Max drops out in Montreal: “It sucks enormously"
Published on 11 June 2017 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen dropped out with mechanical issues during the Canadian Grand Prix. On Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Mercedes driving Lewis Hamilton took the pole home ahead of his team mate Valtteri Bottas. Daniel Ricciardo came in third in his Red Bull.
“Absolutely rubbish, yeah really. Suddenly I lost all power. I wanted to accelerate again and then everything went dark: the dash and I couldn’t even communicate anymore, absolutely nothing”, says a heavily disappointed Max. “It’s a major bummer, especially when you’re second. The start was super, I didn’t have any wheel spin and I think it was the best start they ever had at Red Bull. I didn’t notice anything of me touching Vettel, but well, things like that can happen. Ultimately you still end up with nothing, so it sucks.”
Max concludes: “You know that the car is not good enough for the second spot, but I could have kept my position, because you see how difficult it is to overtake here. I pulled away from Bottas, so you couldn’t even call that a fight. I could have ended up on the podium.”
Before the start it is clear that only Kevin Magnussen and Pascal Wehrlein will start on the super soft tyres. The rest of the field is on the ultra-soft compound.
When the lights go out, Max has a super start and manages to get behind of the leader Lewis Hamilton in second. After a few turns, Carlos Sainz loses control of his Toro Rosso and plows into Felipe Massa, triggering a safety car situation.
At the restart, Max immediately gives Hamilton a run for his money, but Bottas is close on his tail. No one loses their position. In the heat of the moment during the start of the race, Sebastian Vettel damages his front wing and heads in for a new nose. Vettel is on the super softs after his pit stop and reports on the radio that he has lost another part of his front wing again.
After ten laps, the top consists of: Hamilton, Max, Bottas, Ricciardo and Perez. One lap later, we witness how Max drops out with technical issues. Frustrated the youngster parks his Red Bull Racing RB13 track side. Once again, due to matters beyond his control, his race ends. This brings out the virtual safety car. It is a major setback for the Dutchman, who sees a podium finish go up in flames.
After the first series of pit stops, Hamilton is in the lead, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Bottas. However, Hamilton and Ocon haven’t stopped yet. Daniel Ricciardo is fourth and has Sergio Perez breathing down his neck. Bottas fails to get pass Ocon. The Frenchman effortlessly maintains his position and involuntarily does Hamilton a favour.
When Hamilton pits on lap 32, his only one, he retains the lead and rejoins on the super softs. Ocon follows him moments later and the young Frenchman also re-emerges on track with the super soft tyres on his car, he is then sixth. Fernando Alonso is eighth in his McLaren, but has not pitted yet. A stop would probably drop him out of the top ten.
Ocon closes the gap to Raikkonen, while it appears that Vettel’s floor has been damaged. Ricciardo, Perez, Raikkonen and Ocon are all within four seconds of each other and are fighting for the third spot behind the Mercedes who are heading for a one-two finish.
On lap 42, Raikkonen heads back in and re-emerges behind team mate Vettel in P7. Alonso also does his only stop and drops out of the top ten. Lance Stroll is fighting with Stoffel Vandoorne for 12th and the Belgian is defending with everything he has. Stroll needs to lift on the straight in order to prevent a crash. The fight for P3 is still not over yet as Ricciardo is under pressure from both Force India’s.
On lap 50, Vettel pits again. Both Ferrari’s are now hunting down both Force India drivers. Due to a bad pit stop from Kvyat, Alonso makes it back again in the top ten. The Russian fails to leave the pits which means the end of his race.
Perez is told to let Ocon pass, so that the Frenchman can give it a go in trying to overtake Ricciardo. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll switch back.” The Mexican fails to comply. “Give me a chance to fight with Daniel. We are getting into traffic, there will be an opportunity”, Perez responds.
In the meanwhile, both Ferrari’s are gaining on the Force India’s. Vettel passes his team mate Raikkonen due to a mistake the Finn makes. The fight for P3 is nail biting exciting with four cars within two seconds of each other.
The Force India’s are getting in each other’s way. Ocon attacks, Perez repels and it is Vettel who benefits. The German is now in a Force India sandwich. Moments later, Alonso drops out with an engine failure and loses his world championship point.
On the penultimate lap Vettel snatches P4 from Perez. Hamilton wins from start to finish, ahead of Bottas and Ricciardo. Stroll is in the points for the first time as he comes in ninth.
Canadian Grand Prix - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Sunday 11 June
RACE RESULTS 01 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 70 1:33:05.154 02 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 70 +19.783s 03 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 70 +35.297s 04 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 70 +35.907s 05 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 70 +40.476s 06 31 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 70 +40.716s 07 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 70 +58.632s 08 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 70 +60.374s 09 18 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 69 +1 lap 10 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 69 +1 lap 11 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 69 +1 lap 12 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 69 +1 lap 13 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 69 +1 lap 14 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 69 +1 lap 15 94 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber Ferrari 68 +2 laps 16 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 66 DNF NC 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 54 DNF NC 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 10 DNF NC 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 0 DNF NC 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 0 DNF
