Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel made it easy to win the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix after leading from lights-to-flag ahead of front-row starter Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas. The German lead all the way in 70 laps to win by a whooping 6.496s margin from Bottas.
The Finn had to defend from Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen had the start but the Dutchman took it relatively easy to avoid any contact in Turn 1. It remained status quo from then on with Vettel leading from Bottas and Verstapppen.
It was a late stop for both Vettel and Bottas on Lap 36 and 37 respectively to change on the supersoft tyres but the gap was maintained as Vettel became the first driver in the 2018 season to win three races.
The German also leapfrogged Lewis Hamilton in the standings by one point after coming into the weekend trailing by 14 points – Vettel has 121 to his name to Hamilton’s 120. Bottas’ second place earned him third in standings with 86 points.
After his teammate’s dominance in Monaco, Verstappen brought his A-game to take his second podium of the weekend. Verstappen closed up to Bottas in the latter stages but Bottas managed to keep off the Dutchman by 1.206s.
Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo beat both Hamilton and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen to take fourth after starting from sixth on the grid. The Australian cleared Raikkonen at the start while he beat Hamilton in the pit stop.
The British driver though fought back for the position but it wasn’t to be as Ricciardo eked out the race’s fastest lap on the last lap to keep Hamilton at bay by 1.783s – with him having to settle for fifth and concede the championship lead to Vettel.
Ferrari tried to keep Raikkonen out for long to clear Hamilton in the pits as well, but the move didn’t work as the Finn finishing sixth – the last driver to finish on the lead lap with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg 72.280s behind Raikkonen.
The German lost out to Force India’s Esteban Ocon at the start of the race but the Frenchman’s slow stop helped Hulkenberg to come out ahead of Ocon as the Force India driver also lost out to Renault’s Carlos Sainz in the process.
Ocon lost further time behind Haas’ Romain Grosjean who stayed out until Lap 49 for his lone stop which meant both Hulkenberg and Sainz in seventh and eighth managed to build the slight gap with Ocon having to settled for ninth.
Sauber’s Charles Leclerc gained out of the other’s troubles to score his third points of the season in 10th. Just outside the points was Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly who has to fend off Grosjean who stopped late in the race.
After tangling with Sainz on the re-start at Turn 1, Force India’s Sergio Perez had to fight his way up the order with the Mexican finishing well outside the points. He managed to clear Haas’ Kevin Magnussen in the dying moments but it was only for 13th.
An early stop for both Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne meant they were only 15th and 16th respectively. The Belgian got the better of the Swede but he went for a late second stop dropping him behind again.
At the back, Williams’ torrid run continued on with Sergey Sitokin finishing last and 17th after teammate Lance Stroll retired on the opening lap in a huge shunt with Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley where the Kiwi went airborne before settling in.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was a later retirement in his 300th grand prix weekend due to an exhaust issue while running in 11th ahead of Leclerc.
UPDATE: Due to erroneous waving of the chequered flag a lap early, the results were taken on Lap 68. Only the gaps were different with Vettel winning by 7.376s from Bottas who was only 0.984s ahead of Verstappen.
Behind, Hamilton’s gap to Ricciardo was 0.667s while Raikkonen was 71.583s ahead of Hulkenberg. The only position change in the altered result was Perez moving back to 14th behind Magnussen by just the 0.018s margin.
The result change also meant Verstappen took back the fastest lap of the race at 1m13.864s as Ricciardo had set the quickest lap on the original last lap of the race.
