Lewis Hamilton beat Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to victory in a tense strategic battle at the Canadian Grand Prix, blowing the title race wide open with two thirds of the season remaining.

Vettel led the race after the first corner, but a decision to pit during a brief Virtual Safety Car period on lap 10 saw him shift on to an awkward two-stop strategy while Hamilton and Mercedes kept it simple on a one-stop. Ferrari's decision overcomplicated what should have been a shot at victory by giving away track position, but the pace of the Mercedes was clear towards the end of the race and may have proved too much for Vettel had he also one stopped. Low temperatures made the Pirelli tyres even more difficult to predict than normal, but no doubt an inquest will be conducted at Maranello after another missed opportunity for victory.

Meanwhile, a second consecutive scrappy race for Nico Rosberg saw his lead in the championship cut to just nine points after contact with Hamilton in the first corner dropped him down the order to tenth on the first lap. His fight back could have yielded a podium finish, but a slow puncture and a spin attempting to pass Max Verstappen on the penultimate lap ultimately left him fifth at the chequered flag.

Valtteri Bottas drove a faultless race on a similar strategy to Hamilton to take Williams' first podium of the season, with Verstappen finishing fourth for Red Bull ahead of Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen, who mimicked team-mate Vettel's unusual two-stop strategy.

THE STORY OF THE RACE

Vettel made a perfect start from third on the grid to pass both Mercedes drivers on the short run to Turn 1. A poor getaway for Hamilton saw him boxed in between Vettel on the inside and Rosberg on the outside, with the Ferrari able to comfortably claim the apex and take the lead while Hamilton was preoccupied with his team-mate's advances. As Hamilton ran deep into the corner he made light contact with Rosberg, sending his team-mate into the run off area at Turn 1. As he rejoined the track, Rosberg split the two Red Bulls, allowing Verstappen to complete a pass on Daniel Ricciardo while Rosberg struggled for traction and dropped down the order the tenth.

At the front, Vettel set the opening lap at a blistering pace to take advantage of Hamilton's first corner issues, but in his haste skipped the final chicane at the end of the second lap, cutting his early lead to under a second at the start of lap 3. The battle at the front was shaping up nicely until a Honda engine failure inadvertently shook things up on lap 10. As Jenson Button's McLaren came to a halt with a lick of flame from the rear, Race Control made the call to bring out a Virtual Safety Car, prompting a quick decision from the Ferrari pit wall to pit both cars.

Vettel came in from the lead and switched to super-soft tyres, but in doing so he it meant he had to make a second stop to put on the mandatory soft compound later in the race. The logic behind the decision was clear as Vettel lost just 11.3s to Hamilton thanks to the Mercedes driver's slower pace under the VSC. However, the downside was that Vettel lost track position to Hamilton with both requiring one extra stop to put on the soft.

Hamilton's sole pit stop for softs came on lap 24 and saw him return to the track 13.2s behind Vettel. From that point onwards the pace of the Mercedes on the soft compound was impressive. On paper the soft requires high temperatures to offer its optimum grip, but on Hamilton's car it seemed to switch on in sub 15C conditions. As a result he was able to maintain the gap to Vettel on the faster, less temperature-sensitive, super-softs and when the Ferrari pitted on lap 36 Hamilton retook the lead.

Vettel rejoined 7.4s behind Hamilton but managed to close the gap to less than 5.0s by lap 50. Hamilton was on 13-lap older tyres but they never really dropped off and as Vettel pushed harder each lap to try and manufacture a win, mistakes started to creep in. On lap 56 Vettel straightlined the chicane for the second time, extending the gap again and ultimately signalling the end of his charge for victory. "I had to try," Vettel said after the race. "Yesterday I was very good friends with the final corner and today less so."

Behind the front two, Bottas kept his Williams out of trouble while matching the pace of the Red Bulls when it mattered. Two-stop strategies for both Verstappen and Ricciardo saw him take track position and make use of a one-stop strategy to take third. Rosberg had been on his tail until lap 51 when a slow puncture saw him slow and pit for new tyres. Despite the second setback of his race, he managed to work his way back up to fifth behind Verstappen and was attacking the Red Bull in the closing stages of the race. As he approached the final corner on the penultimate lap he appeared to have the move complete when his rear tyres locked under braking and he spun off. He recovered to finish just over a second ahead of Raikkonen in sixth.

The result leaves the championship wide open again with 14 of 21 rounds remaining. Hamilton is now just nine points off his team-mate and a rejuvenated Vettel sits 38 points adrift of Rosberg. It also proved that Ferrari still has a car capable of challenging for victory on power-sensitive circuits, while Red Bull is likely to be able to challenge Mercedes when F1 returns to high-downforce tracks later in the year.

Source:
courtesy of ESPN

by Laurence Edmondson

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