Even without the full anticipated impact of the rain, the Canadian Grand Prix put Formula 1 drivers through a serious test this year - one that most largely passed.
Here is our ranking of how the 22-driver crop stacked up in Montreal.
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Started: 2nd Finished: 1st
There were hints that at times Antonelli might have had the underlying pace edge on Russell, but (perhaps as you’d expect from a 19-year-old early in his second season) there were still signs of slightly rough edges.
That stood out in the sprint race, when Antonelli could well have defeated Russell with better judgement of risk-versus-reward in battle and instead cost himself second place to a rash move amid the frustration of the Turn 1 incident.
He had the chance to make up for that in the grand prix and was giving Russell a hard time, which may have yielded victory, but he didn’t have the chance to prove it and the way things played out relied on his team-mate’s power unit failure.
Verdict: Pace outstanding, but didn’t always use it to best effect.
Started: 3rd Finished: DNF
Throughout the weekend, Norris had a slight edge on team-mate Piastri in terms of pace and seemed to be fractionally more confident in the car. He probably maximised the results in sprint qualifying, the sprint and main qualifying, although perhaps you could argue there might have been a way to have beaten Russell in Saturday’s race had he delivered perfection.
Starting on inters put him on the back foot in the race after briefly taking the lead, but he was making progress in recovering when a gearbox problem put him out.
Verdict: Extracted the potential from the McLaren well.
Started: 9th Finished: DNS
This was Lindblad’s most impressive all-round weekend since starring in Australia, albeit without the opportunity to show what he could do in the grand prix thanks to the gearbox problem he suffered on the grid.
On his first outing at this track, he made SQ3, then converted that into a point in the sprint race despite being the only driver to start on hards, finishing ahead of the closing Colapinto. That was a preview of what likely would have been his battle in the race.
Although his retirement doesn’t count against him, it did deny him the opportunity to excel and potentially achieve an even higher ranking.
Verdict: Bad luck meant he couldn’t close out a great weekend.
Started: 15th Finished: 9th
While the Williams continues to improve, Sainz overachieved to make it to SQ3. Equally, he could have done better in qualifying proper even if a repeat of a top 10 was unlikely - but didn’t have the tyres in the right window for the start of his final Q2 lap.
That put him towards the back of the midfield group, but despite the mistake of starting on intermediates that he took responsibility for he recovered well, particularly after that initial stop, to prevail in his battle with Bearman.
Verdict: Other than slight qualifying underachievement, a strong weekend.
Started: 20th Finished: DNF
Perez led the line well for Cadillac, outpacing Bottas and managing to beat Stroll in both qualifying sessions as well as picking off Gasly in sprint qualifying. He starred in the sprint, starting on softs and jumping to 11th and robustly holding onto the position throughout. Too robustly - he earned a penalty that dropped him to 14th for forcing Lawson off the track that he called “totally unfair” (even though it was a fair cop), but that was perhaps an understandable risk on his part given the racing situation.
Despite the time lost to starting on intermediates, he had a good race before retiring with a front-right suspension failure that didn’t appear to be the result of any misadventure on his part.
Verdict: Led the line for Cadillac well.
Started: 7th Finished: 5th
Hadjar bounced back after his difficult Miami weekend, lapping just 0.101s off Verstappen in sprint qualifying, then just 0.028s off in qualifying proper - despite what he called, with characteristic self-criticism, a “tour de merde” thanks to overdriving. That reveals much about his hopes of outpacing Verstappen.
The sprint race was short-lived, as he ran eighth but was held back by engine problems that soon led to his retirement. In the grand prix, he lacked a couple of tenths to Verstappen and picked up a couple of needless penalties, one for mistakenly chopping Leclerc on the straight when “I just got confused where he was heading”.
Nonetheless, he salvaged a decent result aided by the McLarens not being a threat.
Verdict: Back on form after Miami struggles.
Started: 16th Finished: 10th
Bearman ran the upgrade package from the start of free practice as Haas split the specifications across its two cars. While the expected downforce was there, he struggled initially on the brakes and traction as problematic characteristics were introduced.
That led to him not having the pace to escape SQ1, which was an underachievement despite the problems, although he put the car broadly where it appeared to be on merit at the bottom of Q2 in qualifying proper after gains were made that increased confidence but meant he ran into a problem with front-locking.
With the Haas the ninth-best car, he relied on circumstances to be able to score a point but drove in a good race (that should've been better if not for a 25-second pitstop).
Verdict: Struggled valiantly with a tricky car.
Started: 19th Finished: DNF
While the Aston Martin-Honda was, as expected, fighting with the Cadillacs at the back, its underlying pace was better than in Miami. Alonso made SQ2 with the assistance of Lawson and Albon not running, but relied on a lap completed before he pushed too hard and nosed into the barrier.
As others improved, there was no realistic chance of repeating that in qualifying proper, although he at least kept it out of the wall.
He briefly ran 14th in the sprint but was gradually shuffled back before retiring to save the car. He also failed to finish the main race after pain from the seat became too much for him, but not before briefly surging to 10th at the start.
Verdict: Quick, but this wasn’t one of his best thanks to Friday crash (and forced retirements).
Started: 17th Finished: 14th
With Haas introducing a significant aerodynamic upgrade package, Ocon ran the old spec for practice and the sprint components of the weekend before switching to the new spec for qualifying proper. He had problems with both, struggling with a car that was too stiff early in the weekend, crashing nose-first after losing it at the exit of Turn 4 on Friday, but recovering to make SQ2.
He was eliminated in Q1 in main qualifying, lapping four tenths off Bearman in a car he found difficult to drive.
He climbed to 11th during the sprint, only to suffer a lock-up and go off at Turn 8, which cost him four places - although he got two of those back to penalties for Perez and Hulkenberg.
He had a poor main race, saying there was “clearly something that failed on my car”, although the team said both cars had similar troubles.
Verdict: Not at one with the car in either spec.
Started: 21st Finished: 16th
There was a concerning deficit of around eight and a half tenths to Perez in both qualifying sessions, which although not entirely representative did demonstrate Bottas didn’t have the pace of his team-mate.
He never looked entirely at one with the car, opting to try a risky set-up direction but ruining his final run in Q1 with a lock-up and off at the first corner that created too big a flatspot for a successful second attempt.
After the sprint race was rendered a test thanks to set-up changes and a pitlane start, he earned a five-second pitlane speeding penalty in the main race and struggled for pace while battling oversteer problems in a car Perez extracted far more from.
Verdict: Well off his team-mate’s level.
Started: 11th Finished: 12th
Pace-wise, Hulkenberg put the Audi on the fringes of the top 10 by setting the 11th-fastest time in both qualifying sessions - making it six times out of eight that he’s ended up in that position this year. That’s despite finding the low-speed balance of the Audi a little off on a weekend where the car’s low drag compensated partly for its power limitation.
A good start by Audi standards was squandered by cutting a chicane on the first lap, which earned him a time penalty that dropped him to 15th in the final sprint results.
Starting on intermediates compromised his main race, but while he finished ahead of team-mate Bortoleto and had a pace advantage over him throughout the weekend, Hulkenberg also earned a penalty for speeding in the pitlane (by just 0.3km/h), and spun at Turn 1 after dropping a wheel on the grass
Verdict: Quick, but far too many in-race errors.