The Race
patreon
Ask Edd about his F1 Canadian Grand Prix driver rankings
🕑 Added 2025-06-16 15:37:15 +0000 UTCDid anyone string together a better weekend than the driver who had total control of the Canadian Grand Prix? And how big a hit did Lando Norris take for two costly errors?
Below you'll find Edd Straw's rankings for the Canadian Grand Prix. Comment below to put your question to Edd.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
George Russell described his final Q3 lap as "mighty" and he was right to do so given how much he extracted from the car. No other driver in Q3 managed to string together their three personal best sectors for a lap and the reward was pole position.
From there, he controlled the race beautifully and managed to keep the looming Max Verstappen threat at bay throughout.
Verdict: An exemplary weekend.
Started: 6th Finished: 7th
Fernando Alonso did everything that could be asked of an Aston Martin driver, qualifying a strong sixth before inevitably falling behind the quicker cars of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.
That set him on course for a midfield 'victory', picking up a place when Norris retired.
He also outqualified Lance Stroll by four-and-a-half tenths, just to underline the strength of his weekend.
Verdict: Maximised the potential of the Aston Martin.
Started: 11th Finished: 8th
Nico Hulkenberg's weekend was very similar to his Spain performance, just without the late red flag that allowed him to surge to fifth at Barcelona and arguably in a Sauber that was slightly trickier to extract the pace from over a single lap.
He qualified well despite the Sauber proving to be "hit or miss" on corner entries, then capitalised on Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto's battle on the first lap to jump to ninth. He effectively stayed there all race, picking up a place when Norris retired.
Verdict: Helped Sauber to overachieve.
Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
While Verstappen couldn't quite match Russell in qualifying or the race, he was always close and there was nothing to say that the Red Bull had the speed to be ahead.
From that perspective, especially given Yuki Tsunoda's struggles, it was a strong weekend even though he couldn't capitalise on the pressure he put on the Mercedes driver on occasion during the race.
Verdict: Pushed Russell all the way.
Started: 4th Finished: 3rd
Kimi Antonelli's qualifying performance was underwhelming despite a decent result, lapping half a second off Russell. While having to run used mediums contributed to that, this was a consequence of labouring earlier in qualifying.
However, his race was excellent, overtaking Oscar Piastri on the first lap then holding onto a podium position throughout, absorbing pressure from the McLaren driver.
Verdict: Drove a hugely impressive race.
Started: 3rd Finished: 4th
He had a difficult time in practice, which included clouting the wall in FP3, but declared qualifying third "a nice turnaround".
Running without the McLaren front suspension tweak, Piastri was the fastest soft Pirelli runner in qualifying despite admitting to leaving time on the table, notably at Turn 6.
He drove a decent race, albeit proving unable to get past Antonelli after losing third place on the first lap.
Verdict: Not at his best, but did what he needed to.
Started: 14th Finished: 9th
Qualifying didn't go perfectly, and running used mediums in Q2 made life difficult, but Esteban Ocon did a decent job to be the lead Haas in the race having qualified behind his team-mate.
That set him up for the alternate strategy, running long on hards with an impressive stint in which he showed good pace late on to ensure he stayed clear of the squabbling midfield groups behind and emerged from his stop in 10th. That became ninth when Norris retired.
Verdict: A quietly accomplished weekend.
Started: 8th Finished: 5th
Despite managing only 10 laps on Friday, crashing at Turn 3 and forcing Ferrari to build up a new car around the spare chassis, Charles Leclerc was fast as soon as he hit the track on Saturday.
His final Q3 lap started promisingly with the best first sector of all, before it got away from him at Turn 6 thanks to dirty air from Isack Hadjar - albeit something Leclerc should have allowed for.
His race was as strong as it could have been given the starting position.
Verdict: Could have done more, but for Q3.
Started: 5th Finished: 6th
Lewis Hamilton continues to struggle with the Ferrari, which he found understeery into slow corners and therefore not conducive to producing the devastating pace he has historically unleashed in Montreal.
He did, however, outqualify Leclerc, which was down to his team-mate's underperformance, then drove a solid enough race - especially given a lap 12 groundhog impact deprived him of 20 points of downforce.
Verdict: Solid but unspectacular.
Started: 12th Finished: 16th
Having again reached Q3 with a well-executed qualifying performance, Hadjar was put on the back foot thanks to a three-place grid penalty for impeding Carlos Sainz.
He was bang to rights, albeit having been misled by the pitwall into thinking the Williams driver was not on a push lap.
He ran 11th early on, but ran too long before stopping then got stuck in traffic, which meant a long, fruitless afternoon.
Verdict: Quick but got stuck in the race.
