Red Bull pick up minor points at Canadian Grand Prix sprint race

Red Bull had a minor points finish in the sprint race at the Canadian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen finished 7th while teammate Isack Hadjar failed to score points.

Verstappen had a fairly lonely race in the sprint, unable to challenge the McLaren and Ferrari cars ahead while being faster than the midfield behind. Meanwhile, an engine issue meant Hadjar fell to the back, with the French driver treating it as a test session and finishing 21st.

The two points sees Verstappen up to 28 for the season, with the Dutchman remaining 7th in the world championship. Hadjar sits 13th after picking up 4 points. As for the Constructor’s standings, Red Bull sit 4th, with the team up to 32 points. They are 9 clear of 5th placed Alpine and 74 behind 3rd place McLaren.

The grid had a two-by-two set-up, with the two Mercedes leading the two McLarens, the two Ferraris and then the two Red Bulls.

Both Verstappen and Hadjar had clean starts with the two drivers able to stay ahead of those behind without being able to challenge those ahead.

Hadjar’s sprint would soon go awry, however, with the Frenchman’s car suffering an engine fault and limping back to the pits. The team were able to restart the engine and send him back out, but he would be 2 laps down and would ultimately be spending time testing the car.

As for Verstappen, he wound up in a no-mans land, comfortably ahead of Arvid Lindblad in 8th but without the pace to challenge the McLarens and Ferraris ahead as he wound up finishing 7th.

The full-distance Canadian Grand Prix takes place at 9pm tonight (24/05). Red Bull will see Verstappen start 6th and Hadjar 7th. In qualifying, Hadjar did set the fastest time in Q2 but was unable to take this pace into Q3.

With rain forecast for the race, the field will wait to see how this affects the flow of the race in Montreal in what could be the first wet weather race with the new regulations.