F1 2019: Lewis Hamilton wins Canada Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton secured a record-breaking seventh win at the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix, after a penalty for Sebastian Vettel, who finished first on the road, demoted the German to second in the standings.

A race-long battle between the pair came to a head on Lap 48 of 70 when race leader Vettel, under pressure from Hamilton, ran across the grass at the Turn 3-4 chicane, in the process squeezing Hamilton when he re-joined the track, for which the stewards later awarded a five-second race time penalty. That meant Hamilton took a record-equalling seventh victory at the Canadian Grand Prix to match Michael Schumacher’s record in Montreal, as well as claiming his fifth win of the season to stretch his lead at the head of the drivers’ standings.

Behind, Leclerc finished third, which at least gave Ferrari their best result of the year so far, while Valtteri Bottas took fourth for Mercedes and the fastest lap bonus point after a late stop of soft tyres. After failing to make Q3 yesterday, Max Verstappen made a 49-lap stint on hard tyres work to finish fifth for Red Bull, ahead of the Renault pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg in P6 and P7, who secured the Anglo-French team’s best result of the season. Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly endured a frustrating race to finish P8, while a strong home race from Lance Stroll saw him finish ninth from 17th on the grid, ahead of the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat.

Formula 1 hops back over the pond to France and the iconic Circuit Paul Ricard near Marseille on June 21-23. The race returned to the calendar last year, and was the scene of Lewis Hamilton’s third triumph of the season.

Lewis Hamilton wins Canada Grand Prix

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.