Zoom Zoom: Oh Canada! McLaren's worst nightmare finally comes true, Alex's bad weekend, and two bitter rivals vie for the race trophy. Oh, and Kimi time!

Welcome back Zoomies- having almost two weeks off enabled me to catch up with the Grab Bag, and check out the French Open (Georgie was there for the men's final!). We are in Montreal for the 10th race of the season. This is Lance Stroll's home race, and he IS racing, after re-injuring his right hand in Spain Quali. Also, Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli is finishing his exams remotely from Montreal, and will be done with high school by the end of this Canada GP weekend. Then he REALLY can concentrate on driving! No paddock buzz as it's been quiet, so let's drop that team/driver grid!

Franco Coloapinto- Alpine Driver- for now.

Switch Lawson and Ysunoda, and replace Doohan with Colapinto.

While on the subject of Franco, I've picked our charming Argentine as Driver of the Week! Mostly because Franco is at the end of his trail run as a F1 driver for Alpine, and Darth Flavio may pull him out soon. But hearing from some of you as you like Franco, We gonna get him in now and not take any chances! Onto Racing! Will we see any groundhogs making appearances this weekend? P1: 60 Minutes. 60 degrees. Track is cool at the moment, humidity is at 65% and light winds. Fifteen minutes in, a Red Flag out as LeClerc goes too fast going into turn 4, hits the left barrier, and his Ferrari car gets slid over into the right barrier- he's okay, but that car done for this session. Noticing Turn 10 is causing drivers fits with rear lockouts and some spinning. Other than Sauber and Sugar-Free RB, who ran Mediums, rest of the teams are running the softest Soft tyres- are teams saving their Mediums for Quali and the GP? P2: 60 minutes. temps a bit cooler. Clear skies. LeClerc's Ferrari car got really messed up, and will not be participating in Practice 2. Stroll scrapes the wall heavy, but is able to to get it off track, with it's left front tyre turned the wrong way. Brief Yellow flag as the marshals clear the track. Stroll's day is done. No further incidents.

P3: 60 minutes. Clear skies.66 degrees, a bit windy at 10MPH. the scuttlebutt from the first two sessions is the problem with rear tyre graining. LeClerc's car all repaired, and will be racing. Oscar Piastri scrapes the wall, puncturing his right rear, into the garage he goes. Hulkenberg rears also betray him, and his car does a pirouette on the track, flag out for the debris on the track. Ollie Bearman's Haas car has its rear tyre bop the wall, but no serious damage as he is still racing. Both Yuki Tsunoda and Gabriel Bortoleto will be seeing the stewards will be seeing the stewards for red flag infringements. Will see if grid penalties are applied in Qualifying.

Franco in deep thought if he will be wearing this uniform/kit for the rest of this season.

A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP race. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.

Q1: 18 minutes. Clear skies, warm track. and Yuki got hit HARD with a 10 second grid penalty in the GP where ever he finishes in Quali- Yuki did not stop when Oscar's car got the punctured tyre and Red Flag was out. Racing stopped at 5:30 for a RED FLAG as Alex Albon's engine cover FLIES OFF HIS CAR into the track! Somebody in the Williams garage did not use enough sticky tape, or didn't tighten the screws! Marshals onto the field to clean up the massive debris on track! Somehow the Williams pit crew made magic happen and where able tofix Albon's car for him to get out on track and Alex makes Q2! Bottom five are : Sainz/Williams, Bortoleto/Sauber, Gasley/Alpine, Stroll/Aston-Martin, and Lawson/ Sugar Free RB. Colapinto places 10th, his best result for this year. Hadjar may get a 3-grid place PENALTY for impeding Sainz.

Q2: 15 minutes. No incidents, so your midfield five are: Both Haas cars of Bearman and Ocon, Hulkenberg/Sauber, Tsunoda/ Red Bull and Colapinto/Alpine.

Q3: 12 minutes. I should note here that I made my first ever prediction with fellow Zoomie Rob as to who would take pole position. Max puts in a mega lap time to slot for pole position, but the driver I predicted to snag pole position (his second in a row at Montreal), Georgie, drives a perfect and efficient lap to snag quickest time for pole! Max/Red Bull-2nd, Oscar/McLaren-3rd, Kimi/Mercedes-4th, Hamilton/Ferrari-5th, Alonso/Aston-Martin-6th, Lando/McLaren-7th, Charles/Ferrari-8th, Albon/Williams-9th and Hadjar/Sugar Free Red Bull rounds out the top ten (though Hadjar may drop due to possible penalty). I just kinda felt" George was doing well this weekend up to this point, and I barely was correct in my prediction!

Franco with one of his horses on the family farm in Argentina!

