After two races in Europe it was back over the Atlantic to another French-speaking part of the world - Montreal in Canada, which the Aston Martin team consider to be a ‘home race’, given that Lawrence & Lance Stroll are Canadian. However, there wasn’t much evidence of green on the fans as the magnificent weather in Monaco didn’t get transported to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Instead the forecast for the weekend threatened heavy rain and it was mainly umbrellas, ponchos and rainproof gear that covered the fans in the grandstands. Maybe we would be treated to another ‘longest Grand Prix ever’, when Jenson Button won the Canadian Grand Prix in 2011, having started last, in 4 hours, 4 minutes & 39 seconds! That race was punctuated by torrential rain and red flags but gave Button a most memorable victory.
As forecast, Friday’s first practice session got underway amid intense rain and hailstorms, deterring any drivers to come out until it had eased and the marshals had dried up the sodden track, which was well after half the session had elapsed. No driver covered more than a dozen laps and the Aston Martins, having only covered 4 laps, posted times that were only 15th (Alonso) & 17th (Stroll) fastest. One driver, Zhou, lost control of and crashed his Sauber, breaking the front suspension, resulting in the session being red-flagged. Later on in the afternoon, the rain had abated slightly more and Alonso was able to set the fastest time in 2nd practice and Stroll the 3rd fastest, with the team having timed their runs perfectly to coincide with the track at its driest and before the rain started again.
The track was still wet for Saturday’s final practice session, enough to cause Zhou to crash his Sauber again, across the exit of the pit lane, requiring the red flags to halt the session so as to clear the car away. Shortly after the restart, but with 41 minutes of the session left, Alonso set the fastest time on hard tyres. Stroll then came out to start his practice runs, also on hard tyres and he posted the 10th fastest time, which he improved upon 10 minutes later and moved up to 5th. With the track drying & improving the drivers started to change over to soft tyres and everyone’s times improved. At the close, Stroll had managed to record the 4th fastest time and Alonso, the 8th fastest. Two and half hours later it was time for Qualifying and with dark clouds hanging over the circuit, rain was in the forecast. All the drivers came out promptly in the 1st period (Q1) to ensure that they posted a representative time as soon as possible and before the rain was due. Stroll managed to record the fastest time in his AMR24, only to be beaten by Alonso soon after. The timing sheet was changing constantly and with 5 minutes to go both Astons appeared safe to proceed to Q2, with Stroll 5th & Alonso 7th. They didn’t go out again and ended in 10th & 12th places respectively. The forecast rain then arrived at the start of Q2, albeit sparingly & light. After their first runs Alonso was lying 4th & Stroll 12th and with 5 minutes to go, Alonso was safely in 6th but Stroll was in a precarious 12th still. In the dying seconds of the period, Alonso wasn’t able to improve and he ended up 9th, but Stroll did manage to haul himself up to 10th and into the final Qualifying period – the first time that he had managed to achieve that at his home race. Q3 and out came the Astons, with all the other drivers, to go about setting the order for top ten grid positions for the race on Sunday. At the end of everybody’s 1st runs Alonso was provisionally in 5th and Stroll 6th. The cars came out for one final fast lap, attempting to improve on their positions, but it didn’t happen for the 2 Astons – Alonso’s qualifying time was 6th fastest and Stroll was 9th. It was very encouraging that both Alonso and Stroll reached Q3 and sealed top 10 starting positions for Sunday's race, setting up the prospect of a good points return.
