By Simon Baggus
Well well, i could not have been so wrong in my preview to the Canadian GP. There i was blabbering on how i thought it was going to be a boring F1 weekend and i was hung out to dry on that prediction.
Qualifying went to the norm, with Mercedes locking out the front two positions. Surprising for many was how good Nico Rosberg was to claim the top spot, Hamilton just saying he under-performed sitting in second. 0.079s was the difference.
Another surprise was Sebastian Vettel managing to slot home into third on the grid just ahead of both Williams drivers of Bottas and Massa, with Ricciardo starting in sixth place, the race winner that nobody would have predicted. Again the marginal difference between these four drivers alone was only 0.041s. Incredible stuff really.
Alonso was seventh, Vergne was eighth, Button was ninth and Raikkonen rounded out the top ten, just 0.04s slower than Alonso. Did Ferrari and there upgrades improve the car, not really.
Starting from eleventh with free tyre choice was Hulkenberg, who chose a very long first stint in the race on the 'prime'. Behind 'the Hulk' was, Magnussen, Perez, Grosjean and Kvyat.
Sutil led the rear of the field from Maldonado, Chilton, Bianchi, Kobayashi and Ericsson, who has his garage working overtime, as he crashed out in Q1, damaging the left rear of the car.
Gutierrez did not take part in qualifying due to his crash in FP3, which damaged his chassis, he starts from the pit lane.
Canada woke to race day in Montreal, poised to see a spectacle. It did not disappoint, let me tell you that much.
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| Rosberg leads Hamilton into turn one |
The formation lap complete and Go, Go, Go. Hamilton and Rosberg drew neck and neck off the start, Rosberg taking the racing line, forced lewis to go onto the grass and back out of it. Promoting Vettel up to second around the second corner, i was already on the edge of my seat!.
The first part of the race ran like clock work. The Mercedes pair driving off into the distance, in there own private battle. Hamilton never really more than 1.5 seconds away from Rosberg.
Lap one though and my eyes could not believe that i was actually seeing Max Chilton retire, what has this world come too (insert sarcasm). Chilton understeered as Bianchi made an aggressive attack around the outside and Chilton could not control it, sliding into the side of Bianchi, thus sending him into the wall and out of the race. Chilton causing his own fate at the same time. Safety car period for seven laps.
Rosberg held the lead through the first pit stops, followed by Hamilton, who made his way past Vettel, but Hamilton was hounding Rosberg now and looked to be setting up a move.
Lap 25 and Kobayashi spins, he is also out of the race as he finds out there is a problem with his car.
Lap 27 then, lap 27. My my people, very interesting indeed, very reminiscent of a corner in Monaco, were Rosberg locked up and went straight on to bring out the yellows, when he was under pressure from Hamilton.
Final corner and Hamilton had closed the gap nicely, surely eyeing up a pass on the very next lap. Rosberg had a very big lock up, decides against making the corner and shoots straight on over the run off area. Rosberg rejoins the track ahead of Hamilton, sets his fastest lap of the race at the same time and builds a nice cushion again of about 1.5s to stop Hamilton attacking.
Rosberg was investigated by the stewards but was only given a final warning, even though he gained an advantage.
A brilliant battle developed in the middle of the race, with Perez giving us one of his trade mark long stints that seem impossible, going 34 laps on the 'option' tyre. Perez was running third and rejoins eleventh.
Perez headed a pack before his pit stop which included Force India team mate Hulkenberg, Vettel, Bottas and Ricciardo.
Lap 37 and 38 was the turning point in this race. Mercedes Surprisingly, seemed to suffer an electrical problem at the same time on both cars and had to race without the hybrid system for the duration remaining. They were losing 2/3 seconds per lap to the chasing pack, who were 25s down the road.
Incredible and climatic, Mercedes looked like they were going to be caught, who by, well Hulkenberg was in third at the time and only 20s down the road, with the Bulls and the Williams not far behind.
A minor spin for Raikkonen on lap 41, just to please the fans at the Chicane. He carries on after losing a few positions.
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| A rare mistake by the Finn |
The final pitstops were in full motion around the lap 44 mark for pretty much most teams. Massa led the race for a brief moment before having to be pulled in for a final pitstop and the battle commenced at the head of the field. Hamilton was now in the lead after Massa peeled in, as Rosberg lost two seconds in his pitstop.
Lap 46, this time Rosberg hounding Hamilton, seemed at first to send Hamilton into a mistake as he ran wide at the chicane, only later to find out it was a brake issue. They seemed to have contact at the final corner, this time Hamilton going straight on to take avoiding action, but what we had witnessed was a loss of brakes, this was tragedy.
Lewis Hamilton was out of the Canadian GP, could you believe it, what a dramatic twist in the championship battle. I did not want to get out of my seat, i even sacrificed eating, my own health here, to watch the end of the canadian GP before i departed for work that evening.
With Rosberg down on power and the pack right with him now, headed by Perez, from both the Red Bulls. This was going down to the wire, with Massa also closing quickly on a new set of tyres.
Ricciardo set up a pass on Perez and then he was on a mission to hunt down Rosberg, he did not want to miss out on his maiden F1 victory.
Lap 68 and Ricciardo made the pass, he pulled to the outside of Rosberg and nipped into the lead before the final turn. Game, set and match Riccardo, as one lap later a massive accident happened at turn one and the race was stopped prematurely.
Ricciardo wins his maiden F1 GP in Canada!
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| A race winner at last and well deserved |
What looked as if Massa mis judged his braking point going into turn one, turned out to be a sudden change of direction by Perez, causing both to collide, sending them both spinning off into the barriers at the first turn, experiencing up to 27 G's.
Vettel meantime was in the middle of all this and managed to weave his way through the carnage to hold onto third in the race. Button come out of no where in a late charge to pass Hulkenberg and Alonso on the final lap to take fourth, by everyones surprise and Bottas took seventh from Vergne, Magnussen and Raikkonen, to round out the top ten points scorers.
Perez and Massa ended up being classified eleventh and twelfth, with Sutil and Guttierez rounding out the remaining finishers.
DNF's then for, Hamilton, Grosjean, Maldonado, Kvyat, Chilton, Bianchi, Kobayashi and Erricson in a race that was highly dramatic.
Ricciardo then has beat Vettel in the last five races, Rosberg now has a 22 point lead in the drivers championship from Hamilton, Massa cant stay away from barriers and Chilton had his first dnf, to name but a few highlights, in what was a thrilling race
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| A big shunt for Massa |
Thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed it.
See you in to weeks time for what is a return to Austria.
Simon Baggus
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