Max Verstappen maintained his hold on the Formula One championship fight by holding off a late challenge from Carlos Sainz Jr. to earn his sixth win of the season in an easy Sunday drive in the Canadian Grand Prix.
Verstappen won from the pole at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to extend his lead in the standings to 46 points over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who retired early with a gearbox issue
“It’s still a very long way to go and I know the gap of course is quite big, but I also know that can switch around very quickly,” the Dutchman said of his points lead. He noted he trailed Charles Leclerc by 46 points following the third race of the season.
Canada’s Lance Stroll was 10th, while Toronto native Nicholas Latifi, who has admitted his seat at Williams is not secure, was 16th in his first career home grand prix.
“It’s great to finally have my first home race and the support I felt from my family, friends and all the fans in the grandstands was amazing,” said Latifi. “In terms of on track, we were lacking a lot of pace and we need to try to understand why. Regardless of the result, this weekend has been one to remember.”
Verstappen had no trouble clearing Fernando Alonso, who earned his first front-row start in a decade then joked he’d attack Verstappen in the first turn to steal the victory.
But there was no challenge and by the time Sainz cleared Alonso for second on Lap 2, Verstappen had already built a lead of 2.4 seconds in his Red Bull. Sainz was able to close the gap over the final 10 laps and pressured the reigning F1 champion but faded on the last lap and finished .993 seconds behind in his Ferrari.
“It was good racing, it is always more enjoyable to be able to really push rather than just save your tires,” said Verstappen, who added Sainz didn’t have “a go in terms overtaking, but it was super close.”
Sainz said second was the best he could get on Sunday.
“When I gave it all, I was risking everything,” Sainz said. “I can tell you I was pushing. I left everything out there. For the first time this season I can say I was fastest man on track, which gives me confidence and some hope for the next races.”
Rousing ovation for Hamilton
Mercedes had a tremendous rebound from its season-long struggles, which included a terrible Friday practice, as seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton scored his first podium since the season-opening race in March. George Russell was fourth as Hamilton beat his new teammate for just the second time in nine races this season.
“It feels great to be amongst the battle and at the end there I was keeping up with these guys, but it does give me and the team a lot of hope,” Hamilton said. “The potential is truly there if we can get the setup right and I think that’s been the most difficult thing this year.”
WATCH | Lafiti looks forward to his 1st Candian Grand Prix:
Montreal-born Nicholas Latifi looks forward to competing in his first Canadian Grand Prix
4 days ago
Duration 2:49
Williams driver Nicholas Latifi will finally compete in Montreal as the Grand Prix makes its triumphant return after the pandemic forced cancellation of the race in both 2020 and 2021.
Hamilton received a rousing ovation after his finish and said he had no problems with his back, which has been plaguing him all season because of how the new Mercedes bounces all over the track.
“It’s good, I’m back to being young,” said the 37-year-old. But he added “we still had bouncing, but it’s night and day the difference.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted after the race the team had raised the ride height on its cars to make them more drivable and eliminate the “porpoising” effect that has bogged down Hamilton and Russell all season. The bouncing has caused back pain and headaches for its drivers.
“The [wind] tunnel has told us that the lower the car, the faster you go, the more ground effect it will have,” Wolff said. “But in effect, you can’t drive the car there, so you need to lift it, and lift it, and lift it, and then on paper you are losing half a second or so in downforce.
“We raised it already [Saturday] but the more you raise, the more performance you lose. So, it’s always a compromise.”
Record crowd over 3-day weekend
Verstappen, meanwhile, has now won six of the first nine races in his title defense season.
It was Verstappen’s best finish in Montreal, which F1 said hosted a record 338,000 spectators over the three-day weekend as the series returned to Canada after a two-year pause during the pandemic. The Sunday crowd was treated to clear, sunny skies after two days of rain that upended qualifying and created the slick track that allowed Alonso — and other drivers, including Hamilton — to earn their top starting spots this year.
Leclerc rallied from a 10-place grid penalty for changing the engine in his Ferrari to finish fifth from 19th. Estaban Ocon of Alpine finished sixth and teammate Alonso, who said he’d be pleased with a fifth-place finish, was seventh but penalized five-seconds after the race for weaving.
WATCH | Fans thrilled as Grand Prix returns to Montreal:
Montreal celebrates the return of Grand Prix weekend
10 hours ago
Duration 1:59
The Montreal Grand Prix raced back to the city’s streets over the weekend, to the delight of F1 racing fans and local businesses.
That dropped Alonso to ninth, while Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo moved to seventh. Bottas was followed by rookie teammate Zhou Guanyu, who was moved to eighth after the Alonso penalty and finished in the points for the second time this season.
Sergio Perez exited the race after just nine laps with a gearbox issue, the fourth Red Bull mechanical failure this season between Perez and Verstappen. Eleven laps later, Mick Schumacher came to a stop on track — ending the Haas driver’s bid to score his first F1 points.
Haas had equalled its best qualifying effort in team history a day earlier when Kevin Magnussen and Schumacher qualified fifth and sixth, but the team failed to convert. Magnussen damaged his front wing on the opening lap and finished 17th.
“I feel like we built the cake, but we just didn’t get to put the frosting on it,” Schumacher said.
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone is scheduled for July 3. Hamilton won a year ago in what’s considered the Brit’s home race.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
