Ferrari hadn’t won in Montreal
since 2004, while Lewis Hamilton has made circuit Gilles-Villeneuve his own
during his F1 career. But Sebastian Vettel ripped up the form book with a
dominant victory in the Canadian Grand Prix to snatch the lead in the 2018
driver standings.
The German was mighty in qualifying
on Saturday and didn’t put a foot wrong come race day, crossing the line 5.7
seconds clear of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen
completing the podium, followed home by team mate Daniel Ricciardo and the
second Mercedes of Hamilton.
Hamilton attacked Ricciardo
until the chequered flag, but he didn’t deal with traffic as well as Ricciardo
and ultimately had to settle for fifth. At the other end of the spectrum,
Ferrari regained the momentum in the championship battle, with Vettel turning a
14-point deficit to Hamilton into a one-point lead, while Ferrari closed the
gap to leaders Mercedes to 17 points heading to the next race in France.
Perez's team mate Esteban Ocon scored
points for only the third time this season in ninth, while Charles Leclerc
scored the final point – his third points-finish in four races - for Sauber. Toro
Rosso's Pierre Gasly delivered a strong recovery drive to 11th, having started
19th following a grid penalty for an engine change, with Romain Grosjean 12th,
beating his Haas team mate Kevin Magnussen despite starting dead last.
There
wasn’t a happy end to Fernando Alonso’s 300th Grand Prix weekend. The double
world champion had fought his way into the points after a poor qualifying, but
was instructed to retire his McLaren when the team identified an exhaust
problem. Team mate Stoffel Vandoorne didn’t fare much better as he ended up
16th. At the other end of the spectrum,
Ferrari regained the momentum in the championship battle, with Vettel turning a
14-point deficit to Hamilton into a one-point lead, while Ferrari closed the
gap to leaders Mercedes to 17 points heading to the next race in France.
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