CANADIAN GRAND PRIX - AS IT HAPPENED

REPORT!

What a thrilling last part of the race, which saw Sainz give everything to catch Verstappen, but the Red Bull driver just about holds on to take the chequered flag!

Sainz heads down for the last lap of the race, and remains just under a second behind Verstappen! He cannot quite get there and Verstappen looks like this win is his!

Sainz cannot get close enough, even with DRS on the straights. Verstappen has a gap of eight tenths on the Ferrari man, and is pulling out the vital tenths he needs around the circuit, and crucially, before the DRS zone.

Sainz opens the rear wing again on the long back straight, but he is not close enough to Verstappen! Meanwhile, Alonso is overtaken by Leclerc, who is now up to P6.

Carlos Sainz will have DRS at the end of this lap, as he is now just under eight tenths behind Max Verstappen!

He opens it on the back straight, but he cannot get close enough to make the move!

Meanwhile, Zhou gets past Vettel is in 9th place.

Verstappen opts to floor it right out of the final chicane! Sainz has gone right with him, and is not far behind, but the classification is as you were in the top ten!

By the end of the lap, the Dutchman has pulled a gap of nine tenths!

The safety car will be coming in at the end of this lap as Verstappen tries to back the pack up ahead of the restart! Sainz is right on his gearbox!

Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton, Russell, Ocon, Alonso, Leclerc, Bottas, Vettel, Zhou.

Safety car remains out, and there has been no indication on when it will come in as the marshals clear the wreckage of Tsunoda's AlphaTauri at Turn 1.

Safety car deployed! Yuki Tsunoda goes into the barrier at turn 1 and Carlos Sainz has got just what he wanted!

The AlphaTauri driver reports he is okay. Sainz opts to pit for a set of hard tyres under the safety car, and this has worked out beautifully for him. He is now right behind Verstappen, who must be livid. This moment will change this race!

Verstappen's engineer says to his driver on the radio that he can finish the race on these set of tyres.

Charles Leclerc makes his way through the traffic as he gets past Zhou Guanyu at the first corner. He is now chasing Lance Stroll, but the Aston Martin opts to come in at the end of the lap. Leclerc moves up another position.

Verstappen reports that his tyres have hit the cliff and Red Bull call him in for a set of hard tyres. He pits from the lead! Sainz now leads the race.

However, he is livid, as he comes back out behind Lewis Hamilton! However, the Mercedes driver is not ahead of him long as at the end of the lap, he decides to come in for a new set of hards.

This afternoon goes from bad to worse for Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver finally decides to box for a set of medium tyres, but the stop is slow, and it costs him around three seconds in time! He comes back out behind Daniel Ricciardo and is in P12.

Nicholas Latifi, who is running at the back of the grid in his home race, has a major issue at his pit stop, as the Williams mechanics struggle to get a set of tyres onto the car. He is now 38 seconds behind Pierre Gasly in 18th.

Verstappen still leads this Canadian Grand Prix, but Carlos Sainz has dropped the gap down to 6.9 seconds. Can he continue driving with this pace? He is currently the fastest man on the circuit.

Leclerc still cannot get past Ocon and remains in P6.

Leclerc's engineer comes on the radio to suggest a change in strategy to 'Plan B' - the Ferrari driver responds disconsolately, saying "Whatever - I cannot pass him [Ocon]."

He is not happy in that red car!

Is Max Verstappen cruising? Well, it seemed like it. However, he has just got on the radio to his engineer to complain that his tyres are going away. Let's see how long his hard tyres can last on this stint, as he came in for them during the first virtual safety car.

We are edging towards the half-way point in this race. Verstappen leads. He is 8.1 secs clear of Carlos Sainz behind him in 2nd, with Lewis Hamilton 14 seconds off the lead in P3.

There have been two retirements so far, as Sergio Perez and Mick Schumacher both stopped out on track due to mechanical issues. Red Bull report that it was a gearbox issue on Perez' car.

As for Leclerc, he is in P6 after starting in P19, but the Ferrari driver cannot pass Ocon ahead of him in 5th.

Alpine box Alonso for the hard tyre in the aim of keeping those set of tyres on all the way until the end of the race for the one-stop strategy. Will it work? That remains to be seen.

He comes out behind Leclerc and Ocon and is now in P7. Meanwhile, Leclerc complains on the team radio that he has "no traction" in his Ferrari, as it looks a bit of a handful on the rear-end. He cannot clear Ocon at the moment!