Hamilton’s a six-hit
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LEWIS HAMILTON won the Canadian Grand Prix for the sixth time last night to cut Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead to 12 points.
The victory completed a hattrick of wins here for Hamilton and put Formula One champions Mercedes back on top of the podium.
The Briton led from start to finish after qualifying on pole at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the sixth time, to chalk up his 56th career grand prix victory and his third of the season.
Hamilton’s Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas sealed a Mercedes one-two, finishing 19.7 seconds behind Hamilton, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo third for Red Bull.
Ferrari’s Vettel, winner of three of the previous six races, finished fourth after losing places at the start and then dropping further down the field when he had to replace a damaged front wing.
This was the perfect retort from Hamilton after he toiled to seventh at the Monaco Grand Prix a fortnight ago.
The 32-year-old Briton led every lap in a masterful display and his afternoon stroll was made all that much easier when Vettel, who started alongside him on the front row, was left fighting for fourth on the short dash to the first turn.
Vettel was not particularly slow out of the blocks, but as Bottas dived underneath the German, and Max Verstappen raced around the outside, the driver who had finished either first or second at every round of the season so far was suddenly on the back foot.
Matters got worse at the end of lap five, when Vettel was hauled into the pits for repairs to his front wing. TV replays showed that Verstappen had nicked the nose of the Ferrari at the first turn but the stewards took no action.
The incident capped a manic first lap in which Romain Grosjean’s tangle with Carlos Sainz sent the Spaniard into an uncontrollable high-speed spin, which resulted in him swiping out Felipe Massa. Sainz thudded into the wall at the third turn while Felipe Massa was also out of the race. Grosjean, meanwhile, limped on.
The safety car was deployed to deal with Sainz’s stricken Toro Rosso, with Hamilton leading from Verstappen and Bottas.
Verstappen was at least doing his part to keep Hamilton honest when the pack was released on lap five. But the Dutchman was soon out of the race when his car ground to a halt.
The pain was evident, both in the Red Bull cockpit – as Verstappen angrily gesticulated – and the team’s pit-wall with racing boss Christian Horner grimacing. Verstappen’s pain was Hamilton’s gain as it made his task all that much easier.
The same could not be said for Vettel. Last in the pack, the championship leader began picking off his opponents.
A technical glitch for Raikkonen promoted Vettel to sixth before he grabbed fifth position after Esteban Ocon ran off the road with four laps remaining. Vettel then passed Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap to secure fourth.
Hamilton crossed the line 20 seconds clear of Bottas on an utterly dominant afternoon. He will head to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time with his championship charge now firmly back on track.
Fernando Alonso’s miserable season took another sorry twist after his engine expired with two laps left, while he was in 10th place.
McLaren remain the only team yet to score a point this season. These highly collectable watches feature illustrations by royal flower painter, Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Each water resistant gold-plated watch has a Japanese quartz movement, stainless steel back, gold-plated hands, brown straps with mock croc effect and gold-plated buckles. Your limited edition watch has an individually numbered guarantee card. Dial measures 33mm. Roses Not Classified
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