Vettel hails ‘perfect’ win as he claims 50th career GP

SEBASTIAN Vettel capped an emotional weekend for Ferrari with a clinical pole-to-flag win at the Canadian Grand Prix yesterday to retake the lead in the Formula One world championship from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by a single point.

The victory, the 50th of the German’s career, also put Ferrari back on top in Canada for the first time since Michael Schumacher claimed the last of his record seven wins on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2004.

After putting Ferrari on pole in Montreal on Saturday for the first time since 2001 with a track record time, Vettel powered into the lead and was never seriously challenged as he charged home seven seconds clear of Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes.

It was the German’s third win of the season and second in Canada; the first coming in 2013 with Red Bull.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who dominated much of practice, turned in a mature error-free effort to take third place and quiet the storm of criticism swirling around him following a string of errors and crashes.

It was the second podium of the season for the young Dutchman, who also had a third in Spain.

The win put Vettel on 121 points to Hamilton’s 120 after seven races of the season, with the Briton coming home fifth behind the second Red Bull of Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

Running against rivals who had upgraded power units, unlike Mercedes, Hamilton was unable to match the pace or rhythm on a circuit he touts as a favourite and where he has won six times including his first in 2007.

The timing of Vettel’s win could not have been better, coming on the 40th anniversary of the late Gilles Villeneuve’s victory for the Italian team in 1978 at his home Grand Prix.

“Perfect is probably a good way to describe it. It’s unbelievable. I said yesterday how much this place means to Ferrari and to have a race like we had today is unbelievable,” said Vettel.

“It’s 50 for me but after a long stretch that Ferrari didn’t win here, I saw the people around and they were super happy.”

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion, had earlier led a parade lap before the start in the Ferrari his late father drove to that victory.

While Vettel made a clean getaway from the start, with Verstappen almost passing Bottas, there was chaos behind when Williams’ Canadian Lance Stroll squeezed Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley into the wall.

The Toro Rosso was launched into the air, wrecking both cars.