The Formula One circus was in my home and native land for the FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2017 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, named after Canada’s F1 racing legend killed at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix and the father of World Champion Jacques. With a win in Monaco for Ferrari and two non-podium results for Mercedes, the battle between the two constructors was at its maximum.
The first free practice session in Canada on Friday was filled with spins throughout the day, as drivers tested the limits of the 2017 cars on the low grip track surface. After missing Monaco, Fernando Alonso was back in the car, although little had changed with the reliability and he found himself unable to complete the duration of the session. Carlos Sainz found himself in a similar situation, parking the smoking car before the end of the session. Home hero Lance Stroll completed some solid laps in the car, but was overall unsatisfied with the car setup. Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets at the end of the session, with Sebastian Vettel slightly behind. Just over a second separated the top seven cars.
The second free practice session in the afternoon on Friday was also filled with spin from Daniil Kvyat, Valtteri Bottas, Stoffel Vandoorne, Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Pérez. It was not smooth sailing for the Red Bull team, with Max Verstappen suffering a power failure and Daniel Ricciardo losing most of the session parked in the garage with an engine issue. Kimi Räikkönen found the top position of the afternoon, with Hamilton, Vettel and Bottas behind.
Saturday morning’s first free practice session was uneventful compared to a day earlier. There were a few near misses with the unforgiving Montreal walls. By the end of the session, it appeared that Ferrari had gained a slight edge over their Mercedes rivals. Monaco winner Vettel led the session, with teammate Räikkönen narrowly ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen divided the two Mercedes drivers.
Q1 was fairly uneventful, as Mercedes took command of the session. Hamilton narrowly outpaced his teammate, while the pair build a comfortable gap to Ferrari. The session’s big incident happened with less than a minute remaining in Q1, as Pascal Wehrlein spun the car and crashed gearbox first into the barriers. Mercedes was also able to top Q2, heading into Q3 with the stronger car compared to the Ferrari. Hamilton set the early lead in the session with a lap time within the 1 minute 11 second mark. Vettel responded with a time just 0.004 seconds slower than the Brit’s. However, Hamilton extended his advantage to take the pole position with a time of 1:11.459. Vettel and Hamilton were the only drivers to break the 1:11 barrier in the session, setting up an intense race battle for Sunday.
At the start of the race, Max Verstappen had a fantastic start and was able to make his way to P2 before the first corner, while Hamilton maintained his lead and Vettel dropped behind Valtteri Bottas. The first lap was halted by a safety car for a collision involving Carlos Sainz, Romain Grosjean and Felipe Massa in turn three. Grosjean and Sainz made contact heading into the corner, sending Sainz out of contract to collect Massa in corner and end both of their days. Just before the restart, Vettel lost the entire right side of his front wing which was damaged by contact with Verstappen in the first corner. This ruined Vettel’s day, as the Ferrari driver was required to pit for a new front wing because the lack of downforce made the car handle poorly.
Verstappen’s amazing race start was all for nothing, with the teenager parking the car on the circuit with a mechanical failure, bringing out the virtual safety car. National driver Lance Stroll put on a good show, running in the points for a lot of the race and overtook many drivers. Daniil Kvyat’s decent race performance was destroyed by a pit stop issue that eventually forced the team to retire the car. The two Force India drivers were chancing down Daniel Ricciardo for the podium, with the Ferrari of Vettel looming right behind. Despite Esteban Ocon running faster than his teammate Sergio Pérez, the Mexican didn’t let him by and he fell into the clutches of Vettel in a close overtake in turn one. Pérez was then easily overtaken by Vettel. Vettel wasn’t able to chase down Ricciardo for the bottom step of the podium. Hamilton and Bottas finished gave Mercedes a comfortable 1-2 finish in Canada.
In two weeks, the Formula One drivers will be navigating the narrow streets of Baku for the 2017 FORMULA 1 AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX, formerly the European Grand Prix, to start the European season of Formula One. The race will take place on the weekend of June 25.
