The Canadian Grand Prix this weekend threw up a few surprises, especially thanks to a rain-soaked qualifying session on Saturday. While the race might not have hit the heights of previous seasons, there was still plenty of intrigue as strategy came into play with a couple of virtual safety cars and a safety car that gave teams a chance to play their hands in the hope of outwitting their rivals.

Here, we have picked 3 winners and 3 losers from this weekend’s Formula One action.

WINNERS

Max Verstappen

A 10/10 weekend for the World Champion saw him dominate from start to finish. He was sublime on Saturday in rainy conditions to place his car on pole position, before not putting a foot wrong on race day, in spite of Ferrari’s every effort to somehow out-manoeuvre Red Bull. In the final third of the race when the safety car had bunched up the pack giving Carlos Sainz the chance to attack him on fresh tyres, Verstappen held him off with disdainful ease. The fact that such imperious performances from Max do not surprise us anymore only serves to highlight what an elite racer we are watching.

Mercedes

There was a familiarity to Mercedes and Hamilton’s downbeat attitude on Friday practice. However, come the end of qualifying, Hamilton was thrilled to find himself on P4, and only a risky, but potentially rewarding gamble by George Russell stopped him from getting close to his illustrious teammate on the grid leaving him sitting on P8.

Things looked even more promising on Sunday, as Hamilton and Russel displayed strong race pace- Russell making some fine overtakes in the early part of the race giving him a platform to continue his consistent top-five run, and Hamilton even setting a few fastest laps in the middle of the race and displaying verve as he made his way back onto the podium for the first time since the inaugural race of the season. 

Also read: What a P3 at Canadian GP means for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes

Alpine 

It would have been a joy for racing fans to see Fernando Alonso masterfully drag his Alpine onto the first row of the grid- his first front-row start in the hybrid era. And while he couldn’t follow it up with some heroics at the sharp end on Sunday, even being given a five-second penalty for weaving on the straights, the team nevertheless strengthened their grip in the midfield battle with a strong double-points finish taking P6 and P9, and Esteban Ocon even managed to outperform Alonso with some fine racing and strategy. 

Also read: What is porpoising, the aerodynamic issue plaguing Formula1 drivers?

LOSERS

Sergio Perez

It is safe to say that Perez endured a woeful weekend. After some stellar recent performances, whispers were getting louder that the Mexican might be well placed to challenge his teammate for the World Championship battle. 

However, his performance would have gone some way toward quelling these notions. Checo is a fine and seasoned formula 1 racer, but it is weekends like these that truly make or break a championship tilt- and he ended up losing out first with a poor qualifying session on Saturday before mechanical issues forced him to bow out early on Sunday.

McLaren

It was a weekend to forget for those in the papaya orange colours of McLaren. They seemed alarmingly off the pace to the nearest midfield rivals and team, before the wheels came off, almost quite literally with that ill-executed double-stacked pit stop. 

First Ricciardo suffered an unnecessarily long pitstop, which meant that teammate Lando Norris had to waste precious seconds behind him, before things got even worse for Norris as the visibly floundering pit crew put the wrong tyres on his car that led to even more wastage of time. P11 and P15 then, rounding off a dreadful weekend.

Mick Schumacher and Haas

It appears that the racing gods have an axe to grind with Mick Schumacher. The youngster has been under tremendous pressure after a woeful start to his sophomore season, with Haas even giving him an ultimatum demanding better results. His performance this weekend seemed to reflect that – he did a brilliant job qualifying P6 on his Haas, and looked on course to end his F1 points drought. Alas, everything was undone through no fault of his own when his car gave up on him with a technical failure. He might have easily ended up on the winner’s list. But that’ll now have to wait at least another fortnight.

Likewise, Magnussen who had a brilliant start to the race was dealt a rough hand when his car suffered damage during his tussle with Hamilton. That brought out the black and orange flags which meant that he was forced to pit for repairs. He ended up coming last- some eight seconds off the pace from his nearest rival.

Also read: Formula 1: Why Sebastian Vettel was booed at Canadian Grand Prix