Canadian GP: Max Verstappen soaks up late Carlos Sainz pressure to win in Montreal

Max Verstappen dealt with late Carlos Sainz pressure to win the Canadian Grand Prix and further boost his title defence chances.

Much had been made of how Verstappen would take care of another Spaniard at the start of the race in the form of Fernando Alonso, but a quick launch from the Dutchman set him up well for the first half of the race.

Indeed, it wasn’t until a Safety Car, called as we entered into the final third of the Grand Prix thanks to a crash from Yuki Tsunoda at turn one as he exited the pitlane, that Verstappen was put under considerable pressure out in front.

The final fifteen or so laps would see the Red Bull man and Carlos Sainz, who had climbed to P2 from third on the grid, battling it out for the race victory, with the Ferrari man on fresher tyres having pitted just as the Safety Car was called.

Indeed, Sainz looked quick and was regularly inside the DRS zone to attack Verstappen but Max placed his car well, and ultimately kept a calm hold of his lead up to the chequered flag.

Behind them, Lewis Hamilton finished in third having seen a much-improved performance from his Mercedes car compared to practice on Friday, where he had called the W13 ‘undriveable.’

George Russell kept up his record of finishing inside the top 5 at every race by coming home in fourth whilst Charles Leclerc was fifth, having eventually worked his way up from P19 via a fair few battles along the way behind the likes of Esteban Ocon.

Ocon, meanwhile was P6 ahead of team-mate Alonso whilst Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou scored double points for Alfa Romeo, ahead of a fine drive from Lance Stroll who took the final points-paying place having driven up from P17 on the grid.

Fortunes, meanwhile, did not favour the Haas pair of Kevin