Hamilton takes the honours in Montreal

MOTORSPORT: Flawless victory sees Briton harm rival’s bid for fifth world title

Lewis Hamilton has slashed the deficit to rival Sebastian Vettel in the Formula One championship after a flawless lights-toflag victory in yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

On the 10th anniversary of his very first victory in the sport, Hamilton romped to his sixth win at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to move to within 12 points of Vettel in the title race.

Vettel’s afternoon was scuppered by a first-corner incident with Max Verstappen which forced him to stop for a new front wing, and with it, fall to the back of the field.

The Ferrari driver recovered to finish fourth, while Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas crossed the line in second to complete Mercedes’ first one-two finish of the season as Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo claimed the final spot on the podium.

This was the perfect retort from Hamilton after he toiled to only seventh at the Monaco Grand Prix a fort night ago.

Indeed fresh from sealing the 65th poleposition of his career, to draw him level with the tally of his boyhood hero Ayrton Senna, the 32-year-old Briton led every lap in a masterful display at a track which has been so kind to him over the years.

Hamilton’s afternoon stroll was made all that much easier when Vettel, who started alongside the Mercedes man on the front row, was left fighting for fourth on the short dash to turn one.

Vettel was not particularly slow out of the blocks, but as Bottas dived underneath the German, and 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 the fast-starting Verstappen had nicked the nose of the Ferrari at Turn One, but the stewards took no action.

Verstappen, who had started from fifth, 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 at the exit of Turn Two.

The pain was evident, both in the Red Bull cockpit – as Verstappen angrily gesticulated with both hands – and the Red Bull pit wall with boss Christian Horner grimacing and Helmut Marko shaking his head.

Verstappen’s pain was Hamilton’s gain as it made his task all that much easier.

The same could not be said for his rival Vettel. Plum last in the pack, the championship leader began picking off his opponents and by lap 22 he was up to eighth.

The four-time champion began to hunt down rival drivers and when he passed Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap it allowed the German to take 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.

Meanwhile, Alonso’s miserable season took another sorry twist after his engine expired with two laps left, while running in 10th place.

McLaren remain the only team yet to score a point this season.

AP. Lewis Hamilton celebrates his win in Montreal as the Briton gets his title challenge back on track.