Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CANADIAN GRAND PRIX Lewis KO leaves Seb in fine Vettel
MERC’S MIX-UP HURTS HAMILTON
LEWIS HAMILTON was left to rue a Mercedes engine problem after he lost his championship lead to Sebastian Vettel in Canada.
Vettel ruled from lights to flag at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as he crossed the line ahead of Valtteri Bottas with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third.
But Hamilton, so often the master here in Montreal, had to settle for fifth on a weekend to forget for the defending champion and his team.
Indeed, the Englishman, who arrived with a 14-point lead over Vettel, now heads to the next round in France trailing his Ferrari rival by a point.
Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth, ahead of Hamilton, with Kimi Raikkonen sixth for Ferrari.
Unlike all their rivals, Mercedes failed to bring a planned engine upgrade to the seventh round of the championship – and it cost the Briton dearly.
Running on a seven-race-old engine, Hamilton was down on power in the opening exchanges and had to pit earlier than planned as his team added coolant to his overheating machinery.
Hamilton, fourth at the time, headed into the pit lane on lap 16 of this 70-lap race, but the early change of tyres allowed Ricciardo to usurp the Mercedes car.
A frustrated Hamilton asked the Mercedes pit wall: “Why did we stop early?” “The stop was brought forward to resolve this PU [power unit] problem,” engineer Pete Bonnington replied. “It has helped a little bit.”
Mercedes have dominated F1 since 2014, but the fiercer competition provided by Ferrari and Red Bull this year has led to a series of errors.
In contrast, Vettel, armed with a fresh engine, flew to victory to claim Ferrari’s first victory in Canada for 14 years and the German’s first in five races.
His win was never in doubt after he surged off the starting line and controlled the race to claim his 50th grand prix win.
In the first lap Lance Stroll lost control of his Williams on the 170mph charge to turn six and squeezed Brendon Hartley up against the wall.
Toro Rosso’s Hartley was left with nowhere to go and they collided in dramatic fashion. Both were reportedly unhurt but New Zealander Hartley was taken to hospital for a scan.