General overview
A quieter race than usual on Sunday in Canada, with no particular twists and turns other than the incident between the two McLarens that marked a zero in points scored for Lando Norris, favoring instead his teammate. Against the odds, the McLarens did not dominate much here, benefiting instead the Mercedes, which occupied two of the three podium places and centering pole and victory with Russel. The first podium, in fact, for Antonelli in the third and second steps, was occupied by Verstappen. Anonymous and colorless, the Ferraris arrived at the finish line in fifth and sixth place. As anticipated, the best race pace was recorded by Mercedes, while McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull followed. Improvements are also for Aston Martin in the middle of the group.
The violin plot shows a rather similar performance between Russel, Verstappen and Antonelli, whose graphs are quite similar. Piastri highlights a slightly better pace towards the end of the race, while rather distant are the performances of the two Ferraris, particularly that of Hamilton, who also had problems in the race due to loss of aerodynamic load because of a contact with a groundhog, frequent on the Gilles Villeneuve track being placed in a park.
Race strategy
On the strategy aspect, there was a marked use of the hard tire, the C4, despite a C5, medium tire that did not shine, leading everyone to replace it after a few laps. Everyone, for the most part, pruned for double stops, favoring the hard tire and trying to do as few laps as possible on the medium. Different strategies for Ocon and Sainz, however, on one stop, who also hit the points zone, ninth and tenth at the finish. Slightly different choice for Norris and Leclerc, who tried to do something different by starting on the C4, but still aiming for the double stop with as few laps as possible on the C5.
Focus on drivers’ lap times
For the first time this season, analysis of fuel corrected lap times shows no important advantages for any McLaren driver. In the first stint, the top four were all on a very similar pace and fairly comparable degradation levels. Slightly better was Russel, who, being the leader, was also able to manage. In the second stint, Piastri pitted later while the top three changed tires a few laps earlier, so he was able to make better use of the newer tire at the beginning. Worse pace for Verstappen, who, towards the end of the stint, felt some loss of performance. Also in the last stint, the Dutchman changed tires earlier, but at that point, the pace between the leaders was rather similar, with Piastri being able to mount fresher tires and therefore making himself more dangerous than the leaders, and also being able to fight for the podium. However, there were no clear overtaking opportunities for any of the frontrunners apart from the fight between the two teammates in McLaren, which, however, then resulted in an accident that caused Norris to retire and the entry of the Safety Car, which then froze the positions.
Conclusions
Hard setback in the world championship perspective for Norris, who loses valuable points to his teammate. Now it’s back in two weeks for the Austrian Grand Prix, which has similarities to the one in Canada. Also in Austria, although not at the same level, it will be traction and braking that will count a lot, while the lateral effort is very limited.