Lewis Hamilton stormed to his sixth
Canadian Grand Prix victory, leading home team mate Valtteri Bottas as Mercedes
dominated in Montreal. Third place went to Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo after
Ferrari hit trouble early on, with Sebastian Vettel battling back on fourth,
his lead in the drivers’ championship cut to from 25 points to 12 points.
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.
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 ultrasofts 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.
Outside the top ten, Renault’s
Jolyon Palmer held on to 11th by a fraction from Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, who
was penalized for overtaking under the virtual safety car, as the Saubers of
Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein sandwiched Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren for
13th and 15th places. 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.
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