2024 Canadian Grand Prix Recap: Chaos in Montreal

By: Ana Laura Macchiarella

Welcome to the 9th round of this year’s Formula 1 Championship, the Canadian Grand Prix. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named after the famed Canadian driver, has been on the calendar since 1978. This race is once again a driver’s home race, this time it’s Lance Stroll of Aston Martin. I could go into a whole deep dive on him and the amount of unnecessary hate he gets for coming from money and his dad owning his team, but I will spare you. In some news from the driver’s market, Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez extended their contracts with VCARB and Red Bull respectively, and Esteban Ocon announced his departure from Alpine at the end of the 2024 season.

Now, something that I didn’t mention in my Monaco article that I would like to touch on now, albeit briefly, is the Drivers Press Conference. Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, Checo Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, and Oscar Piastri were present this time around. To start, Lewis Hamilton served all the drivers a glass of Almave, his non-alcoholic agave drink. Then Lance Stroll confirmed that he will remain at Aston Martin for the foreseeable future, Pierre Gasly was asked about his teammate’s impending exit at the end of the year, and Checo Perez talked about his contract extension with Red Bull. Now without further adieu, let’s recap the weekend.

Free Practices

This year’s free practices started with heavy rain and hail. Yes, you read that right, it was hailing in Montreal! As a result, the first two practice sessions saw the cars utilizing the intermediate and wet tyres. This meant that the teams got little to nothing out of these sessions, making practice 3 their only chance to get the data they needed. The only thing that occurred in these first sessions that I feel the need to highlight is that Max Verstappen had some problems with his car, even saying that he could smell smoke. Additionally, due to the wet conditions on track, around turns 8 and 9 a lot of drivers went off the track. Practices 1 and 2 were topped by Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso respectively. Practice 3 was topped by Lewis Hamilton, and it was business as usual with drivers continuing to experience low grip and going off track.

Qualifying

Qualifying was very interesting, as usual. For the second weekend in a row, Sergio Perez was out in Q1, but this makes sense because historically this has been a tricky track for him. Both Williams cars made it to Q2, and Alex Albon was able to reach Q3. Ferrari had a troubling qualifying, with neither car making it out of Q2. Additionally, Daniel Ricciardo made a Q3 and scored an impressive P5. In the end, George Russell made pole position, even though Max Verstappen matched his time down to the millisecond. Post qualifying, some changes were made to the starting grid due to penalties, with both Stake drivers starting from the pit lane due to breaching parc ferme rules. The qualifying order with those changes was as follows:

P1 - George Russell (Mercedes)

P2 - Max Verstappen (RedBull)

P3 - Lando Norris (McLaren)

P4 - Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

P5 - Daniel Ricciardo (VCARB)

P6 - Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

P7 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

P8 - Yuki Tsunoda (VCARB)

P9 - Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

P10 - Alex Albon (Williams)

P11 - Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

P12 - Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

P13 - Logan Sargeant (Williams)

P14 - Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

P15 - Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

P16 - Sergio Perez (RedBull)

P17 - Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

P18 - Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

P19/Pit Lane - Valtteri Bottas (Stake)

P20/Pit Lane - Zhou Guanyu (Stake)

The Grand Prix itself

The Grand Prix kicked off with an absolute masterclass from the Haas drivers on the wets. Kevin Magnussen overtook a whopping 9 cars, only to lose all that progress due to a slow pitstop. Later on, during lap 21, Lando Norris took the lead away from George Russell. Then Logan Sargeant’s spin into the barriers resulted in a safety car a few laps later. Russell, Piatsri, and Verstappen all pitted at the same time, and Norris ended up pitting after them, causing him to lose the lead. Around lap 41, after struggling with engine issues the whole time he was on track, the decision was made to retire Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. Then on lap 52, Checo Perez went too wide on the wet part of the track, spun into the barriers, and sustained damage to his rear wing. Then the second safety car of the race popped up on lap 53, when Sainz spun around in the track and Albon got caught up in the mess. Later, at turn 8, Yuki Tsunoda sent his car flying off the track and into the wall while chasing down an Alpine, costing him a points finish. In the end Verstappen emerged victorious, even though Russell, Norris, Piastri, and Hamilton were fighting in the front for practically the entire race. Of those remaining 4, George and Lando made it to the podium scoring P3 and P2 respectively. The rest of the point scorers are as follows:

P4 - Lewis Hamilton

P5 - Oscar Piastri

P6 - Fernando Alonso

P7 - Lance Stroll

P8 - Daniel Ricciardo

P9 - Pierre Gasly

P10 - Esteban Ocon

Objectively, Ocon should’ve placed higher than his teammate, but due to team orders he had to let Gasly pass. I can only assume this sort of behavior from Alpine will continue as the season progresses now that Ocon is slated to leave the team. Aside from that, I’m happy to see that Lance was able to score points at his home race, and to see that Lando has gotten driver of the day once again. Overall, this has been one of the most exciting races of this season, and I can’t wait to keep watching. There is a high chance I will not be reporting on the Spanish Grand Prix, since I will be busy that weekend. So if I don’t see you then, I’ll see you in Austria!