In the build up to the start of the race, there had been a lot of precipitation & the track was soaked, with plenty of standing water. The track was cold as well – registering a temperature of only 21ºC. Would this be a challenge or an opportunity for the AMs? The entire pack got away cleanly from the start and Alonso got the jump on Riccardo & moved up to 5th. Stroll maintained 9th. Then the heavy rain returned and the only beneficiaries were the Haas team drivers, Magnussen & Hulkenberg, who had full wet tyres on & Magnussen easily passed Stroll & Alonso by the end of lap 3. Hulkenberg also passed Stroll & he got himself up to 8th. At the end of lap 4 the order was Alonso 6th, Stroll 10th. There were another couple of ‘hand in mouth’ moments, similar to that in China, when on lap 7 Alonso had a noticeable slide, with Hamilton right on his tail, but he brought the car back under control, after which Hamilton went off track & gained a place but had to give it back in order not to get penalised. Trying to clear himself of Hamilton’s pursuit, the rear tyres on Alonso's AMR24 lost grip of the tarmac and twitched but Alonso managed to regain control again. Mercifully, for the fans, the sun started to appear on lap 9 and by then the Haas cars started to noticeably lose their wet tyre advantage and Magnussen had to come in to change them. With that, Alonso moved up to 5th & Stroll to 9th. By lap 12, Stroll was within a second of Hulkenberg & overtook him before the end of the lap. Stroll, now in 8th, started gaining on Riccardo who was 1.578 seconds ahead, who had just been handed a 5 second penalty by the race Stewards for a false start. Just ahead, the battle between Alonso, in 5th, and Hamilton just behind was continuing – two experienced former World Champions going at it tooth and nail, but fairly. Meanwhile, at the front, race leader Russell, had Verstappen right behind him, but he made a very rare mistake and Norris pounced on Verstappen, passed him and a short while later overtook Russell for the race lead. On lap 25 Sargent in the Williams hit a wet patch, slid off the track and bounced off a wall, ending up stuck with no power in the middle of the track, resulting in the deployment of the Aston Martin Vantage safety car. Alonso and Hamilton dived straight into the pits for new tyres but Mercedes made a much faster stop (~2.5 seconds v ~4.5 for Alonso) and Hamilton came out ahead. Stroll came into the pits for fresh tyres also. With Riccardo having to serve his penalty the positions on lap 27 were Alonso 6th, Stroll 8th, still all behind the safety car. Tsunoda, who was just ahead of Stroll, hadn't come in for fresh tyres during the safety car period, but was soon expected to do so. The safety car came in and the race resumed on lap 30, just when it started to rain again. 5 laps later, at the halfway distance point, Alonso, still in 6th, went off track coming into the sharp right-hand corner at the entrance to the pit lane, but he didn't lose a place, just time and distance to Hamilton ahead. Stroll was still maintaining 8th. With the track drying enough on lap 43, Hamilton and most of the leading cars started to come into the pits for slick tyres, except race leader Norris. When he eventually did come in, he lost the lead as he emerged back on track as his car slid left and right trying to find any dry patches on his fresh set of tyres and got passed by Verstappen. As lap 50 got underway and with the AMs still decently placed in 6th and 8th, Sainz had a major spin in front of Albon and collided into hit him, leaving Albon beached off track. Out came the Aston Martin Vantage safety car again and Tsunoda used the period to come in for his anticipated tyre change. This allowed Stroll to move up to 7th. With the resultant damage to his Ferrari, Sainz had to retire his Ferrari, which came on top of Leclerc’s Ferrari being retired earlier, on lap 43. After Albon’s Williams was cleared off the track, the safety car period ended and the race got back underway, with Alonso still in 6th and Stroll in 7th. And that is where the two Aston Martins finished. Verstappen won the race, with 3 British drivers, Norris, Russell & Hamilton respectively behind him.
Overall, it was a good team result for Aston Martin. Their first double points finish since Australia in March. Lance Stroll declared himself “super happy” with his performance at his home race. “It was a tricky race - one of the trickiest I can remember - and the changing conditions kept us on our toes, but we handled it well.” Similarly, Fernando Alonso declared “it was a good race for the team and finishing in sixth and seventh in an extremely challenging race weekend is a good result. I think we can be more optimistic heading into Barcelona.”
Indeed it is back to Europe and the Spanish Grand Prix will be Alonso’s home race. Let’s hope his optimism is supported by another decent race result.
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