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Jake Boxall-Legge

F1 Canadian GP: Verstappen gives Red Bull 100th victory

The championship leader was unstoppable in his bid to secure Red Bull's landmark victory, as the Anglo-Austrian outfit becomes the fifth team in F1 to score 100 victories.

He beat Alonso with a winning margin of 9.5s, as the Spanish driver overcame a fast-starting Lewis Hamilton to secure the runner-up spot in the race.

Verstappen was able to lead away from the start line, as a lightning start from Hamilton carried the Mercedes driver above Alonso for the opening array of laps.

The early battle among the front-running trio was joined by George Russell, but the Briton hit the Turn 9 exit wall on lap 12 and knocked his right-rear tyre off the rim. The debris clean-up required a full safety car, and Russell was able to rejoin the back of the field having limped back to the pits.

This did not deter Verstappen, who rocketed off into the lead on the lap 17 restart and soon began to put enough distance between himself and Hamilton, despite complaining that he was less comfortable with the hard tyre compared to the medium he had kicked off the race with.

The bulk of the field had pitted under the safety car and Alonso's pace on the hard tyre appeared to be stronger than that of Hamilton, allowing him to close in on Hamilton.

On the 22nd lap, Alonso mounted his charge having got within DRS range, and blasted past Hamilton ahead of the final corner to reclaim second place.

Alonso subsequently had to maintain enough pace to ward off Hamilton on a softer set of tyre, while also trying to lift and coast to manage his brake temperatures.

This allowed Verstappen to start creaking open the gap to his fellow two-time champion, taking it to over six seconds with 20 laps remaining in the race.

The gap expanded to eight seconds as Alonso's braking issues came to light over Hamilton's radio, and the seven-time champion began to home in on his former team-mate, but Alonso started to pick up the pace to extend his lead over the Mercedes.

Although there was a brief chance that Alonso could start catching Verstappen over the final 10 laps of the race, with the gap coming down to 7.7s, the Dutchman shrugged off a small mistake and started opening the gap even more.

Alonso had to maintain enough pace to ward off Hamilton, who had moved onto a softer compound of tyre amid the second round of stops. The seven-time champion began to home in on his former team-mate, taking the buffer down to 1.4s, but Alonso started to pick up the pace to extend his lead over the Mercedes.

Hamilton completed the podium, 4.5s down on Alonso, to claim Mercedes' sole batch of points as Russell eventually retired from the after-effects of his early wall-bang.

The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz claimed fourth and fifth as the team executed a strong one-stop strategy, having stretched out the medium-tyre stint at the start and resisting the temptation to pit under the safety car to ensure the cars had track position.

The two switched to hard tyres at around half-distance, and the drivers tacitly agreed not to fight between themselves to get points on the board.

Sergio Perez recovered to sixth with his own long opening stint on hards, only making it a two-stop to fit soft tyres close to the end and snatch the fastest lap point - which he duly did so.

Williams' Alex Albon produced a measured defensive drive on a one-stop strategy to claim seventh place, holding firm from Russell and then Esteban Ocon when the Mercedes team retired the #63 car.

Ocon could not make inroads into Albon with DRS, while a wobbling rear wing threatened to derail any progress towards the end and thankfully remained intact.

The Frenchman came under attack from Lando Norris towards the end, who copped a five-second penalty for slowing down too much under the safety car to try and make room for a McLaren double-stack in the pitlane.

This dumped the Briton out of the points, with Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas completing the top 10.

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Gap
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Red Bull  
2 Spain Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Mercedes 9.570
3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 14.168
4 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari Ferrari 18.648
5 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari Ferrari 21.540
6 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull Red Bull 51.028
7 Thailand Alex Albon Williams Mercedes 1'00.813
8 France Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 1'01.692
9 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes 1'04.402
10 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1'04.432
11 Australia Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes 1'05.101
12 France Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 1'05.249
13 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 1'08.363
14 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Red Bull 1'13.423
15 Germany Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari  
16 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo Ferrari  
17 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari  
18 Netherlands Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri Red Bull  
  United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes Mercedes  
  United States Logan Sargeant Williams Mercedes  
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