MONTREAL: Formula One statistics for Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, round nine of the 24-race championship:
Lap distance: 4.361km. Total distance: 305.270km (70 laps)
2023 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull one minute 25.858 seconds.
2023 race winner: Verstappen
Race lap record: Valtteri Bottas (Finland) 1:13.078, Mercedes, 2019.
Start time: 1800GMT (1400 local)
CANADA
This weekend will be the 53rd Canadian Grand Prix, and 43rd in Montreal.
Lewis Hamilton has won seven times in Montreal (in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019), including the first of his career. He holds the record jointly with Ferrari great Michael Schumacher.
Fernando Alonso (2006), Verstappen (2022, 2023) and Daniel Ricciardo (2014) have also won in Canada.
The circuit on the Ile Notre-Dame has 14 corners and is named after late Ferrari great Gilles Villeneuve. McLaren have won 13 times in Canada, Ferrari 12 times (11 in Montreal), with seven poles and nine fastest laps.
The rain-hit Canadian Grand Prix of 2011 was Formula One's longest race, lasting four hours, four minutes and 39.537 seconds. The safety car was deployed six times, another record.
The circuit is tough on brakes and the surface has been relaid for this year.
The wall at the exit to the final corner has been dubbed "The Wall of Champions" since 1999 when Damon Hill, Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve all crashed there.
Aston Martin's Lance Stroll is the sole Canadian in the race. The last Canadian to stand on a home podium was Jacques Villeneuve in 1996.
CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD
Verstappen has led the championship for a record 47 successive races dating back to Spain in May 2022 and arrives in Montreal 31 points clear of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Red Bull are 24 points clear of Ferrari.
WINS
Verstappen has won five of eight races this season, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz triumphant in Melbourne, McLaren's Lando Norris in Miami and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in Monaco.
Ferrari are the only team to have had two winning drivers this season.
Hamilton has a record 103 career victories from 340 starts. He has now gone 53 races without a win, a run dating back to 2021.
Red Bull won 21 of 22 races last year, with Verstappen victorious in a record 19, and have won 36 of the last 41.
The team have won 118 races and are fourth in the all-time list of winners. Ferrari lead with 245, McLaren have 184 and Mercedes 125.
Verstappen has won 59 grands prix and is third on the all-time list. Michael Schumacher is second on 91.
POLE POSITION
Hamilton has a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary last year.
Verstappen took the first seven poles of the season, equalling Alain Prost's 1993 record, and eight in a row including the last race of 2023 – equalling Ayrton Senna's 1988-89 record.
Leclerc ended that run with pole in Monaco.
PODIUMS
Verstappen has 104 career podiums, Hamilton 197.
The Red Bull driver set a record of 21 podiums in a season last year but Michael Schumacher remains the only driver to have stood on the podium in every race of a season (2002).
Verstappen has been on the podium six times in eight races this season.
MILESTONE
Verstappen is chasing his third Canadian GP win in a row.
The race marks 10 years since Ricciardo's first Formula One win at the circuit in 2014. - REUTERS
