Dominant Max Takes Canadian Grand Prix!

Even as other drivers, including his own teammate, saw a see-sawing of fortunes through wet and dry conditions, Max Verstappen was a picture of contrast. He drove his way to a near perfect racing weekend, extending his winning streak to six races after winning the Canadian Grand Prix and taking a commanding lead in the world drivers championship.

Verstappen has not yet cleared the field in terms of pushing his competition to the wayside, on the leaderboard. But after the early setbacks this season that saw the Ferrari take a lead in the constructors championship, and Charles Leclerc announce himself as a serious contender this year, Verstappen is on a hot streak. He is now chasing former Red Bull driver and four time champion Sebastien Vettel's streak of nine consecutive race wins.

While that record is still some distance away, of immediate interest would be the manner in which Verstappen topped the weekend, extending his lead on the points board to now nearly 50 points ahead of his own teammate. Even the tight final fifteen laps of the race after a safety car situation where Ferrari's Carlos Sainz seemed to close the gap to Verstappen seemed not to hurt the Dutchman's reputation at all. Far from it.

The defending champion found Sainz with DRS advantage, such was the proximity between cars one and two when it came to overtaking. But he showed his world class skills and kept Sainz behind him.

It was a frustrating race behind the champion for Sainz, Max's former team mate as Torro Rosso, who needed to finish a race and return to podium prospects after a sketchy season, It was also, a great lesson in skills and temperament, as Verstappen was under pressure but not once looked like he was going to have to give up his top place at any time during those tricky final laps.

That was the story of the weekend as Verstappen seemed to be driving in a league of his own in Montreal through the free practice, qualification and the main race itself. His colleagues on the grid and on the podium bore different faces from previous race weekends. There was some concern how Verstappen would react to having former champion Fernando Alonso in the Alpine starting alongside him and also, Lewis Hamilton on the second row behind Carlos Sainz in third.

While Hamilton felt a spring in his step, Sainz found himself within touching distance of a first ever race win. Alonso, after a good Saturday and Sunday, unfortunately found the wheels on the excitement fall away in the midst of what seemed like a longer stint on his tires than desired and then problems with the car towards the end that saw him fall out of his goals to finish in the top five and not put up a strong enough resistance to Hamilton and Leclerc whom he and the team had identified as potential competition this weekend.

Verstappen not only started out clean but also kept his tires clean, driving at a measured pace, keeping himself ahead and always in sight of the top of the podium. He did so even with a somewhat risky two pit stop strategy that saw him briefly lose his place at the top on a couple of occasions.

From Red Bull's perspective, it was critical that Verstappen not react under any kind of pressure after their reliability concerns returned with Sergio Perez not only finding himself in the barriers during what was a wet Saturday qualifying but also, dropping out of the race early by lap nine, with an engine failure, ending his weekend in a whimper.

It was disappointing for the Mexican driver who has been on a high after Monaco and was within striking distance of the world drivers championship. More importantly he was in close competition with Leclerc fighting for top honours. While it felt strange, the manner in which Perez's race fell away after initially being competitive in Baku, this was a weekend to forget altogether for Perez as Red Bull worries will have returned, with this being the team's fourth DNF this season, which initially nearly put paid to Verstappen's challenge as the defending champion.

Compared to Perez, Leclerc will feel like he walked away with scratches after what has been another tricky weekend for the young Monegasque driver.

After two DNF's (did-not-finish) in Spain and Baku, Charles Leclerc has felt his contest for his first ever world drivers championship extinguish before his eyes like a candle flame in the wind. That said, while the Dutchman's dominance will worry Ferrari, the Monegasque driver will still be happy to have finished amongst the points, finishing in fifth place the way he did after suffering grid penalties for changes of engine components above the allotted number.

It came as no surprise that Ferrari had little choice left but to go for engine component changes for the race weekend in Montreal even if it meant that Leclerc would have to take at a minimum a ten place grid penalty. Leclerc ended up starting the grid on 19 but managed to work his way up to just inside the top ten even as Verstappen kept a tight leash on the race even when he was not leading after his early pit stop.

What would worry Ferrari and Leclerc himself though was the fact that twice in the race, Leclerc found himself getting stuck behind an a relatively inferior car pace-wise and unable to get around, and not finding a solid strategy from a pit wall either, not to mention, a lengthier pit stop which would not have helped, that would give him a quick pit stop and put him in clean air, which might have affected his chances to catch up with the train in the front much earlier and perhaps even challenge the Mercedes who had an unusually good race, one man in particular.

For all of his complaining, Lewis Hamilton was made to look somewhat sheepish after declaring on Friday that this Mercedes car "was the worst" he had ever driven.

While Mercedes walked into some controversial scrutiny from other teams and the FIA over their quick adjustment to the chassis floor between Azerbaijan and Canada to avoid the wrath of penalisation from the FIA over 'porpoising' issues, in the end, they will be grateful to have had both their drivers finishing in the top five in what has been a rather dreary season for the previously dominant world champion and constructors team.

The image of Hamilton clutching his back as he laboured to get out of his seat post the race in Baku was enough to reignite the debate about porpoising this season. Drivers like Verstappen and Leclerc did not fall prey to some of the teams' pressure on the FIA to change rules and regulations in the name of health and safety of the drivers claiming that it was akin to penalising teams that did work and find solutions on their car setups to avoid these issues.

To be fair, Hamilton was not alone, as even Sainz and his own teammate, George Russell, had previously spoken about porpoising having a long term effect on the drivers in terms of physical attrition.

The FIA though was having none of it, asking teams to come up with a solution or raise the floorboards and risk losing downforce to avoid penalties this weekend to reduce porpoising. Mercedes certainly had some makeshift ideas to reduce the porpoising and it seemed they did for Hamilton as well, who for the first time, was speculated to be driving in a car with a set up similar to his much younger team mate and Brit compatriot. It certainly seemed to have given him some traction as the frown was briefly changed in a smile that was more out of relief than anything else.

Canada became only the second race after the inaugural race of the season where Hamilton managed to finish ahead of Russell, such has been the seven time champion's struggles in his bid for a record eighth title. Mercedes have had to eat humble pie until Canada when it came to their boisterous reputation. While Hamilton is still a fair way away from making a campaign, Mercedes may have just seen a sliver of hope when it comes to Hamilton ahead of his home grand prix at Silverstone coming up not far from now. Meanwhile, for Verstappen, it has been business as usual.