen has now led the last 224 laps since overtaking team-mate Sergio Perez on lap 48 of the Miami Grand Prix.
The reigning two-time champion has now won the last four races to open up a 69-point cushion over Perez who could only manage sixth, albeit rising six places from his grid slot from another poor qualifying.
Verstappen finished 9.570secs ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, with Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes third, a further 4.598s adrift, as the top three on the grid duly finished that way by the chequered flag.
The only positive note from this latest Verstappen triumph, and Red Bull’s 17th from the last 18 races, is the fact the gap to those behind was not as big a chasm compared to the previous two races.
The upgrades on the Aston Martin for this race, and those on the Mercedes delivered ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, appear to have at least edged those two teams closer to Red Bull on race pace.
Following a miserable qualifying for Ferrari, from 10th and 11th on the grid, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz managed to rise to fourth and fifth, aided in part by Mercedes’ George Russell hitting a wall on lap 12 and damaging his W14 that eventually led to his retirement 15 laps from the finish.
Behind Perez, who claimed the point for fastest lap on the final tour, Alex Albon scored a superb seventh for his best result since joining Williams last season, holding off Esteban Ocon in his Alpine, despite the A523 running with a very wobbly rear wing over the closing stages.
Lando Norris crossed the line ninth, but with a five-second penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct as he backed up the field at one stage in order for McLaren to conduct a double pit stop, the Briton fell to 13th.
That allowed Lance Stroll to take two points in his Aston Martin with ninth, whilst Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas netted the final point with 10th. Oscar Piastri was 11th in his McLaren.
How the race unfolded
From the 25th pole position of his F1 career, and third in succession, Verstappen was comfortably away.
Behind him from second on the grid, Alonso struggled through the second phase of his launch which allowed Hamilton to settle in behind Verstappen.
Out of Turn 2, Alonso came under attack from Russell but was able to keep the second Mercedes at bay.
Further down the field, Piastri eased by Norris through the second corner to move up to seventh, whilst out of position in 11th and 12th, Sainz and Perez were involved in a superb scrap.
Sainz initially lost the position, managed to reclaim it briefly at one stage before finally surging by Perez down the back straight.
That, however, allowed Kevin Magnussen a double slipstream. With Perez braking hard into the sharp Turn 12 right-hander, the Haas driver was forced to take avoiding action to his left, missing a wall by inches before taking to the run-off area that allowed him to return to the track.
Once the DRS was allowed open, Alonso managed to get within the one-second range required behind Hamilton, although he gave himself a scare on lap five in clipping a wall out of Turn 4.
On lap nine, with Logan Sargeant given a critical message to stop his Williams, the American managed to find an escape road from where the marshals managed to wheel his car away, albeit leading to a short virtual safety car period.
Three laps later, for the 13th time in the last 21 Canadian Grands Prix, the full safety car was deployed after Russell hit the wall hard at Turn 4 with the right rear of his car, sending debris across the track.
As Russell limped his way back to the pits, the leaders took the opportunity to take on fresh tyres. Aston Martin managed to turn around Alonso 0.9s quicker than Hamilton, leading to the seven-time F1 champion cutting in front of the two-time title-holder in the pit lane.
That led to an unsafe release investigation by the stewards, who also looked into a similar incident involving Norris with Albon. Neither Briton, however, was punished.
Mercedes remarkably managed to repair Russell’s W14, albeit with the Briton falling to 19th and last.
Behind the front three of Verstappen, Hamilton and Alonso, the following five of Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, Magnussen and Bottas all remained out on their starting rubber. Perez, Magnussen and Bottas, in particular, had all started on the hard.
Within a few laps after the restart, Piastri dropped two places from 10th to 12th, initially to Norris in the hairpin, and then to Albon after out-braking himself into the final chicane, and being gentlemanly enough to hand the Thai-British driver 11th position.
The positions for Albon and Piastri were soon reversed, however, when the former attempted to pass Magnussen into the final chicane, but he, too, was forced to take to the escape area, which additionally allowed the Australian to reclaim 11th.
Shortly prior to that on the same lap 22, Alonso had surged past Hamilton into Turn 12 to move into second place, three seconds behind Verstappen.
On lap 25, Piastri breezed by Magnussen along the start-finish straight to move back into the points with 10th position.
At the midway point after 35 laps, Verstappen had opened up a 5.312s gap to Alonso, with Hamilton a further 3.758s adrift, followed by Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, Ocon, Bottas, Piastri and Albon.
It was on lap 35 that AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries and Magnussen tangled, with the Dutch driver locking up into Turn 3, forcing both down a narrow escape road. The duo managed to extricate themselves from the situation, albeit dropping to 19th and 18th respectively.
After 37 laps, from sixth position, Perez swapped his hard tyres for the medium compound at his first stop, whilst Piastri stopped for a second time on the same lap, falling to 13th.
Sainz switched from mediums to hards a lap later, followed by Leclerc on the following lap, with the duo managing to retain their fifth and fourth positions respectively, keeping ahead of sixth-placed Perez.
After 40 laps, Hamilton stopped for a second time, followed by Alonso on the following lap, and then Verstappen after 42 laps, with the trio maintaining their three, two, one order.
With the shake-up of stops, the top three were covered by less than 10 seconds at that stage, with Leclerc 2.658s behind Hamilton, followed by Sainz less than two seconds adrift, and Perez a further 3.5s back.
Over the following laps, Alonso and Hamilton traded fastest laps, but were unable to make any inroads on Verstappen who continued to stretch his lead.
Alonso was, however, being told to lift and coast, much to the Spanish driver’s annoyance.
Fifteen laps from home, and despite a brave recovery up to 12th in a damaged car, Russell was told to retire due to brake problems.
For a few laps, it appeared as if Hamilton was closing in on a second successive runner-up spot as he pulled to within 1.5s of Alonso, only for the latter to be given free rein to again unleash his AMR23 and comfortably hold on to second place.
On lap 68, Red Bull called in Perez for a set of soft tyres that allowed him to nick the fastest-lap point off Hamilton.
Despite Norris’ sterling efforts to pass Ocon, who also had Albon directly ahead of him, he was unable to do so, resulting in him falling to 13th due to the penalty.
Results: 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.
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