Canada Weekend Review: Muted Montreal

After the mental and points set back for Lewis Hamilton following a Mercedes strategy error in Monaco, the reigning World Champion showed no signs off remorse as he stormed to another 25 points in Montreal following a quiet race around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The victory also marked the first win for Mercedes in Canada.

  Back to winning ways for Hamilton.
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I imagine that the media bandwagon who were over playing the impact of Monaco on Lewis’ mentality were feeling all the more confident of such a setback following a spin and small shunt for Hamilton during the practice sessions.

Qualifying:

Qualifying in Montreal threw up big surprises in the first session. With Ferrari sporting a host of engine ‘upgrades’, few would have foreseen losing a car in Q1. But such was the case as Vettel suffered from technical issues massively constricting his time on track and heavily reducing his pace whilst out. This leaves Vettel with a lot of racing to do from 16^th and us, the audience, with a spectacle to watch.

Another big personality left Q1 with his tail between his legs. Felipe Massa too suffered from reliability issues and only qualified in 17^th. Williams’ poor outing in Monaco was meant to be dispelled in Canada, but had failed to be so come the chequered flag of the first qualifying session. Massa was half a second faster than Merhi and Stevens who were sporting a refreshing smattering of sponsors on the Manor cars. Button’s McLaren never did recover from a Saturday practice energy recovery error so he lines up 20^th having not made an appearance.

Sponsors at last for Manor.
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Other notables in the session included entrance into Q2 for Alonso as he confirmed Vettel’s fate in the drop out zone. The Sauber mechanics and their particular set of skills enabled Nasr to run, having replaced 3 corners of the car as on Saturday morning Nasr flicked open the DRS flap causing him to lose the rear of his Sauber resulting in a shower of carbon fibre as he collided with the concrete wall. Maldonado recovered from an early spin for a provisional 4^th and astonishingly Grosjean lead the time sheets at the end of Q1. 

 

A push start for Maldonado following another error.
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The results of Q2 made for less of a headline. Nasr rounded off a turbulent Saturday in 15^th. Alonso 3 tenths faster in P14. Nasr’s teammate Ericsson 13^th. Max Verstappen qualified a place behind teammate Sainz for 12^th. However as a result of his dramatic collision into Grosjean in Monaco, Max will start from the back of the grid following a 15 place grid penalty. But moreover, because Verstappen could only serve an 8 position drop thanks to qualifying 12^th, he will also be handed a 10 second time penalty to his pit stop during the race.

The 4 long straights that dominate the Canadian circuit where always going to favour the Mercedes powertrain and so it proved to be. Hamilton claimed pole 3 tenths ahead of his teammate, Rosberg. Neither drivers improved their time on their final flying lap, muting any true qualifying showdown. Raikkonen claimed his season best result in 3^rd ahead of Bottas in 4^th. The Mercedes powered Lotus was proving to be serious competition to Williams as Grosjean was fastest for 5^th ahead of teammate Maldonado. Hulkenberg was 7^th. Kvyat’s highest race result in Monaco gave him a shot of confidence as he beat teammate Ricciardo to claim P8. Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.

The number 44 car piloted by Lewis to claim his 44^th pole position around the circuit which granted him his first.

The Race:

With Hamilton angling his car towards the inside line to prevent a charge from Nico Rosberg, the race got underway. Hamilton led out of the first complex followed by his teammate who just about managed to fend off the attack from a fast starting Kimi, the Flying Finn. Bar an overtake from Hulkenberg on Maldonado, the top ten got away cleanly and there was no change as the field scythed through Sector 1. Crossing the Start/Finish line for the first time and Alonso was up into P11 as Button served his mandatory drive through penalty.

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Lap 4 and Ericsson passed Alonso, the double world champion for 11^th. Close behind and Vettel used his vastly out of place Ferrari to overtake Sainz Jr. for 15^th, following a torrid few opening laps for the Spaniard who was feeling the full extent of the Renault power deficiency. Massa then too passed his former Ferrari teammate, Alonso for 12^th.

