Hamilton reigns once more in Canada
Champion goes 17 points clear of Rosberg
MONTREAL: Lewis Hamilton put Monaco misery behind him on Sunday with a controlled Canadian Grand Prix victory that sent the Formula One world champion 17 points clear of Mercedes teammate and title rival Nico Rosberg.
The Briton’s fourth victory in seven races this season, and fourth career win in Canada, denied Rosberg a third triumph in a row and provided the perfect response to losing out in the showcase race two weeks ago.
There he had been leading comfortably from pole only to lose out after a needless late pitstop when the safety car was deployed.
There was no need for the safety car on Sunday, at a circuit that has seen it plenty of times in the past, and there was little in the way of drama either — other than a startled groundhog appearing on the track — as Hamilton led from pole.
Rosberg was never close enough to attack and the rest of the field was so far behind as to be out of sight, with Hamilton lapping all but six of the cars behind him at the circuit where he took his first F1 win in 2007 with McLaren.
Finland’s Valtteri Bottas was third for Williams, a massive 40.6 seconds behind Hamilton, to become the first driver from outside Mercedes or Ferrari to appear on the podium this year.
“I love Montreal,” Hamilton told the crowd as he stood on the podium after his 37th career win. “Nico was quick but I felt like I always had it under control.
“Did I need this?” he asked the spectators to raucous cheers. “I think so.”
Bottas moved up one place from where he started, beating his fellow-Finn Kimi Raikkonen after the Ferrari driver spun following a pitstop.
Raikkonen finished fourth, ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel who fought his way through the field from 18th at the start.
Bottas’s Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa finished sixth after starting 15th.
In Monaco, the previous race two weeks ago, a needless late pitstop had robbed Hamilton of victory and handed it instead to Rosberg.
Montreal, a favourite track where the Briton had won three times before including his first victory in Formula One back in 2007, allowed him to reclaim some of the lost points and get back to where he wanted to be.
Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff, who found himself in the spotlight after Monaco for what some derided as one of the biggest gaffes in recent Formula One history, felt a weight had been lifted off the team’s shoulders.
“I must say that there after Monaco it was very difficult for the team to handle that sometimes,” said the Austrian.
“We were exposed to massive criticism, it looked like all the victories and the world championship was forgotten and suddenly a bunch of idiots were managing the team.
“The result is a satisfying result considering what happened in Monaco.”
Niki Lauda, the retired triple world champion who is now non-executive chairman of Mercedes F1, said the result was ‘perfect’ for Hamilton.
“He couldn’t have done a better job and that’s it. The whole strategy and whatever we had to produce here was back to normal.”