F1 Driver Form: Canadian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen has scored on three of his five Canadian Grand Prix appearances. All three of those occasions have been top five finishing positions, with third place in 2018 being his only podium finish so far at the track. Additionally, Verstappen finished fifteenth in 2015 and retired from the 2017 race.

Verstappen has reached Q3 three times and has been eliminated in Q2 twice, in 2015 and 2019. Despite qualifying eleventh in 2019, Verstappen lined up ninth on the grid. 2017 and 2018 are the only seasons that he has out-qualified a team-mate at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. In the four races that he’s finished at the track, Verstappen has never finished in a worse position than where he started from.

In his first Canadian Grand Prix in 2012, Sergio Perez finished on the podium in third place. He had entered the event in the previous season, but pulled out due to not being fit enough following his huge Monaco crash a few weeks prior.

Since 2012, points have been harder to find for Perez in Canada. He finished tenth in 2016 and fifth in 2017, but has not scored since. Perez’s only retirement here came in 2014, as a result of a late race crash with Felipe Massa.

Perez has reached Q3 only three times in Canada, with a best qualifying result of eighth in 2017. That is one of only three occasions that Perez has out-qualified a team-mate here.

Lewis Hamilton took the first victory of his Formula 1 career at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. Since then he was won the event a further six times and also finished third in 2013. The 2018 race is the only season that he has finished the event in a position outside of the top three.

However, Hamilton’s history in Montreal hasn’t always been rosy. He retired in 2008 after failing to spot a red light at the end of the pit-lane and crashing into the back of Kimi Raikkonen. He retired in 2011 after a collision with his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button and retired in 2014 as his Mercedes suffered engine problems.

Hamilton has taken pole at the Canadian Grand Prix six times, while 2011 and 2019 are the only seasons that he has not started from the front row. 2014 and 2018 are the only years that he has failed to out-qualify his team-mate in Montreal. Given his high qualifying positions, it’s no surprise that Hamilton has never gained more than one position from where he has started at this track.

2011 and 2018 are the only times in twelve visits to the circuit that Hamilton has not led a lap of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz has scored twice at the Canadian Grand Prix, with a best finish of eighth in 2018. He also finished in ninth place in 2016. 2017 is the only season that Sainz has failed to finish in Montreal, retiring on the first lap as a result of a collision with Felipe Massa.

Sainz has reached Q3 twice at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, qualifying in ninth in each of the last two races at the circuit. From his five appearances, 2015 is the only season that Sainz has out-qualified his team-mate at the track.

Daniel Ricciardo recorded his first Formula 1 win at the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix. It was the first time he scored points at the circuit. Ricciardo has a 100% finish rate at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and has scored in all of the last four Montreal races. His only other podium finish here came in 2017, when he finished third.

Ricciardo equalled his best qualifying result at the circuit in 2019 with fourth place. He previously qualified fourth in 2016. His first appearance in 2012 is the only time that Ricciardo has failed to reach Q3 at the Canadian Grand Prix. Meanwhile, 2019 marked only the third time in eight appearances that Ricciardo has out-qualified his team-mate in Montreal.

Ricciardo has only ever led three laps here – those being the final three laps of the 2014 race.

Fernando Alonso has recorded no fewer than eight retirements at the Canadian Grand Prix. He has retired on three of his last four appearances at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Alonso took his only Montreal win in 2006, and finished on the podium in 2010 and 2013. His sixth place in 2014 is the last time he scored at the circuit.

Alonso took pole at the track in 2006, and lined up on the front row in 2007 and 2011. 2004 and 2007 are the only years in which the Spaniard has been out-qualified here. He has never recorded a Q1 exit at the Canadian Grand Prix, but failed to reach Q3 in 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Of the races which he has finished, the 2013 and 2014 events are the only ones in which he has finished in a better position than where he started.

Sebastian Vettel has never failed to score at the Canadian Grand Prix in all of his eleven appearances. He has won the event twice, in 2013 and 2018, and has finished on the podium a further four times.

Vettel was at the centre of controversy in 2019 as he picked up a five second penalty for unsafely re-joining the track, costing him the race victory.

Vettel has started from pole in each of the last two Montreal races, and also had a run of three poles between 2011 and 2013. The German has been eliminated in Q1 in Montreal twice, in 2008 and 2015. He was unable to set a lap time in qualifying in 2008 due to damaging his car in practice and in 2015 he suffered engine problems which left him unable to set a competitive lap time. Other than those two instances, 2010 is the only other time that Vettel has been out-qualified by a team-mate at the track.

Strangely, Vettel has started the final lap of the Canadian Grand Prix in the lead twice without winning. He was overtaken on the final lap of the epic 2011 race and was demoted to second following his time penalty in 2019.

Lance Stroll scored the first points of his career with a ninth place finish in the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix. He retired on the first lap of his home race in 2018, before finishing ninth again in 2019.

Despite scoring twice, Stroll has never progressed past Q1 at the circuit, and has a best qualifying position of seventeenth, which he recorded in both 2017 and 2018, though he lined up sixteenth in the latter year. 2018 is the only occasion that the Canadian has out-qualified a team-mate at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

For the first time since 2014, Valtteri Bottas failed to finish on the podium at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2019. He finished third here in 2015 and 2016, and as runner-up in 2017 and 2018.

Bottas has a 100% finish record at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with his first appearance in 2013 being the only time that he has failed to score.

Bottas has never failed to reach Q3 here and has never failed to qualify within the top seven. His only front row start so far at the track came in 2018. 2017 and 2019 are the only years that Bottas has been out-qualified by a team-mate at the event.

The Finn has not lost a position from where he has started at the track since 2014. Despite his strong form in Canada, Bottas is yet to lead a lap at the Montreal circuit.

Kevin Magnussen scored points on his first Canadian Grand Prix appearance with a ninth place finish. He has not scored at the circuit since, but has a 100% finish rate.

Magnussen has reached Q3 here only once, in 2019. He qualified tenth after crashing out at the end of Q2. 2019 is the only season that Magnussen has out-qualified his team-mate here on pace; though that year Romain Grosjean was prevented from setting a final lap time in Q2 due to Magnussen’s crash.

From five appearances, 2018 is the only time that Magnussen has finished the Canadian Grand Prix in a worse position than where he started.