Canadien GP: A 70 lap race with 20 turns over 2.7 miles per lap. A warm sunny day in Montreal, tyre degradation is a concern, so tyre strategy is again at play. Top 6 are using Mediums, while Lando and Charles are on Hard tyres. Over 352K in attendance this weekend, and the city of Montreal has really embraced F1, with LOTS of events and activations around this beautiful city! Both Lawson and Gasly will start from the pit lane as Super Free RB and Alpine decided to switch out their power units, while Yuki's Red Bull car will start 18th due to that 10 second penalty in Quali, and Hadjar took a 3-grid penalty for impending Sainz in Quali and drops to 12th on the grid. And just like that, It's LIGHTS OUT, and Georgie gets the jump on Max thru Turn 1, while Kimi is able to pass Oscar to move up to 3rd. Alex found the grass on turn 2, and has dropped 3 places back to 12th.

Max pits on Lap 13 to change to Hard tyres, drops to 9th. Georgie boxes to change to Hard tyres, comes out at in 7th. Kimi pits on Lap 14 for Hard tyres comes out in 9th. Lewis pits to change to Hard on Lap 16, comes out in 10th. Oscar Pits to switch to Hards (2.1 seconds pit stop!), come out in 7th. Norris and his Hard tyres leading race after 18 laps now. Fernando Alonzo had a horrid pit stop and has dropped to 17th! Alex only one still on Mediums. Alex is calling his own race, and it's not a good call, as Alex has been passed by several calls, and is in 13th, finally pits on Lap 24, comes out 15th on Hards. Georgie overtakes Charles for 2nd on Lap 27. Charles pits on Lap 29 to switch to Hards, comes out in 6th. Lando pits on Lap 30 for Mediums, comes out in 5th. Max pits again on Lap 38 for a fresh set of Hards, comes out in 5th. Kimi then pits to try for the undercut, and new Hards, but comes out JUST behind Max in 6th...Kimi almost pulled that undercut off on Max. Georgie in the lead, with Oscar and Lando behind him.

Georgie pits on Lap 43 (3.3 seconds) and comes back out on track in 4th, behind Charles and in front of Max. Oscar pits on Lap 45 for new Hard tyres and comes out in 6th. Hamilton pits for new Hards and comes out in 7th. Norris pits on Lap 48 and comes out in 6th. Yellow Flag for the moment as Alex Albon calls it a day and drives the Williams car into the run-off ara, safely away from the track; another bad race weekend for Alex with this DNF. Hometown driver Lance Stroll slapped with a 10 second PENALTY for forcing Gasly off the track (I'm biting my tongue so hard here!). LeClerc pits on lap 54, switched to the mediums, which is what he wanted earlier, and comes out in 6th. Sugar Free RB has Liam Lawson retire the car after 56 laps for a DNF. After 57 laps, Yuki finally takes his first pit stop. Only Esteban and Carlos have not pitted, and Sainz pits. Georgie fighting off Max for first, with Kimi holding off Oscar and Lando with 10 laps to go!

What a lot of F1 fans have been waiting for to happen this season, is happening in these last 10 laps, as the Papaya Boys, Lando and Oscar are RACING against each other for 4th, Oscar holding Lando off so far, but on Lap 66, both drivers wheel to wheel. Lando inches out in front for a bit, but Oscar retakes the lead, and then McLaren's worst nightmare, as Lando bumps into Oscars rear trying to take the inside position, skids into the wall, damaging his car, and Lando is OUT (DNF), and Yellow Flag is out. Safety car deployed. and this race will end with a single last lap following the safety car, which means Mercedes George Russell wins the Canadien Grand Prix! Max takes 2nd, and finishing the Mercedes podium is Kimi, who becomes the third youngest F1 driver ever to snag a podium. Oscar finishes 4th, Charles-5th, Lewis-6th, Fernando-7th, Hulkenberg-8th, Ocon-9th and Sainz-10th for the last point.

Max, winner George Mercedes engineer and Kimi on the podium!

Driver of the Day as voted on by fans was Kimi! He has graduated on more ways than one this weekend!

Bad Day: Albon, who called his own race in a car that was having mechanical problems, and ignored the calls from the team- should be an interesting de-briefing at Williams. Charles LeClerc- has NOT happy with Ferrari's tyre strategy.

Lando- No points...enough said. :( McLaren- first time this season no podium.

Pour one out for the unlucky marmot/groundhog that decided to visit the track during lap 8, and the last thing that critter saw was Ferrari red- hence why there was damage to Lewis' car. Lewis felt awful about the critter, as you can read here: https://ew.com/lewis-hamilton-ran-over-groundhog-during-f1-race-11755566

Good Day:Mercedes- finishing 1st and 3rd on the podium! Georgie- had an amazing Q3 for pole, and ran a perfect GP! Kimi- His first podium, and his dad was there to see it on Father's Day! Esteban Ocon- who ran his Haas car Hard tyres for almost the entire race and snagged points for the team!

Rob's treat for viewing his first F1 quali or any F1 content! I found this completely by accident, and as a good sport watching your first F1 race this weekend, you deserve to hear Mrs. Christian Horner in her post Spice days!

Off next week, then on for a Euro triple-header, starting at Red Bull's home race in Austria!