The Canadian Grand Prix wasn’t easy for any driver on the grid as shown by a quarter of the field failing to take the chequered flag.
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez was one of several drivers who found the barrier but that didn’t stop his teammate Max Verstappen from taking victory.
However, commentating on the race for Sky Sports F1, David Croft and Martin Brundle noticed a rare ‘own goal’ from Verstappen that could have cost him the 60 win of his Formula 1 career.
He was under serious pressure from George Russell and Lando Norris throughout the race but benefitted from a safety car caused by Logan Sargeant’s crash in the first half of the Grand Prix.
Verstappen had been overtaken by Norris at this point and the McLaren driver was opening up a serious lead in the damp conditions in Montreal.
Brundle believes that the calls Verstappen was making over the team radio when he found himself in second place chasing Russell ended up being an own goal.
It led to the 26-year-old losing the lead of the race until Norris got caught out by the extremely unfortunate timing of the first safety car.
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Martin Brundle highlights Max Verstappen’s ‘own goal’ in Canada
It was the definition of a mixed weekend for current Constructors’ champions Red Bull.
While Max Verstappen started the fastest lap in qualifying – although he missed out on pole position thanks to George Russell setting an identical time earlier in the session – Sergio Perez suffered back-to-back Q1 exits.
The Mexican qualified 16 behind the likes of Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen which was a seriously disappointing result from the 34-year-old off the back of signing a new contract with Red Bull.
Meanwhile, at the front of the race, Max Verstappen was tiptoeing around a treacherous track in the opening laps with grip levels very low on the intermediate tyres.
However, once the track started to dry, Verstappen sensed an opportunity to overtake and was calling for the DRS to be enabled.
The Dutchman almost immediately made a small mistake going into turn two that put him under pressure from Norris as soon as the race director noted his request.
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Max Verstappen caught out by DRS at the Canadian Grand Prix
With DRS enabled during the race, Croft said: “Wow, about two laps ago, he would have loved that. Now, I imagine that that’s bad timing if you are Max Verstappen because now you’ve got three DRS zones for Lando Norris to use an extra pace of about 12-13 kilometres an hour to get past that Red Bull.”
Brundle added: “I think that’s what’s known as an own goal.
“Obviously, they use these radio messages to get the message across to race control but that was when he was right on George Russell’s gearbox, which he may well be again soon.”
It looked like Norris was in line to win the second Grand Prix of his career as he raced away into a huge lead after overtaking Verstappen and Russell.
However, he reached the pit lane milliseconds too soon and got stuck behind the safety car rather than pitting for new tyres after Logan Sargeant’s crash.
That put him back to third in the race and from that point, Verstappen drove perfectly to avoid being out under serious pressure by either Mercedes or McLaren driver.
It may have been an own goal from Verstappen to call for the DRS to be enabled when it was, but he still extended his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.
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