It was massively windy in Montreal all day, and that played havoc with the cars’ aerodynamic stability in the race. Vettel picked up front wing damage almost instantly when Max Verstappen made a blinding start from fifth on the grid to go round the outside of him into second place by Turn 1, as Bottas went for the inside to grab third.
Further round the lap, exiting Turn 2, Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz tangled, the Haas spinning the Toro Rosso down the grass on the inside of the track until it collected the innocent Felipe Massa’s Williams in the chicane that follows. Exit two cars on the spot, as Grosjean limped back to the pits for a new nose. Out came the safety car.
On the restart on lap four Hamilton pulled clear and thereafter simply controlled the race all afternoon, pitting to switch his ultrasoft Pirelli tyres for supersofts on the 32nd of the 70 laps.
Bottas’ way to second was smoothed when the unfortunate Verstappen’s Red Bull simply stopped in Turn 2 on the 11th lap, but the Finn pitted for soft tyres on the 23rd lap, and struggled to hold pace with Hamilton thereafter as he steadily dropped away after keeping him honest for a while.
Meanwhile, Ricciardo maintained fourth place ahead of Perez, Raikkonen and Ocon. Raikkonen pitted first, for supersofts on lap 17. Ricciardo went for softs on 18, and Perez for supersofts on 19. Force India kept the ultrasoft-shod Ocon out until the 32nd lap, by which time he was running second to Hamilton. The stop dropped him back to sixth, but that became fifth when Raikkonen pitted again for ultrasofts on the 41st lap.
Now Perez began to hound Ricciardo, but Ocon had ideas of his own as Raikkonen was recovering on the softer tyres and Vettel was charging his way through the field. With 20 laps to go Force India were asking Perez to let Ocon by on his 13-lap fresher tyres, with the promise that positions would be reversed if his attack was unsuccessful, but the Mexican wasn’t having it and begged to be allowed to race. Meanwhile, the Ferraris were getting closer and closer.
The red cars switched places on the 60th lap, when Raikkonen – complaining of brake issues – ran wide down the inside of the kerbs in the final corner, and Vettel’s task was made easier when Perez resisted a side-by-side challenge from Ocon going into that corner on the 65th lap. As the Frenchman lost momentum, Vettel overtook him going into Turn 1 on the 66th lap, obliging Ocon to run wide into the run-off area to avoid contact, when he found Perez slamming the door as he tried to put the Ferrari inside it.
Perez actually made it easier for Vettel to pass him than he had his team mate, two laps later in the final corner, and the two pink cars went on to finish side-by-side, two tenths of a second apart in fifth and sixth, as Vettel just failed to dislodge the Red Bull that took the podium they had coveted. It was Ricciardo’s third successive visit to it.
Outside the top ten, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer held on to 11th by a fraction from Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, who was penalised for overtaking under the virtual safety car, as the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein sandwiched Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren for 13th and 15th places.
That came after Fernando Alonso’s McLaren quit on him with two laps to go when the team’s first point of the season was in his hand.
The other retirement was Daniil Kvyat, who was handed a drive-through penalty after the team incorrectly told him he could regain his starting place after he initially failed to get away from the grid on the formation lap. Later the stewards decided they’d given him the wrong penalty and gave him a 10-second time one instead
The Montreal result reverses Hamilton’s misfortunes from Monaco, and indicates that Mercedes – who reclaim their lead in the constructors’ standings over Ferrari – have a handle on their tyre problems at last, keeping the mighty title fight right on the boil.
Hamilton also made history with Saturday Qualifying. He was left speechless by the presentation of a genuine Ayrton Senna race helmet to mark matching the Brazilian on 65 poles on Saturday - but that wasn't the only Senna record he equalled in Montreal.
Further round the lap, exiting Turn 2, Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz tangled, the Haas spinning the Toro Rosso down the grass on the inside of the track until it collected the innocent Felipe Massa’s Williams in the chicane that follows. Exit two cars on the spot, as Grosjean limped back to the pits for a new nose. Out came the safety car.
On the restart on lap four Hamilton pulled clear and thereafter simply controlled the race all afternoon, pitting to switch his ultrasoft Pirelli tyres for supersofts on the 32nd of the 70 laps.
