Verstappen led most of the race, which was twice interrupted by virtual security cars that played a major role in the strategy.
But it was a complete safety car that touched Sainz’s hands near the end, which allowed him to attack Verstappen in the final stages, but did not find a way to pass.
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Results of the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix race
How the Canadian Grand Prix unfolded
Verstappen maintained the pole lead in the race to turn 1, ahead of Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Sainz. Lewis Hamilton just finished fourth in Mercedes after a wheel-to-wheel battle with Kevin Magnussen moments later on turn 3, the Dane suffered some damage to the right front wing plate of his Haas.
Sainz DRS overtook Alonso in second place on lap 3, with Verstappen already 2.5 seconds behind.
George Russell’s Mercedes braked Magnussen for fifth on the fork, with the black and orange flag on Magnussen. He pitted from the sixth at the end of lap 8 for a new front spoiler.
Sergio Pérez’s weekend went from bad to worse when his Red Bull had a problem with the gearbox on lap 8 and was forced to leave, causing a virtual safety car. Leader Verstappen opted for hard tires, promoting Sainz and Alonso to run first and second. Hamilton also stopped, giving way to Russell and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) when he returned to sixth place.
The race resumed on lap 10 with Sainz 1.5 seconds ahead of Alonso, with Verstappen 4 seconds behind. In hard fresh, Hamilton passed Ocon for fifth.
Verstappen overtook Alonso with DRS on lap 15 for the second, but was now 5.5 seconds behind leader Sainz.
Haas then lost his second point car when Mick Schumacher stopped on lap 19 at the same spot as Perez, causing another VSC under which Russell entered. Sainz pitted just as he finished the VSC, meeting right in front of Hamilton in third place.
After defending himself from Hamilton, Sainz again overtook Alonso for the second round on lap 23, with Hamilton also making a tour later. Alonso pitted on lap 29, dropping to seventh, behind Ocon and Leclerc.
Leclerc, who started 19th after an engine change penalty, started with the hard tires and made his way through the tailenders to run 13th after 10 laps.
He then stopped behind Valtteri Bottas ’Alfa Romeo, which struggled to overtake Alex Albon’s Williams. But once they stopped fighting, Leclerc was able to get ahead of both of them and solidified on points.
Leclerc was then trapped behind Ocon, where he remained until lap 42, and then suffered a slow stop that cost him four seats, and put him back behind a DRS train in 12th. place.
Verstappen pitted for the second time on lap 44 and rejoined just behind Hamilton in third place, but only made one lap to overcome the DRS, just before Hamilton stopped again.
Sainz led for 10 seconds with 25 laps to go. Leclerc returned to the points by then, rising to eighth position when Yuki Tsunoda put his AlphaTauri on the wall coming out of the pits, causing a safety car.
Sainz faced a new set of difficulties, restarting just behind Verstappen with tires that had six laps cooler, and ahead of Hamilton, Russell, Ocon, Alonso and Leclerc in a 16-lap sprint to the finish.
Sainz stayed in Verstappen’s DRS rank as Leclerc overtook Alonso by sixth on turn 10, and then repeated the move to Ocon a couple of laps later for fifth place.
Round after round, Sainz got straight into the tail of Verstappen, but the reigning world champion kept his nerves and lead.
Hamilton finished third, ahead of Russell, Leclerc, Ocon, Alonso, Bottas, Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).
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