Red Bull mixed with champagne for Vettel
MONTREAL — There was plenty of suspense in Sunday’s 44th Formula One Canadian Grand Prix.
And then the red lights were extinguished, 22 cars barrelled into the Senna Corner, and Red Bull pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel peeled up the side of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, showing his fanny to the field on his way to a surgically precise, thoroughly convincing, almost mesmerizing victory.
It was the 15th time in the 34 editions of this Grand Prix that the pole-sitter has claimed the win. And remarkably, it was the first victory for Red Bull, which had previously scored only three podiums.
Indeed, it took Vettel five tries before he could finally swig the fizzy Mumm from a Montreal podium’s top step, having finished eighth with Toro Rosso in 2008, then fourth, second and fourth with Red Bull.
Vettel’s champagne of 2011 was probably as tasty as arsenic. He bobbled on Turn 6 of the final lap that year to be passed by McLaren Mercedes’s Jenson Button, who raced to the checkered flag 2.709 seconds ahead of his German competitor.
There would be none of that nonsense on Sunday, Vettel in a different time zone than runner-up Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, 14.408 seconds clear to the finish.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton hung on to finish third, a second and a half behind Alonso.
Vettel was two seconds in front after one lap and just kept widening the gap.
Montreal fans ate up every instant of it, no matter that many laps were little more than a parade with no float passing another.
Vettel spoke passionately about this race remaining on the F1 calendar beyond next year, when its contract expires with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
Talk of a 10-year extension is, for now, just talk. Vettel, for one, would love to see the contracts signed.
“I think that in terms of atmosphere, the whole city enjoys the Formula One Grand Prix,” he said.
“This race belongs 100 per cent to the calendar because I think for all of us drivers, we enjoy a lot seeing grandstands completely sold out, a lot of enthusiastic people, the whole town living the Grand Prix.”
There were a few dicey moments on the track, several pieces of carbon-fibre shed when cars got too close for comfort.
Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus was even dropped clumsily off its jack during a pit stop, surely sending that mechanic to bed without supper.
But once it had paced the field on the formation lap, the safety car was just a very expensive Mercedes with trackside parking, no need to show itself.
Of tremendous excitement was Alonso’s late pass of Hamilton, a three-time winner here, as the two sprinted into the Senna Corner on Lap 62.
The Ferrari had leaned all over the McLaren down the long straight before finally getting a run coming out of the final chicane and over the start-finish stretch.
The two cars seemed to graze each other, Hamilton ultimately having to back off just before the left-right turn.
“It was nice to have these battles, a big race with some talented drivers,” Alonso said. “Intelligent drivers that you fight wheel-towheel with at 320 km/h and you feel safe.
“This is real racing, so I am very happy to see this back after Monaco, which was a little bit different.”