Lewis Hamilton triumphs at eventful Canadian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton made it back-to-back wins by claiming victory at yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix, with his teammate Jenson Button in second and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso in third.
Hamilton was made to work hard for the win, with Alonso pushing him all the way, but when reigning world champion Button overtook the Ferrari on lap 56, Hamilton was able to coast to the finish line.
It was another one-two finish, and unlike what was seen two weeks ago at the Turkish Grand Prix, when Button and Hamilton went wheel to wheel, both McLaren drivers settled for their positions.
“It has been a tremendous weekend. I have had incredible support from the fans. There are so many Brits out here which is great to see and the team did an exceptional job. The race was one of the toughest races so far but that’s what you want to have the hardest fight. Jenson did a great job and another one-two for us, so I am very happy and proud of the team,” said Hamilton.
The Briton’s tussle with Alonso was the highlight of the race, especially when during the first pit stop, both drivers were side by side exiting the pit lane and heading into turn two. On this occasion, Alonso was in front, but on lap 15, while trying to overtake the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Buemi, the Spaniard was jumped by Hamilton.
“I saw him being released and as I pulled away he was in my blind spot [in the pits]. I didn’t even know he was there but I tried to make sure I had enough space. All of a sudden he was right there with me and we raced all the way down to the first corner and he had the inside and got ahead,” Hamilton said.
Alonso and Hamilton had a team-war when they were teammates at McLaren in 2007, but the race winner heaped praise on his former adversary. “After that [when Hamilton overtook Alonso] he had great pace and put up a really good fight and the traffic was very difficult today. That was really the opportunity for all of us today through traffic to get past the guy in front and I capitalised on that, so fair play to them,” said the 25-year-old.
If it weren’t for problems with traffic, Alonso may have won the race, and his expression in the post-race press conference conveyed his frustrations. “I think it was a good day for us. The gap was very competitive here in Canada. We really had a good opportunity to win today.
“First I fight with Lewis. We overtook thanks to a fantastic pit stop from our guys in the pit lane and then we lost the position with some traffic and then we lost the position with traffic again with Hispania in front in the last laps of the race with Jenson. In both of those cases we lost 10 points from 25 to 15 but we are still there in the championship. It was a great recovery from the team,” said the double world champion.
Along with challenging for the race, Alonso’s podium finish was an improvement for Ferrari, who on their last outing in Turkey failed to shine. Despite Felipe Massa finishing in 17th after getting a 20-second penalty, overall the performance of Ferrari was much better. “We were, I think, 50 seconds behind McLaren in Turkey in P8 and we fight for the win here in Canada, so we are moving in the right direction and I think we are back in the fight. I think we want to be world champions, so hopefully we can be here more often,” said Alonso.
The Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel did not feature in the race, and it seems like the momentum they carried before their collision two weeks ago has disappeared. Webber, who had been leading the world championship, only finished fifth while Vettel finished fourth.
“In the end we did the best we could do. I knew everyone was pretty close together and I was monitoring the gap to Lewis. I was just trying to get to the end and hold my pace constant but the tyres did not want that pace, and it was almost impossible to keep the tyres happy. In the end I'm not that surprised. I wanted to get some champagne today but in the end it didn't happen,” said Webber.
The Australian’s teammate remains optimistic ahead of the next race, the European Grand Prix. “We couldn't really show our real pace during the race due to the way it unfolded, but it's promising. It's a close battle at the top of the table and, as we have seen, things can change very quickly. There is no reason to panic from our side, we have a very good car and we're looking ahead to Valencia,” said Vettel.
Michael Schumacher once again endured a difficult weekend. Coming fourth in the last grand prix gave an indication the seven-time world champion was back to something like his best, but he had a poor weekend, first of all qualifying in 13th, and then finishing outside the points in 11th.
Although he didn’t score points, the German had an eventful race, going head to head with Robert Kubica, resulting in both cars going off the track; then when Massa tried to overtake him on the long straight he sneakily moved across, breaking Massa’s front wing. He also squabbled with the Force India cars on the final lap.
Schumacher was disappointed about the performance of his Mercedes-Benz car. “At the start, everything went great and we made up places as we had been hoping for. Then I had a puncture on the front right tyre after my first pit stop, after I got together with Kubica, and that obviously decided my race. Towards the end, I was trying as hard as I could to defend myself but it was only possible to a certain degree. I was fighting cars with a good top speed which was quite tough,” Schumacher said.
Hamilton is now top of the drivers’ standings with 109 points, three points ahead of his teammate Button on 106 points, and Red Bull’s Webber on 103 points.
The fight for the world championship is shaping up to be a close one.
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