It seems incredible that one season could generate as many pending accounts as those that Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have yet to resolve. Since they met under the roof of the McLaren workshop in that explosive 2007, the British and the Spanish have never been so on a par as this season, in which Mercedes tries to correct the drift of its W14 and Aston Martin continues to hallucinate with the roundness what’s going on your AMR23. If the story between the two were taken to television, the first episode would recall that 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, in which Hamilton debuted his World Cup triumphs, on a weekend in which he began to give very obvious clues. of what would come in the next 15 years. In that race, the Spaniard, recently crowned with Renault (2005 and 2006), found himself comfortably outclassed by a rookie and that upset him. The rest of the story is known by all, especially by Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen, who thanked the fratricidal pique and took the title, the last one he wears in Maranello today.
This Sunday, on the same stage where the telenovela between Alonso and Hamilton started, the former got rid of a thorn by beating the latter in the brawl that both had through the winding circuit of Gilles Villeneuve. The cameras focused on them, since Max Verstappen shot off again towards his sixth victory of the course and the 41st of his record, a figure that compares him in that parameter to Ayrton Senna, almost nothing. For the rest, Red Bull reaches 100 wins in Formula 1 with its ninth consecutive win, the third best streak in history. If we take into account the packaging of the RB19 and the state of grace of the Dutchman, logic leads us to think that the absolute record of 11, held by McLaren (1988) may well fall this year. Alonso finished second and Hamilton climbed to the third step of the drawer, while Carlos Sainz crossed the finish line in fifth.
Is this the most decorated F1 podium of all-time?!
Seven titles for Lewis Hamilton
Two titles for Fernando Alonso
Two titles for Max Verstappen
23 titles (11 Driver, 12 Constructor) for Adrian NeweyWorld class.#CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/POcsUyXloM
—Formula 1 (@F1) June 18, 2023
Montreal should serve to give the real reading of the leap in quality taken by Mercedes in Barcelona, and to gauge the effect of the improvements applied to the green car. We will have to wait another 15 days (Austria) to finish assessing it well, but what seems evident is that the Aston Martin stumble in Montmeló was something specific. The Silverstone team and its main attraction once again showed their best version to accumulate their sixth podium together, on a Sunday in which Alonso did everything well except the start. At such a crucial moment like that, Hamilton outplayed him with the gas and the clutch and took the lead, even though the Mercedes rider was unable to open the gap necessary to say goodbye to his old friend. Before the first third of the test, Alonso was able to stick to him and overtake him thanks to the power of the mobile rear wing (DRS) of his car. From then on and with almost 50 laps to go, the asphalt became a chessboard from which the team of the green cars emerged victorious. This, despite having to run without the best cards, because Alonso had to face the last batch of laps with a set of hard tires, while Hamilton did it with the medium specification, a tad faster. As if that were not enough, the Aston Martin driver was forced to hold back under braking, presumably to avoid scorching the discs. “After losing position with Hamilton, I couldn’t relax for a single lap,” summed up the two-time world champion, while acknowledging that he was confident he could get a little closer to the leader. “We were hoping to challenge the Red Bulls a bit more; That will be the next step we must take”, continued Alonso, who did not know or did not want to reveal what was the reason that prevented him from completely letting go in the last section of the test: “I think they did not want to tell me what the reason was so I wouldn’t worry.”
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#Alonso #Canadian #settles #accounts #Hamilton #race #dominated #Verstappen