The Ferrari strategists came into play as on Lap 8 Vettel pitted in an effort to find clear air on the track to increase his lap time and move up the pecking order. However, I doubt he would have anticipated exiting the pits in quite so much clean air following a tarde 7 second stop. He switched to the slower soft tyres. A lap later and Massa had chosen to use the old fashioned exciting option. He and Ericsson were battling wheel to wheel barely leaving an inch between them. The spectacle was met by a chorus of cheers from the Canadian GP faithful.  

While Massa moved into the top 10, Vettel’s race was far from academic. After he re-caught the field, the running in dirty air behind Alonso was dramatically hampering his downforce. This was seen throughout lap 20 with a visit to the grass and running out over the ‘sausage kerbs’ entering the final chicane. The next lap and with the artificial aid of DRS, Vettel passed Alonso into turn 1 and Verstappen before the lap’s close.

With 25 laps completed Hamilton had stretched his lead to Rosberg to an enormous 4.5 seconds. But far far behind the story could not have been more different for Alonso. As a man used to challenging for race wins at Renault and Ferrari, his second stint at McLaren was turning into a nightmare. As the long straights of Montreal exposed Honda’s slow and inefficient powertrain he was berating his mechanic even comparing his team to amateurs over team radio.

Having re-joined the race in 4^th place following his first pit stop, Kimi span exiting turn 10, clouding the track in plumes of smoke as he pointed his Ferrari back in the right direction. In the process this allowed Bottas to consolidate 3^rd position. Lap 29 and Hamilton pitted from his lead for a seamless 2.8 second stop and retained 1^st with ease as Rosberg also pitted.

A rare moment: tyres are pushed to the limit in Formula 1!

Vettel stopped for a second set of the harder compound tyres at half race distance to take him to the chequered flag. By Lap 44 the 4 time champion was on the coattails of Nico Hulkenberg. Entering the final corner Sebastian tried to pass Nico around the outside, but left the Force India no room for manoeuvre in the process. This caused Nico to spin 180 degrees but luckily he missed an appointment with the fearsome ‘Wall of Champions’ while Vettel resumed racing speed unscathed.

The McLaren boys had to retire Alonso on lap 47 and wheeled Fernando’s car to rest in the garage. Grosjean was running strongly until lap 50 where he misjudged the position of Manor’s Will Stevens whilst in the process of lapping the Brit. A puncture was the outcome for the Frenchman’s efforts and he dived into the pits, the FIA apportioned blame to him also and Romain was duly handed a 5 second time penalty. Button too was forced into retirement, marking another pointless race for McLaren Honda.

So as the chequered flag fell on Lap 70, Hamilton cruised back to winning form ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Bottas claimed both his and Williams’ first podium of the season. Raikkonen was 4^th ahead of teammate Vettel who took both a remarkable and incident packed 5^th place ahead of Massa. Both of whom were eliminated in Q1 the day before. Lotus missed out on a top 6 finish, but Maldonado took P7 to finish his first race of the season in the points. He was ahead of Hulkenberg. Kvyat out raced Ricciardo once again as the young Russian finished in 9^th. Grosjean rounded out the top 10. Perez was 11^th ahead of Sainz, Ricciardo and Ericsson. Verstappen finished in 15 as a combination of penalties and Renault power (or rather lack of) took its toll. Nasr was 16th ahead of Stevens. Mehri and the two McLarens were not classified.

Although far from a vintage Canadian Grand Prix and mired by further criticism of the ‘lift and coast’ responses to fuel restrictions, Hamilton is back to winning ways around the circuit in which he claimed his first F1 win back in his debut season of 2007. As the motorsport world turns its attention to Le Mans, the Formula 1 season will resume in Austria in 2 weeks’ time.

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Before I finish, I would like to add that the delay in this post has been due to sitting my exams at university. However they have now passed to allow normal weekly article uploads to resume. Thank you for your patience during a busy period.