Bottas’ way to second was smoothed when the unfortunate Verstappen’s Red Bull simply stopped in Turn 2 on the 11th lap, but the Finn pitted for soft tyres on the 23rd lap, and struggled to hold pace with Hamilton thereafter as he steadily dropped away after keeping him honest for a while.
Meanwhile, Ricciardo maintained fourth place ahead of Perez, Raikkonen and Ocon. Raikkonen pitted first, for supersofts on lap 17. Ricciardo went for softs on 18, and Perez for supersofts on 19. Force India kept the ultrasoft-shod Ocon out until the 32nd lap, by which time he was running second to Hamilton. The stop dropped him back to sixth, but that became fifth when Raikkonen pitted again for ultrasofts on the 41st lap.
Now Perez began to hound Ricciardo, but Ocon had ideas of his own as Raikkonen was recovering on the softer tyres and Vettel was charging his way through the field. With 20 laps to go Force India were asking Perez to let Ocon by on his 13-lap fresher tyres, with the promise that positions would be reversed if his attack was unsuccessful, but the Mexican wasn’t having it and begged to be allowed to race. Meanwhile, the Ferraris were getting closer and closer.
The red cars switched places on the 60th lap, when Raikkonen – complaining of brake issues – ran wide down the inside of the kerbs in the final corner, and Vettel’s task was made easier when Perez resisted a side-by-side challenge from Ocon going into that corner on the 65th lap. As the Frenchman lost momentum, Vettel overtook him going into Turn 1 on the 66th lap, obliging Ocon to run wide into the run-off area to avoid contact, when he found Perez slamming the door as he tried to put the Ferrari inside it.
Perez actually made it easier for Vettel to pass him than he had his team mate, two laps later in the final corner, and the two pink cars went on to finish side-by-side, two tenths of a second apart in fifth and sixth, as Vettel just failed to dislodge the Red Bull that took the podium they had coveted. It was Ricciardo’s third successive visit to it.
Outside the top ten, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer held on to 11th by a fraction from Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, who was penalised for overtaking under the virtual safety car, as the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein sandwiched Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren for 13th and 15th places.
That came after Fernando Alonso’s McLaren quit on him with two laps to go when the team’s first point of the season was in his hand.
The other retirement was Daniil Kvyat, who was handed a drive-through penalty after the team incorrectly told him he could regain his starting place after he initially failed to get away from the grid on the formation lap. Later the stewards decided they’d given him the wrong penalty and gave him a 10-second time one instead
The Montreal result reverses Hamilton’s misfortunes from Monaco, and indicates that Mercedes – who reclaim their lead in the constructors’ standings over Ferrari – have a handle on their tyre problems at last, keeping the mighty title fight right on the boil.
Hamilton also made history with Saturday Qualifying. He was left speechless by the presentation of a genuine Ayrton Senna race helmet to mark matching the Brazilian on 65 poles on Saturday - but that wasn't the only Senna record he equalled in Montreal.
- A day after equalling his hero Ayrton Senna’s record of 65 pole positions, Hamilton matched the great Brazilian in another category – career Grand Slams. The Briton has now done the quadruple of pole, fastest lap, every lap led and victory in four races, including twice this year (the other coming in China).
- Amongst the other drivers to have scored four Grand Slam victories are Nigel Mansell, Sebastian Vettel and Briton’s only other three-time world champion, Sir Jackie Stewart, who coincidentally celebrated his 78th birthday on Sunday. Only Jim Clark (8), Alberto Ascari and Michael Schumacher (both 5) have more Grand Slams than Hamilton.
- The most Grand Slams in one season is three (Ascari in 1952, Clark in both 1963 and 1965, Mansell in 1992) – Hamilton has 13 races left this year to either match or surpass that record.
- Sunday's win was Hamilton's third of the season (the same number as Vettel), his 56th overall and his sixth in Montreal, meaning the Briton also joins Senna in becoming one of just three drivers (the other being Michael Schumacher) to have won as many as six times at one circuit.
- Senna did it at Monaco; Schumacher at Spa-Francorchamps, Barcelona, Suzuka (all six wins), Imola (7), Montreal (7) and Magny Cours (8)
- Hamilton's pole/victory double came ten years after he scored his first career pole and win at the same circuit.
