Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finally wins the Canadian Grand Prix!
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took a lights to chequered flag victory at Le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, e.g. the Canadian Grand Prix, finally getting the monkey off his back after a mistake cost him victory in the crazy 4 hour Grand Prix du Canada in 2011. It was a classic drive from pole, get a good start and scamper off into the distance, dropping to second briefly before Lewis Hamilton pitted!
Ferrari had a good day, Fernando Alonso driving from sixth on the grid to claim second place, finally overtaking former team mate Lewis Hamilton six laps from the end into turn one under DRS. Felipe Massa had a battling race fighting from 16th to 8th place, every time the camera was focused on Massa, he was battling and overtaking someone, 8th is a great result after his crash in qualifying!
Mercedes had a decent day scoring third and fifth place finishes. Hamilton lost second place to Alonso late in the race after holding the position for 63 laps, the Briton obviously disappointed losing second so late on. Rosberg crossed the line in fifth place after losing two places in the space of two DRS straights, losing out to Webber in DRS zone 1 and Alonso in DRS zone 2 on lap 31/32.
Mark Webber brought the second Red Bull home in fourth place after running in third until lap 42, Alonso making an easy DRS pass down the long final straight. I suspect that the coming together with Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde as the Aussie was lapping the Dutchman was the reason for Webber’s lack of fight into the chicane, Webber losing a large chunk of his front wing in the collision.
Toro Rosso’s Jean Eric Vergne had an excellent if not spectacular race to secure sixth place, moving up one place from his starting position, I’d definitely say that he extracted the maximum from the car, looks like the Frenchman is gunning for Mark Webber’s seat in 2014. Force India’s Paul di Resta had an astonishing race to finish in seventh place after more qualifying disappointment with di Resta starting the race in 17th place. The Scot drove 57 laps on a set of medium prime tyres while still managing to lap within one second of the race leaders who had stopped, top performance!
Rounding out the points scorers is Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen and Force India’s Adrian Sutil. Raikkonen really didn’t have the car underneath him today, but ninth extends his streak of points paying finishes. Sutil lost out after being penalised by stewards for ignoring blue flags when Hamilton and Alonso were lapping the German near the end of the race, the resulting penalty gifted Raikkonen ninth place. In post race interviews, Sutil was very critical of ‘inconsistent’ FIA stewardship.
After 64 consecutive points finishes, McLaren have sunk to a new low with both drivers finishing outside the points. Sergio Perez finished 11th while former world champion Jenson Button finished in 12th place. Neither driver had a good race, which is not helped with a dire McLaren underneath them. The Woking based team have seemingly slipped backward since the start of the season and Button’s reaction seemed apathetic at best, maybe it’s time for Jenson to hang up his helmet at the end of the season, I say this as a long time JB fan, his heart just doesn’t seem to be in it anymore!
Top 10 finishing positions for the Canadian Grand Prix:
|
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1:32:09.143 2. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) +14.400 3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +15.900 4. Mark Webber (Red Bull) +25.700 5. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) +69.700 |
6. Jean Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) +1 lap 7. Paul di Resta (Force India) +1 lap 8. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) +1 lap 9. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) +1 lap 10. Adrian Sutil (Force India) +1 lap |
I end this article with the sad news that a marshall at Le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was killed by a freak accident while recovering Esteban Gutierrez’ car. The marshall, who hasn’t been named, slipped while attempting to retrieve a dropped radio and was run over by the crane that was removing Gutierrez’s car. My heartfelt condolences go out to the marshall’s friends and family.