Can Perez Make This A Fight Again

A few races ago, Sergio Perez was showing that he was going to be a thorn in teammate Max Verstappen’s side in the fight for this year’s championship. The Mexican driver had four top two finishes in the first five races to the season which includes wins at Saudi Arabia and Baku.

However, he’s since lost the mojo.

A crash in qualifying Monaco left him starting last. He’d only reach it back up to 16th at the end. Two weeks later in Spain, he made an error in Q2 and was eliminated early. With track position being more of a thing, he’d only finish fourth.

Verstappen won both races and as a result, has opened up a 53 point lead entering Sunday’s Pirelli Canadian Grand Prix (2 p.m. ET, ABC). It’s a race that Verstappen won from the pole a year ago while Perez finished last (20th). In fact, Perez hasn’t finished in the points in Montreal since a fifth place run in 2017. That’s the only time he’s finished on the lead lap in his last eight starts there.

If he’s going to stop this slide, he’s going to have to have a career weekend in Canada.

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Mercedes

Spain was the first time all season that they had Dual podium finishes. While they have been more modest lately in regard to that race weekend being from what they feel was like a perfect scenario for the conditions that everyone was dealt with in Spain, they also feel like their pace won’t be close to that in Montreal.

Even if it isn’t, I still expect Dual top fives out of them then.

Perez is reeling and has struggled for much of his career in Montreal. Ferrari hasn’t been the Ferrari’s that we’ve been used to seeing. That opens the door for Mercedes to maybe not win, but still be slightly competitive.

George Russell has three straight top five finishes in his No. 63 Mercedes this season. Lewis Hamilton hasn’t finished worse than sixth all year.

In Montreal, they finished P3 (Hamilton) and P4 (Russell) just one year ago. When Valtteri Bottas was in that second car, he had two runner-up finishes, a fourth and seventh. Hamilton had four wins in a six-year period including six consecutive top five finishes. He’s won 7 of his 13 career starts there as well.

Which is why I’m curious to see their form this weekend.

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Can Aston Martin Find Form Again?

Fernando Alonso came into his home country on the heels of five podium finishes in the first six races of the season including a runner-up finish in Monaco. His teammate, Lance Stroll, comes into his home race on the heels of his best finish (6th) since the spring in Australia. Can he on Sunday in Montreal, have better fortunes than Alonso had in Spain?

Alonso was never a factor and finished a disappointing seventh. With Mercedes’ emergence, Aston Martin has slipped down to third in the constructors’ championship (-18). They’re still 34 points clear of Ferrari, but the question remains, can they find the finishes on the podium again and can they top Mercedes?

Alonso has made 17 starts in Canada and even in the rain, qualified on the front row (2nd) last June. Can they find the pace back?

They’ll come to Canada with an update to their car in hopes of doing so.