2023-06-18 20:42:15
The Austrian Formula 1 team Red Bull Racing has had 100 victories in the motorsport premier class since Sunday. World champion Max Verstappen made sure of that, winning comfortably from pole position in Montreal. The Dutchman relegated Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin and Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes to the other podium finishes. Only four other teams – Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams – had previously achieved the mark of 100 Grand Prix victories.
Defending champion Verstappen extended his lead in the championship standings to 69 points, as team-mate Sergio Perez mightn’t get past sixth place in dry conditions at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. For Verstappen it was the 41st Grand Prix victory, equalizing the life’s work of three-time world champion Ayrton Senna. This season, the 25-year-old has prevailed for the sixth time in the eighth race. The other two wins are on Perez’s account. In the constructors’ championship, Red Bull has 321 points, exactly as many as the pursuers Mercedes (167) and Aston Martin (154) combined.
“It wasn’t an easy race, the tires didn’t get into their window and we slipped around a bit. But to win today, to win the 100th Grand Prix for the team, is incredible. I never expected myself to be like this would do well,” Verstappen said happily. Alonso, on the other hand, said he was hoping for a little more. “But we lost a place at the start and it was a battle with the Mercedes. Lewis pushed the whole race, I didn’t have a single lap where I might relax.”
Hamilton seemed happier, especially since Mercedes had not calculated so much in advance in Canada. “It’s been a great weekend for us – we’re slowly making progress. The Astons have moved away with their upgrades but we’ll be bringing more soon. We knew this wasn’t going to be our strongest track as we struggle in the slow corners” said the Brit. “We need to give the car more downforce at the rear, but I think we’ll be able to do that at some point.”
Red Bull contested its first season in Formula 1 in 2005, the first victory was achieved by Sebastian Vettel in April 2009 in Shanghai. “It’s a shame that he mightn’t experience it anymore,” said Helmut Marko regarding the Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who died in 2022 and who once bought the Jaguar team and redesigned it according to his ideas. “It was a big risk back then. Our expectations were that we might win a Grand Prix,” explained the former Mateschitz intimate in the ServusTV interview.
At the start, Alonso had lost a position in the first few meters, the Spaniard had to cede second place to Hamilton. The only major disruption to the normal course of events was the safety car on lap 12, which had to be deployed following an accident involving fourth-placed George Russell. The Briton crashed his Mercedes into the wall on the right side, but was able to continue. It was only much later that Russell had to give up the race due to consequential damage. When the safety car was parked once more, Alonso overtook Hamilton on lap 23.
Meanwhile, Verstappen gradually pulled away from Alonso. The positions seemed cemented in place: the Ferrari pairing Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz followed Hamilton in fourth and fifth place, followed by Perez in the second Red Bull in sixth place. The distances between each were quite comfortable. It only got tighter between Alonso and Hamilton for second place, but the Spaniard stayed ahead. In the end, he was 9.5 seconds behind – in Spain Verstappen had taken 24 seconds from second-placed Hamilton. Perez got the extra point for the fastest lap at the very end.
The ninth race of the season takes place in two weeks at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. Another sprint is scheduled for the day before the 36th Austrian Grand Prix in Formula 1 on Sunday, July 2nd. The first was won in Baku Perez at the end of April.
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