The Canadian Grand Prix 2023 was the 8th round of the 2023 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada, during the weekend of the 16th to the 18th of June.
Max Verstappen won the race from the pole, followed by Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 33 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-12: 13 stops
- Laps 31-42: 15 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 23.218 seconds during his pit stop on lap 68, while the slowest one was was George Russell's, who stopped the clock at 1 minutes, 28.943 seconds, 1 minutes, 5.725 seconds slower than Pérez, during his pit stop on lap 12.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 2 stops. Only George Russell, Alexander Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc decided to try something different with a 1 stop strategy.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
15George Russell
-
2Alexander Albon
-
4Valtteri Bottas
-
6Carlos Sainz
-
6Charles Leclerc
2 stops
-
5Yuki Tsunoda
-
3Pierre Gasly
-
10Nico Hülkenberg
-
7Lance Stroll
-
1Nyck de Vries
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
-Fernando Alonso
-
-Max Verstappen
-
2Esteban Ocon
-
6Lando Norris
-
4Guanyu Zhou
-
3Oscar Piastri
-
4Kevin Magnussen
-
6Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 4.5 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.07 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option, even if Max Verstappen managed to win the race making 2 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 2 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, George Russell, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 53, and Logan Sargeant, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 6.
Brakes
-
George RussellLap 53
Engine
-
Logan SargeantLap 6
Qualifying
Max Verstappen managed to get the pole position by 1.244 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:25.858. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Nico Hülkenberg.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. However, the conditions of the track worsened from Q2 to Q3, and none of the drivers were able to improve their Q2 times.