Antonelli extends lead with Canadian win

Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) drove another fantastic race at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit to win the Canadian Grand Prix last Sunday.

He was locked in a great tussle with his teammate George Russell until the latter had to retire with engine trouble.

The McLarens weren’t in the race from the start as they wrongfully chose medium tyres instead of slicks during the early, damp weather portion of the race.

Lando Norris (McLaren) made a good start to lead the early laps but was soon overtaken and both McLarens had to go in for tyre changes.

The Ferraris, particularly Lewis Hamilton, did well to finish second and fourth (Charles Leclerc) while the two Red Bull Fords of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar had a very much better race to finish third and fifth respectively.

It was quite a hectic race most of the time for the top five and we again were given a great display of many good overtaking moves.

Franco Colapinto did well in the first of the Alpine Mercs with teammate Pierre Gasly into sixth and eighth places while Liam Lawson was seventh in the only Racing Bull in the race (Lindblad in the other Racing Bull did not even start).

Ninth and tenth places were taken by Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman while Oscar Piastri in the sole surviving McLaren finished outside the points in eleventh place.

The race was a great disappointment for George Russell when his power supply cut off while leading the race.

He now has a monumental task to catch up to his teammate. He won the Sprint Race and the pair of them were giving us great entertainment until Russell’s demise.

Better luck for the Englishman next time?

The next race is the jewel in the Formula 1 crown in Monaco in two weeks’ time.

It will be really interesting to see whether the new cars can manage any overtaking at the principality.

Of course, qualifying positions as usual will be paramount for a good race result.

I am beginning to wonder whether the Mercedes claim of a variable compression ratio was a ruse or not?

We have heard no more about it since the season started but the three pointed stars certainly have the legs of the field at the moment.

I also believe that Red Bull have quite a lot more potential to unleash in their cars so we can anticipate more performance to come.

The good news from Aston Martin is that their vibration problem is almost solved. Let us hope that they go from strength to strength soon.

See you soon in Monte Carlo on the June 7.

DRIVERS
1 Kimi Antonelli 131
2 George Russell 88
3 Charles Leclerc 75
4 Lewis Hamilton 72
5 Lando Norris 58
6 Oscar Piastri 48
7 Max Verstappen 43
8 Pierre Gasly 20
9 Oliver Bearman 18
10 Liam Lawson 16

CONSTRUCTORS
1 Mercedes 219
2 Ferrari 147
3 McLaren 106
4 Red Bull 57
5 Alpine 35

HAVE YOUR SAY

Like the South Coast Fever’s Facebook page