- Valtteri Bottas meanwhile finished second to complete Mercedes' first one-two of the season. The Finn has now stood on the Montreal podium in each of the last three years.
- And speaking of three podiums in a row, Daniel Ricciardo came home in P3 for his third rostrum in as many races. By contrast, Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen recorded his third retirement of the season.
- For the first time this season, Sebastian Vettel finished off the podium and outside the top two. Still, he did keep up his 100% point scoring streak with P4, and he won the fan-voted Driver of the Day for the fifth time in seven races.
- After getting both cars home in the points in the first five races, then neither into the top ten in Monaco, Force India returned to their old ways in Montreal, with Sergio Perez (whose own 15-race points streak was snapped in the Principality) fifth and Esteban Ocon sixth. The Mexican has finished in front of the Frenchman in all but one race this season.
- For the fourth time in five races, Nico Hulkenberg bagged himself a top ten finish. Renault team mate Jolyon Palmer meanwhile finished just outside the points in 11th for the second race in a row.
- But while Palmer's wait goes on, Lance Stroll came home ninth at his home race for his first career points. The Williams rookie is just the third Canadian, after father and son duo Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve, to score points in F1. The country has had a long wait for more points - since the 2006 British Grand Prix in fact, when Jacques Villeneuve finished P8 for BMW-Sauber.
- At 18 years 7 months and 13 days old, Stroll is also the second-youngest points scorer in F1 history, behind Max Verstappen.
Elsewhere, Toro Rosso recorded their first double DNF of the season, with Daniil Kvyat going out on lap 54 and Carlos Sainz eliminated on the first lap after contact with Romain Grosjean and then Felipe Massa.
Speaking of Grosjean, the Frenchman scored points for the third consecutive race, despite contact with Sainz at the start.
Up next is Azerbaijan, and a race no one on the current grid has won. Who will join Nico Rosberg on the Baku roll of honour?
RACE RESULTS
|
Cla
|
#
|
Driver
|
Chassis
|
Engine
|
Laps
|
Time
|
Gap
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
44
|
Mercedes
|
Mercedes
|
70
|
1:33'05.154
|
|||
|
2
|
77
|
Mercedes
|
Mercedes
|
70
|
1:33'24.937
|
19.783
|
||
|
3
|
3
|
Red
Bull
|
TAG
|
70
|
1:33'40.451
|
35.297
|
||
|
4
|
5
|
Ferrari
|
Ferrari
|
70
|
1:33'41.061
|
35.907
|
||
|
5
|
11
|
Force
India
|
Mercedes
|
70
|
1:33'45.630
|
40.476
|
||
|
6
|
31
|
Force
India
|
Mercedes
|
70
|
1:33'45.870
|
40.716
|
||
|
7
|
7
|
Ferrari
|
Ferrari
|
70
|
1:34'03.786
|
58.632
|
||
|
8
|
27
|
Renault
|
Renault
|
70
|
1:34'05.528
|
1'00.374
|
||
|
9
|
18
|
Williams
|
Mercedes
|
69
|
1:33'14.501
|
1
lap
|
||
|
10
|
8
|
Haas
|
Ferrari
|
69
|
1:33'32.729
|
1
lap
|
||
|
11
|
30
|
Renault
|
Renault
|
69
|
1:33'33.803
|
1
lap
|
||
|
12
|
20
|
Haas
|
Ferrari
|
69
|
1:33'34.219
|
1
lap
|
||
|
13
|
9
|
Sauber
|
Ferrari
|
69
|
1:33'51.920
|
1
lap
|
||
|
14
|
2
|
McLaren
|
Honda
|
69
|
1:33'54.493
|
1
lap
|
||
|
15
|
94
|
Sauber
|
Ferrari
|
68
|
1:33'18.373
|
2
laps
|
||
|
16
|
dnf
|
14
|
McLaren
|
Honda
|
66
|
1:29'26.150
|
4
laps
|
|
|
dnf
|
26
|
Toro
Rosso
|
Renault
|
54
|
1:15'34.577
|
16
laps
|
||
|
dnf
|
33
|
Red
Bull
|
TAG
|
10
|
15'07.101
|
60
laps
|
||
|
dnf
|
19
|
Williams
|
Mercedes
|
0
|
||||
|
dnf
|
55
|
Toro
Rosso
|
Renault
|
0
|
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