Track Torque: Montreal magic for Max

Max Verstappen was in his element all weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, taking pole position in qualifying and winning the race the next day.

But that was not the whole story, as Carlos Sainz put pressure on the Dutchman, especially towards the latter parts of the race.

He was relentless in his pursuit and tried a number of times to get through, with the assistance of his drag reduction system, but Verstappen would not let go of the lead and made it to the flag just fractions of a second ahead of the Spaniard.

Behind Sainz in third position we saw much better performances from both Lewis Hamilton and his teammate George Russell in third and fourth places respectively.

Charles Leclerc drove an excellent race from the back of the grid, due to an engine penalty, to fight up to a final fifth position.

Both the Alpine Renaults did well on the weekend with Esteban Ocon pipping his senior teammate Fernando Alonso, finishing in sixth and eighth places respectively.

The Alpine just need another twenty horsepower to be really competitive with the other top runners, so it was sad to see Alonso fall back from second on the grid to a final eighth position.

Valtteri Bottas tried hard in his Alpha Romeo but could not do better than his seventh spot.

Zhou Guanyu, the other Romeo, hung on grimly to his ninth position, well in the points, which was a good effort.

Lance Stroll brought up the final points position in tenth place. Mick Schumacher drove a much better race this weekend, but both Haas cars just did not have the endurance to finish the race.

In two weeks’ time we will have the Best Of British Grand Prix and I am doing my best to report from track side.

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