Started: 16th Finished: 10th
Sainz's weekend was ruined by being impeded by Hadjar on his final Q1 lap, which led to his elimination despite having the pace to reach Q3 - circumstances rather than any failure on his part.
He had a frustrating race managing cooling problems while in traffic, but by running long on hards he made gains and was in position to pick up a point when Norris retired.
Verdict: Did well to salvage a point.
Started: 10th Finished: 13th
Colapinto left it late, but having struggled throughout practice - and early in qualifying - with overcommitting into the slow corners, he produced decent pace to set the 11th-fastest time in qualifying, even if his pace relative to Gasly was flattered by the intervention of the Q1 red flag.
He ran 10th early in the race, but after making an early stop, he was jumped by cars that ran longer, meaning his points shot faded.
Verdict: Form is improving.
Started: 13th Finished: 11th
This was one of those weekends where Ollie Bearman was marginally on the wrong side of everything.
His pace was decent and he outperformed Ocon on Saturday, holding 13th at the start. That earned him what was on paper the quicker strategy of the two Haas drivers, starting on mediums then switching to hards, but getting stuck in traffic meant he couldn't make the most of it.
Effectively, held position but picked up two places to the retirements of Norris and Albon.
Verdict: Impossible to make gains in race.
Started: 9th Finished: DNF
Albon was frustrated by the diminishing pace of the Williams throughout qualifying, which he blamed on the wind picking up and the sensitivity of the car. That meant he qualified 10th, having shown the kind of pace that could easily have put him a row further forward.
Having to take to the grass while battling with Colapinto on the opening lap (which dropped him to 12th) then running too long on mediums ruined his race even before a power unit problem forced him out.
Verdict: Early promise turned to dust.
Started: 15th Finished: 14th
Bortoleto showed decent underlying pace, but admitted to being "a little on the safe side" in Q1 as he was knocked out by just seven thousandths.
That defined his weekend as he ran 15th early on, putting in a lengthy stint after starting on hards but unable to find the track position to make it work. He also battled graining.
This made it another weekend where Bortoleto had good speed but struggled to show it.
Verdict: Conservative Q1 lap hurt his weekend.
Started: 20th (pits) Finished: 15th
Gasly's weekend turned on the red flag in Q1, which was caused by Albon's engine cover scattering itself across the back straight.
At that moment, Gasly was on a lap that would have put him comfortably into Q2 and also well ahead of team-mate Colapinto. That said, his final attempt went awry thanks to compromised tyre prep.
Power unit element changes meant a pitlane start and he spent too long bottled up behind Lawson to make any tangible progress.
Verdict: Qualifying red flag meant he couldn't show his speed.
Started: 19th (pits) Finished: DNF
This was another weekend when Lawson was outperformed by Hadjar, although he was puzzled by the lack of pace in Q1 after struggling to get the tyres in the right window for the final run.
Starting from the pitlane after strategic power unit component changes, he was always on a hiding to nothing and retired after running long on hards to preserve the power unit given he'd been battling cooling issues.
Verdict: An anonymous weekend.
Started: 18th Finished: 12th
While Tsunoda was unimpressed at being given a 10-place grid penalty for passing the touring Piastri under the red flag, it was foolish to take that risk.
He followed that up with a so-so qualifying, then struggled for pace in the race compared to those around him even on the occasions he did have space.
That added up to another point-less weekend, despite getting spec parity with Verstappen from Saturday.
Verdict: Another weekend of underachievement.
Started: 17th Finished: 17th
Having crashed in FP2, Stroll lapped 0.444s off Alonso in Q1, meaning he ended up 18th in a car good enough to qualify sixth, saying after qualifying that he was "feeling good" when asked about his right wrist.
From a lowly start position, he made little progress and copped a penalty for forcing Gasly off track along the way. His summary was that "we're just slow", apparently disregarding the performance level of his team-mate.
Verdict: A nothing weekend.
Started: 7th Finished: 18th
Looked the faster McLaren driver, possibly helped by front suspension tweaks that only he ran aimed to improve feeling, but that's worthless if you can't string together a lap in Q3, with errors on both sets of tyres leaving him seventh.
The same applies to driving a good race but making a dire misjudgement and heading into a cul-de-sac, resulting in hitting both your team-mate and the wall.
Verdict: Fast but blew it in Q3 and the race.
Comments
Kris
Leclerc far too high in this ranking for this weekend. He compromised his entire weekend in free practice, had a bad qualifying session and then a decent recovery race but no more. Hamilton had a far better weekend and should be above him. Leclerc doesn't warrant a top 10 this weekend given he had no "bad luck" just poor execution throughout Friday and Saturday that made his Sunday very difficult.
Matt J
If you could rank all 1st from this years rankings so far what 1st would be the 1st rankings 1st
