Vettel Gets First Canada Crown

Sebastian Vettel led from virtually start to finish to finally win a Canadian GP. The win sees the German’s advantage in the standings increase despite Fernando Alonso taking second and Lewis Hamilton third. After his fantastic qualifying performance, Valtteri Bottas could only manage a 14^th place finish which means Williams are still yet to win a point this season. Ninth place for Kimi Raikkonen does mean that his title charge has taken a severe knock, but it was enough to level Michael Schumacher’s record of 24 consecutive point scoring races.

It was always going to be hard for Bottas to maintain his position and he went backwards from the start as both Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber were able to overtake the Finn from the start. Alonso followed later on in the opening lap, leaving Bottas in sixth place. Jean-Eric Vergne was the next to overtake Bottas on lap six but Adrian Sutil would suffer a spin whilst also attempting to move ahead of Bottas and this pushed the German down to 13^th. Raikkonen managed to overtake Daniel Ricciardo on lap-12 to take eighth.

The change in tyres has seemed to have served well as this race wasn’t about the rubber or really about the strategy. There was a bit more overtaking but it still wasn’t Formula One at its very best. The first man to pit was Mark Webber on lap-14 which was just about synonymous with a two stop strategy. Rosberg and Bottas followed a lap later before Vettel and Alonso pitted on lap-17 with Hamilton waiting until lap-20 to come in.

Pastor Maldonado was handed a drive through penalty on lap-16 for causing a collision. The Venezuelan locked up as he broke in to a corner and clipped the back of Sutil. Fortunately, there was only slight rear wing damage sustained by Sutil and all cars were still on track. This race turned out to be only the second time where the Safety Car hasn’t been deployed in two consecutive Montreal races, the last time being in 2003-2004.

Webber managed to overtake Rosberg on lap-31 to claim third with Alonso also passing the Mercedes a little later on to take fourth. There was a worry for Webber on lap-38 when Giedo Van Der Garde decided he was going to turn in on the Red Bull, this caused damage to end plate on the front wing of Webber but, if anything, it actually made the Australian quicker than before. Van Der Garde received a ten second stop/go penalty for ignoring the blue flags.

The wing damage may have cost Webber in the end though as Alonso managed to overtake the Red Bull on lap-42 to allow the Spaniard to begin his charge towards Hamilton. Webber pitted for the second time on lap-47 but decided against a front wing change. Van Der Garde was in the wars again as Nico Hulkenberg hadn’t quite completed the overtake and his rear wheel clipped the front wing of the Caterham. This caused rear suspension failure to the Sauber whilst the front wing of Van Der Garde had come apart and ended underneath the chassis. Neither car could be recovered and both retired from the race.

Alonso pitted a lap later than Webber with Hamilton pitting on lap-49, a lap before Vettel. Alonso had been managing to close up to Hamilton and when Adrian Sutil received a drive through penalty on lap-61 for ignoring blue flags and stopping the Mercedes from overtaking; Alonso was right up behind him. It took a further two laps before Alonso managed to get past Hamilton and claim second. Paul Di Resta deserved a mention on lap-57 as he came in for his first and only pit stop after doing a fantastic stint on the medium compound tyres.

The other retirement of the race happened on lap-66 when Esteban Gutierrez seemingly came out of the pits, mistimed the corner and ended up going straight in to the tyre wall. Massa managed to get the final piece of the action on the final lap as he overtook Raikkonen to claim eighth. Race result:

1. Vettel (Red Bull), 2. Alonso (Ferrari), 3. Hamilton (Mercedes), 4. Webber (Red Bull), 5. Rosberg (Mercedes), 6. Vergne (Toro Rosso), 7. Di Resta (Force India), 8. Massa (Ferrari), 9. Raikkonen (Lotus), 10. Sutil (Force India), 11. Perez (McLaren), 12. Button (McLaren), 13. Grosjean (Lotus), 14. Bottas (Williams), 15. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 16. Maldonado (Williams), 17. Bianchi (Marussia), 18. Pic (Caterham), 19. Chilton (Marussia) DNF: Hulkenberg (Sauber), Van Der Garde (Caterham), Gutierrez (Sauber)