With Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc out of the top race, Verstappen was able to take his sixth victory of the season - though pressured by Ferrari's second driver Carlos Sainz due to a safety car.
- It was really exciting in the end, Verstappen stated in the official interview after the race.
Lecler swallowed five
Ferrari had to change Charles Leclerc's engine, which meant that he had to start from the last stage.
Monegasken is Max Verstappen's main challenger and despite the conditions, he climbed all the way up to fifth place.
The qualifier's big exclamation point, Fernando Alonso, is probably not super happy with his efforts in the Alpine car.
From his second place, the 40-year-old fell all the way down to seventh.
Russell in fourth place
Mercedes can be happy with its drivers' efforts.
George Russell finished in fourth place behind Lewis Hamilton as third.
The latter did a good race and during parts of the race had the fastest lap of the entire course.
This was Hamilton's only second top 3 placement, first came in the season's first race in Bahrain.
- It is overwhelming to take third place.
It has been a struggle with the car this year, but we in the team never give up and I am inspired by that.
The others are a little too fast right now, but we are doing everything we can and getting closer, says Hamilton.
The lead disappeared
When Yuki Tsunoda drove off on the 49th lap and a safety car was called, which created excitement and put the Canadian Grand Prix at the forefront.
Verstappen's lead disappeared and then Carlos Sainz was able to give the Dutchman a match all the way into goal.
- I gave everything I had, but so did Carlos.
The last laps were really fun, says Verstappen.
- I pressed and tried with everything I had to beat Max but we did not have that speed, says Carlos Sainz.
Things went worse for Verstappen's stable colleague Sergio Perez.
At lap 9, the Mexican had problems with the gearbox, which meant that he had to cancel.
Something that resulted in the evening's first virtual safety car, a second was called when Mick Schumacher, Haas, was forced to leave.
ARCHIVE: Here Verstappen took home the first F1 race in Miami (May 9):
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Max Verstappen drove home the first F1 race ever in Miami.
Photo: TT