Ruthless Verstappen now in total control of title race: 2022 Canadian GP report

There’s an air of invincibility around Max Verstappen at the moment, as he appears to have clicked into a higher gear just when he has needed to.

It’s not that Verstappen was in any sort of trouble, but with Ferrari stumbling he has taken full advantage to assume complete control of his title defence. And in Montreal he delivered a different type of win that could yet prove crucial come the end of the season.

Verstappen arrived with an advantage of 21 points over team-mate Sergio Perez, but more tellingly 34 points over Charles Leclerc, and by the time qualifying came around he knew that Leclerc would be starting from the back of the grid.

With an opportunity to stretch his lead, Verstappen was ruthless.

His pole position was perhaps underrated given the immense advantage he held throughout the wet session, but with Fernando Alonso alongside him the wishful thinking was that the Spaniard could steal the lead on the opening lap and then we might have a race on our hands.

Verstappen was having none of it, getting the best launch of the field and pulling comfortably clear of the Alpine behind.

The closest battle had seen light contact between Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen at Turn 3, with the Dane suffering slight front wing damage. After a radio message from Esteban Ocon about a part potentially falling off, the stewards told Magnussen to pit for a replacement, ruining his race.

“I just had a bit of contact, nothing serious,” Magnussen said. “Scratched my front wing a little bit and then was told to pit.

“I was just talking to Ocon now and he was just joking how he told the FIA that it was really bad. If you know you can influence the FIA like that, you’re going to do it, aren’t you? Which is what he did. Fair play. But you’ve got to let us drive with that s**t, it’s nothing.”

Ahead of Hamilton, it only took until the third lap for Sainz to make his way past the lead Alpine of Alonso and he was within three seconds of the leader, but then Alonso stayed with his countryman and Verstappen eased slightly further clear before taking advantage of a virtual safety car to make a first pit stop on Lap 9.

The cause of the VSC was the sister Red Bull as Sergio Perez retired with a suspected gearbox issue, and Verstappen slotted into third place behind Sainz and Alonso but still within touching distance of the lead.

The space behind Alonso had been vacated by Hamilton who also stopped under VSC, both switching to hard tyres and committing to a two-stop strategy. Hamilton cleared an Alpine more quickly by passing Ocon robustly for fifth, while Verstappen got past Alonso using the powerful DRS on Lap 15 and set off after Sainz.

A similar opportunity for a quick stop opened up for the leading Ferrari when Mick Schumacher retired in the same spot as Perez, but a second VSC was just ending on Lap 20 when Sainz came into the pits, meaning he didn’t get the same benefit as Verstappen and dropped to third, running nearly ten seconds behind Verstappen once he was back in second place a few laps later.

It was hardly a classic but as Sainz chipped away at Verstappen’s lead there was a sense that the Ferrari had real pace. Leclerc had been making steady if unspectacular progress before getting bottled up behind Esteban Ocon fighting for sixth, but Sainz was steadily closing the gap at the front.

Struggling a little with his tyres, Verstappen had made his second stop already – and cleared Hamilton using DRS to run second once again – by the time Yuki Tsunoda dropped it exiting the pits on cold rubber and hit the barrier, bringing out a safety car.

Sainz took the chance to stop along with Ocon, Alonso, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu — all top ten runners — limiting the time loss. While Sainz emerged behind Verstappen, it still wasn’t music to the championship leader’s ears as the six-lap tyre offset set up a grandstand finale.

“I expected to have a little bit more pace but we seemed to lack a little bit compared to Carlos – that’s the only one I could compare to with the Ferrari – and it was a bit more difficult than I expected,” Verstappen said.

“But we did our strategy and I think for us it worked, that was the right one to do, and I think that second stop of course I had the fresher tires and I was closing in on Carlos but I was not sure if I actually would fully close that gap to the end of the race.

“But then the safety car came out and I was also not happy with that because then I knew that he had fresh tyres behind me, and already with I think a little bit more pace compared to me that it’s difficult to defend.”

But defend he did. For the final 16 laps, the top two pushed hard in the fight for the win, with Sainz able to stay within DRS range throughout and regularly close on Verstappen but struggle to actually launch a move.

“It was super-close all the time,” Verstappen said. “He was constantly in my DRS, I think not once he dropped out of it so the pressure is always on.