Canadian Grand Prix: Verstappen wins to equal Senna victories total

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen equalled Ayrton Senna’s career total of 41 victories with a dominant win at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso passed Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes on track to win a battle for second place.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc recovered from qualifying 11th to take fourth.

Verstappen’s winning margin of 9.5 seconds was the smallest a Red Bull has had over another team so far this season, encouraging the chasing pack.

But it was clear that 25-year-old Verstappen had not needed to extend himself and could almost certainly have won by a far larger margin.

And his achievement in matching Senna’s career achievement when nine years younger than the legendary Brazilian was when he was killed in a crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, underlined how he and Red Bull have dominated F1 for the past two seasons.

It also raises the question of where Verstappen’s career statistics may end – only Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher and Hamilton are ahead of him in victories and Prost’s mark of 51 and even Vettel’s 54 may be reachable during this season, depending on the level of his dominance.

Verstappen converted a brilliant pole position won in the wet, 1.2 seconds clear of the field, into a lead at the first corner and never looked back as he measured his pace to the intense battles behind him. (BBC)