F1: Max Verstappen equals Ayrton Senna's win record after Canada victory

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen continues to rewrite history as he breaks yet another record. After another comfortable victory at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, he equalled legendary driver Ayrton Senna's career total of 41 F1 race victories. Apart from that, he also secured the 100th victory for Red Bull Racing.

Verstappen is increasingly looking like a shoo-in to win the 2023 Formula 1 Driver's World Championship title after securing his sixth win out of eight races so far. The other two races were won by his teammate Sergio Perez, making it clear that Red Bull are also on their way to another Constructors' World Championship title.

Verstappen now has 195 points and holds a 69-point lead over his teammate and closest contender, Sergio Perez (126 points). Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso (117 points) is another nine points behind the Mexican. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is the only other driver to have scored more than 100 points so far, as he sits in fourth place with 102 points.

The rest of the field have only 68 points and below, with Verstappen already easing out of reach with only about a third of the season completed.

Verstappen is in a league of his own

The Dutchman is clearly on his way to a hat-trick of world championships, but he will need to keep his head down for several more months as the competition scrambles to catch up.

Verstappen secured pole position with a 1.2 sec margin, but that was helped by the downpour that hindered the final runs of the other cars. He then won the race from pole with a 9.5 second margin to Alonso, which is considerably small compared to his other dominant victories this season.

However, it was clear that he did not need to push himself too much and could have easily extended the gap. The victory puts him level with Senna on 41 career wins, but he is only just 25 years old. That record will surely be surpassed this season, and he also has a strong chance of catching Alain Prost (51 wins) and Red Bull legend Sebastian Vettel (53 wins).

Verstappen still has a long way to go to catch both Michael Schumacher (91 wins) and Lewis Hamilton (103 wins), but the young Dutchman still has many years to close the gap.

Alonso is determined to put up a challenge

In Canada, the Mercedes drivers proved that they have managed to make the improvements stick. After languishing in the middle of the pack at the start of the season, Hamilton started third in front of teammate George Russell.

Despite the progress made by the Silver Arrows, Fernando Alonso still managed to qualify ahead of them to share the front row with Verstappen. Hamilton managed a great start off the line to overtake the Spaniard, and managed to hold on for the first stretch of the race.

However, it became clear that Alonso was only biding his time. After the Safety Car period which was brought out by Russell's shunt against the wall, the two-time world champion decided to make his move on his former teammate and championship rival.

Alonso then managed to overtake Hamilton on the track on lap 23, and the seven-time world champion was not able to fight back. Alonso managed the gap to keep Hamilton out of the DRS zone, and nursed his tyres and brakes to yet another second place finish.

Hamilton had to settle for third, making up a star-studded podium with a total of eleven world championships between the top three drivers.

Ferrari have a better weekend than expected

Ferrari looked set to have a largely disappointing weekend after Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz started from 10th and 11th place on the grid, respectively. They were expected to be Red Bull's main contenders this season after their performance in 2022, but the Italian marque has been falling behind Aston Martin and now even Mercedes.

Nevertheless, a good strategy in Canada allowed them to salvage fourth and fifth place on Sunday. They took a gamble by staying out during the safety car period brought by Russell, allowing them to leapfrog the cars in front of them that opted for the cheap stop. The Ferraris then switched to a one-stop strategy which allowed them to keep their positions ahead of the midfield pack.

Leclerc was even able to make a final push to try and catch Hamilton for a podium spot, but the Mercedes driver was able to respond by also increasing his pace.

Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez had to do another recovery drive after a disaster in qualifying. leaving him to settle for sixth place. That drives home the point that he may have the same machinery under him, but he might not be able to challenge his teammate for the title this season.