Sebastian Vettel Dominates in Montreal

Sebastian Vettel extended his championship lead as he eased to another victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Vettel looked to have gotten a great start from pole position and certainly did as he was able to establish a lead of two seconds on the opening lap before disappearing off into the distance. 

Vettel’s initial pace was so good that he seemed to be on a three-stop strategy, but it soon became evident that he was not and also that nobody was going to be able to challenge him. He even had a brush with a wall on the back of the circuit on the 10th lap, and then make an mistake in the first corner (quite unlike him) on the 52nd, all without being even remotely threatened.

In Vettel's wake, Lewis Hamilton drove his heart out to leave his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg well behind, and seemed to have second in the bag up until Fernando Alonso launched a blistering attack in the final stint to take Hamilton's 10-second lead to nothing. Hamilton lost time lapping both Felipe Massa and Adrian Sutil, and could not stop Alonso's Ferrari from sweeping ahead of him on the lap 63. He attempted to counter-attacked on the 64th lap (while on both occasions the pair looked to make light contact) but did not.

It was Red Bull’s Mark Webber that should have been a contender for the podium in Montreal but his race was spoiled when Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde inadvertently turned into the hairpin with Webber alongside him on the 36th lap, damaging the Red Bull’s left-front wing. That left Webber to take a distant fourth (though well ahead of Rosberg).

Jean-Eric Vergne passed Valtteri Bottas early on in the race and then had a wonderful, trouble-free race to sixth place (the best result of his Formula One career) while Paul di Resta put in a fantastic drive to come through from 17th on the grid all the way to 7th. Di Resta completed over 50 laps on one set of medium tyres before making his one and only pit stop, with Massa also climbing through the field to ninth (just 1.9s behind di Resta having passed Räikkönen).

Adrian Sutil dropped from his eighth place grid to tenth late in the race as a result of a drive-through penalty he received (for ignoring blue flags as Hamilton and Alonso approached) but it ensured that the two McLarens of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez finished 11th and 12th alike.

Lotus’s Romain Grosjean also went a long way after starting on the medium tyres, but didn’t get much mileage out of the supersofts and had to stop again for more medium tyres, dropping him from eighth to 13th by the end of the race.

Despite his fantastic grid position, Valtteri Bottas dropped back to 14th place by the chequered flag and it looked like it could have been worse had Nico Hulkenberg not retired (following a collision with van der Garde), while Esteban Gutiérrez dropped out of the race by hitting the wall on the outside of Turn 2 late.

Daniel Ricciardo crossed the chequered flag in 15th as Pastor Maldonado came in 16th (after he was required to make an extra stop after getting a drive-through penalty for a collision with Sutil early on in he race).

Jules Bianchi, in the Marussia, comfortably beat out Charles Pic’s Caterham and team mate Max Chilton as the final finishers in Montreal.

*The race puts Vettel well ahead in the drivers' championship with 132 points to Alonso’s 96, Raikkonen’s 88, Hamilton’s 77 and Webber’s 69. While in the constructor standings, Red Bull have 201 to Ferrari’s 145, Mercedes’ 134 and Lotus’s 114.

Sebastian Vettel	Winner
Fernando Alonso	Second
Lewis Hamilton	Third
Mark Webber	P4
Nico Rosberg	P5
Jean-Éric Vergne	P6
Paul di Resta	P7
Felipe Massa	P8
Kimi Räikkönen	P9
Adrian Sutil	P10
Sergio Perez	P11
Jenson Button	P12
Romain Grosjean	P13
Valtteri Bottas	P14
Daniel Ricciardo	P15
Pastor Maldonado	P16
Jules Bianchi	P17
Charles Pic	P18
Max Chilton	P19
Esteban Gutiérrez	Retired (Collision)
Nico Hülkenberg	Retired (Collision)
Giedo van der Garde	Retired (Collision)