Montreal (AFP)

Dutchman Max Verstappen has a chance to widen the gap to Ferrari’s main rival Charles Leclerc, who finished third in Canada’s Formula 1 World Cup on Sunday after disappointing performances in Azerbaijan last weekend.
Last week, thanks to the Dutchman’s victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and his failure in the cars, Leclerc’s departure from the race, the former managed to move 34 points away from the latter and lead the World Championship.
Formula 1 returns to Canada after two years of absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as it is known that the last race of 2019 saw the seventh victory of British driver Lewis Hamilton on this lap.
But this season, seven-time world champion Hamilton has moved away from the atmosphere of first-place racing, due to the decline in the level of his Mercedes team, to play supporting roles behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
On Sunday, after finishing third in the ninth round before the ninth round at Gilles Villeneuve Stadium, Verstappen trailed his teammate Sergio Pérez of Mexico by “21 points” by 21 points and 34 points.
The Dutch have all the weapons to keep excelling, and they enjoy great confidence after winning their first title last season after fierce competition with Hamilton and winning the solo title in the last seconds of an exciting race in Abu Dhabi. last year.
It seems that Red Bull has managed to stabilize the team’s level after the problems at the start of the current season, which forced Verstappen not to finish the race between Bahrain and Australia.
Driver Perez ready to sacrifice his place to captain Max, Red Bull have a brilliant duo for the first time since 2011, when they had a second pair from German Sebastian Vettel and Australian Mark Weber.
On the other hand, the equation is clear for Ferrari: if the dance horse team wants to reduce the difference with Red Bull, it must find solutions to the problems it has encountered in recent careers, especially from a strategic point of view, because it knows that you have luck. None were on Leclerc’s side.
After dominating Leclerc’s wins in Bahrain and Melbourne earlier in the season, Ferrari has been making mistakes.
Leclerc left for Spain and Baku last week due to mechanical problems. In Monaco, Ferrari adopted a bad strategy that led to the loss of the prince’s driver.
Despite everything, Leclerc is still in good shape. If an Emirati driver made a mistake in the Italian Grand Prix when he finished sixth because he knew third place was available, on the other hand he did well, especially in the official tests, where he managed to start from first place to the end. Four races. He is also the fastest on the track.
It’s up to Ferrari to give him a consistently effective machine and strategy.
Red Bull is 80 points behind Ferrari in the Designers’ Championship, the Italian team is set to start on the right track to winning the constructors’ title for the first time since 2008 and one of its drivers will be crowned champion after that. 2007
It looks like the Mercedes team is keeping an eye on him as he is 38 points behind Ferrari.
And standing out in the Mercedes rankings, another British driver, George Russell, finished fourth in the overall standings, just 17 points behind Leclerc.