Happy Tuesday everyone! I don’t know about you but I quite like evening races – the anticipation building throughout the day with something to really look forward to. This is the best Sunday 8pm ‘movie’.
After a wet qualifying on Saturday and despite the gloomy forecast for the Sunday race, Montreal had bright sunshine with a few clouds, an ambient temperature of 23°C and the track getting up to 29°C.
Sebastian Vettel lined up in front of the pack on the grid and stayed there for the rest of the race, dominating the Canadian Grand Prix. Victory for Vettel was undoubtedly sweet, after losing the race to Jenson Button on the last lap back in 2011 – a race that lasted almost 4 hours after it was red flagged for rain. Seb drove brilliantly, finishing 14.4 seconds ahead of his championship rival, Fernando Alonso, and lapped everyone up to the 5th driver in the race. An all round stellar performance by the German.
The opening laps of the race were rather fun to watch as drivers made their way around Bottas, who qualified in a surprising 3rd position on Saturday. With no rain to help him along, Bottas got picked off one by one by the other cars coming through.
Adrian Sutil was having a good race until the German took a corner far too quickly and spun around 360 degrees, miraculously not hitting anything or anyone, and continued on with the race. Sutil’s luck ran out when Maldonado braked too late and hit the back of the Force India, damaging his rear wing and putting him at risk for the rest of the race. Bad luck continued for Sutil as he ‘ignored’ more than 2 blue flags which saw him obtain a drive through penalty. A silly penalty to incur as it was purely of his own doing. However, despite the drive through, he managed to finish in P10.
Fernando Alonso was the biggest winner of the day for me, coming from P6 on the grid to nab second place from Lewis Hamilton on lap 63. The Spaniard later claimed that the 2nd place felt like a win for him after his mediocre qualifying performance.
Two teams I was surprised by were Mercedes and Lotus, both for different reasons. I was surprised to see Merc’s great race pace as in theory Canada’s track eats away at tyres with the high degradation factor. Sure other teams are still irked about their ‘sneaky’ Pirelli test. Another surprise was Lotus, who completely lacked pace around the Montreal circuit, which demands high mechanical grip and traction, something Lotus usually excels at. Rather unusual for the team, who has been at the forefront of all the Grand Prix’s so far. Nevertheless, Kimi still managed to score points with a finish in 9th position, equaling Michael Schumacher’s record of 24 consecutive points finishes.
Unfortunately there has been a casualty from the Canadian race, with a marshal losing his life after an accident with the recovery crane picking up Esteban Gutierrez’s car after he binned it at the tyre barriers out of the pit lane. It has been reported that the marshal was helping with the recovery of the car when he dropped his radio. In an attempt to pick it up he tripped and fell in the path of the crane and was run over. He later died of his injuries at Montreal’s Sacre-Coeur hospital.
Quite a long wait now as the drivers move over to Europe. Looking forward to Silverstone on 30 June. Have a great week everyone!
Race Result
01 Vettel Red Bull 1h32:09.143
02 Alonso Ferrari +14.408
03 Hamilton Mercedes +15.942
04 Webber Red Bull +25.731
05 Rosberg Mercedes +1:09.725
06 Vergne Toro Rosso +1 lap
07 Di Resta Force India +1 lap
08 Massa Ferrari +1 lap
09 Raikkonen Lotus +1 lap
10 Sutil Force India +1 lap
11 Perez McLaren +1 lap
12 Button McLaren +1 lap
13 Grosjean Lotus +1 lap
14 Bottas Williams +1 lap
15 Ricciardo Toro Rosso +2 laps
16 Maldonado Williams +2 laps
17 Bianchi Marussia +2 laps
18 Pic Caterham +2 laps
19 Chilton Marussia +3 laps
20 Gutierrez Sauber +7 laps
Did Not Finish
Hulkenberg Sauber 46
van der Garde Caterham 44
Driver’s Championship – Top 5
1 Sebastian Vettel 132 points
2 Fernando Alonso 96 points
3 Kimi Raikkonen 88 points
4 Lewis Hamilton 77 points
5 Mark Webber 69 points
Constructor’s Championship – Top 5
1 Red Bull 201 points
2 Ferrari 145 points
3 Mercedes 134 points
4 Lots 114 points
5 Force India 51 points
Follow Bianca (The Pit Wall author) on twitter and let her know what you thought of the race.