In a thrilling race that once again saw Andrea Kimi Antonelli as the winner and also marked Lewis Hamilton's return to the podium with Ferrari, Franco Colapinto experienced the best performance of his career in Formula 1 this Sunday by finishing sixth in the Canadian Grand Prix.
The race began with tension even before the start, when Arvid Lindblad's Racing Bulls came to a halt on the grid, forcing a restart of the procedure. Once on track, Lando Norris surprised everyone by taking the lead thanks to a risky strategy with intermediate rain tires on still wet asphalt, although the gamble didn't last long and he had to quickly pit.
Meanwhile, his teammate Oscar Piastri also struggled with the strategy and fell to the back of the pack. To make matters worse for McLaren, later on, Norris would retire due to mechanical issues and the Australian would finish outside the points.
This scenario directly benefited Colapinto, who gained positions from the start and quickly settled into the top ten. With a solid pace and no mistakes, the Argentine managed to position himself sixth, while his teammate Pierre Gasly was also making progress in the standings.
At the front, Mercedes featured a intense internal battle between Antonelli and George Russell. Both fought for the lead for a good part of the race until the Brit suffered a power unit failure and had to retire on lap 30. The departure of his teammate opened the way for the Italian, who also took advantage of the Virtual Safety Car to manage the gap and head towards another solo victory.
Behind him, Hamilton achieved one of the great moments of the day by overtaking Verstappen just a few laps from the end to secure the second step of the podium with Ferrari. Meanwhile, his colleague Charles Leclerc finished fourth, followed by Isack Hadjar's Red Bull.
Meanwhile, Colapinto endured the wear of the hard tires and also some minor damage to the car after a track incident to finally cross the finish line in sixth place, followed by Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Carlos Sainz (Williams), and Oliver Bearman (Haas).
With this result, the Argentine surpassed the seventh place achieved weeks ago in Miami and marked his most outstanding performance since arriving in the top category. In addition to the pillar player, Alpine in general had a very positive weekend, as they scored points with both of their drivers and showed a significant improvement in performance compared to the early races of the season.
Driver Standings after Canada
1st - Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) - 131 points
2nd - George Russell (Mercedes) - 88 points
3rd - Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 75 points
4th - Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 72 points
5th - Lando Norris (McLaren) - 58 points
6th - Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 48 points
7th - Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 43 points
8th - PIERRE GASLY (Alpine) - 20 points
9th - Oliver Bearman (Haas) - 18 points
10th - Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) - 16 points
11th - FRANCO COLAPINTO (Alpine) - 15 points
12th - Isaac Hadjar (Red Bull) - 14 points
