With seven laps to go, a final warning rattled through Fernando Alonso’s headphones. He was the hunted now. Hamilton was only 1.9 seconds behind him, Alonso was informed by his race engineer. “I know. Leave it to me,” the Spaniard radioed back nonchalantly. And kept his word. Just like that, the two-time world champion dragged himself across the finish line in front of Hamilton, apparently shaken by problems with the brakes, he still finished second.
And otherwise?
Oh yes! Of course there was also a winner on Sunday in Canada. It was – clattering fanfare – Max Verstappen who triumphed! And this 100th race victory of a Red Bull in Formula 1 might even have deserved a more exciting script than this butter ride by Verstappen on the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve track.
Far superior to Red Bull’s racing car – Verstappen draws level with Ayrton Senna
After all, only Williams (114), Mercedes (125), McLaren (183) and of course Ferrari (242) have achieved 100 race victories. But such a superior racing car as the RB19 of the 2023 season may not even have been subject to Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost or Lewis Hamilton. When Verstappen crossed the finish line on Sunday, his racing team had won all eight World Championship races this year, six of them alone, the two-time world champion from the Netherlands.
“Incredible! I never thought that I would be able to witness such a number,” said Verstappen happily on record when it came to Red Bull’s milestone victory. For him personally, it was the 41st triumph of his career – drawing level with the legendary Ayrton Senna. On such a historic day you can definitely ponder a bit about little things: The race wasn’t as easy to win as it looked, said Verstappen. “It was cold today, we didn’t get the tires straight into the right window.”
His cheerfulness was more revealing shortly before the end of the race when Verstappen slipped over the curbs with his Red Bull and he had to laugh despite the mishap: “Hehehe! Now I almost threw myself out!”
The day before, Nico Hulkenberg had caused a surprise when he qualified for the second most popular parking bay. He had benefited from the fact that the time hunt was interrupted immediately after his fastest lap due to an accident. Because the weather didn’t improve, none of the competitors was able to pass on the soaking wet track. But then the race stewards investigated him and came to the conclusion that he had not complied with the speed limit that applied after his fast lap. So he was penalized from second to fifth – and Alonso inherited his starting place behind Verstappen, followed by the two Silver Arrows.
The lights went out in Montreal and Verstappen immediately pulled away irresistibly. The Spaniard had previously announced full-bodiedly that he wanted to annoy Verstappen a little today, “the gap should no longer be 20, but only two seconds”. Instead, he was then annoyed by Hamilton in the first hundred meters, who passed him after a lightning start. Alonso’s optimism was fueled by anticipation of the impact of an aerodynamic redesign of his Aston Martin. But with every lap, the hope dwindled that this would be enough to put Verstappen on the gas foot.
“I think I hit a bird!”
While King Verstappen rode a race against himself on horseback and rapidly increased the gap to the infantry behind him, Alonso closed ever closer to Hamilton. His horseshoe wear, pardon me, his tire wear is higher than in the second practice session, Verstappen complained on the radio, but the sympathy of his audience was not measurable in view of the series of fastest laps the Dutchman set. The situation was different with Verstappen’s next radio message. “I think I hit a bird!” he shouted at the loneliness he had experienced at the top. Some felt at least with him now – that is, the unknown and also invisible bird.
Exciting duel for second place: Fernando Alonso versus Lewis Hamilton
(Photo: Andy Hone/Imago)
When George Russell then hit the wall with his Mercedes and cracked the wheel suspension, the safety car moved onto the track. Russell dragged himself into the pits with a flat tire, drove on for a while but didn’t see the checkered flag. Verstappen, Hamilton and Alonso took the opportunity for time-saving visits to the supply lane. The Brit was handled much more slowly by his crew than the Spaniard, he was sent back onto the track just before the latter, Alonso had to brake to avoid crashing into the rear.
After the flying restart, Verstappen led ahead of Hamilton and Alonso, behind them were the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz as well as Sergio Pérez in the second Red Bull, all three had not yet been in the pits. And where was Hulkenberg? He was unlucky because he had pitted on the lap in front of the safety car when the race pace was still being driven – that’s why he dropped back to 15th place. And that’s where he finished the race.
In order to annoy Verstappen a bit, Alonso first had to grab Hamilton. After 22 of 70 laps he squeezed past him in the chicane before the home stretch – now he was second again, but he couldn’t even begin to match the pace of the championship leader. “I’m losing grip on my tires,” he continued to complain. Yes, Max, everything is okay, we understand, his command post radioed back laconically. “Just head down and keep going.”
Two pilots slide into the emergency exit – then one parks the other
Kevin Magnussen and Nick De Vries temporarily caused the greatest spectacle with their duel for twelfth place. They raked each other through several curves before they both braked at the same time, slid into the emergency exit and stopped. To make sure he wouldn’t reverse onto the track ahead of him, Magnussen parked his rival, so to speak.
When it finally dawned on him that he would not be able to annoy Verstappen, Alonso at least made sure that Hamilton could not tease him. Since the Dutchman was already chugging slowly towards the finish line at that moment, the two remaining rivals took turns driving the fastest race laps – and in the end the two-time world champion saved himself from the seven-time world champion.