Sebastian Vettel retaken the World Drivers’ Championship lead with a comfortable race victory in Canada, also picking up the Driver of the Day award. Lewis Hamilton put up a fight near the end of the race, but was not able to finish in a position to maintain his championship lead.
When the lights went green, Max Verstappen got a fantastic start from P3 on the grid, putting himself wheel-to-wheel with Valtteri Bottas into the first and second corners. Bottas was able to defend his position and maintain P2, while Sebastian Vettel was able to pull clear out front.
However, the racing didn’t last for long, as a safety car was deployed for a massive accident between Lance Stroll and Brendon Hartley. Hartley was on the outside of Stroll at the exit of turn five and Stroll suffered some oversteer, pinching the Toro Rosso of Hartley into the wall in spectacular style. Both drivers retired from the race.
After four laps to clean up the debris, the action resumed. Vettel backed up the field a lot down the straight, causing a lot of chaos in the middle of the field. But there was more chaos in turn one, when Carlos Sainz made contact with Sergio Pérez, sending the Force India car skidding wide into the corner. Pérez was able to recover and there was no safety car needed, although the stewards did take note of the incident. No further action was taken.
While Vettel stormed ahead at the lead of the race, there were some interesting things to watch further down the field. Fernando Alonso was attacking Charles Leclerc in a battle for P10. His best overtaking opportunity came in turn one, but Alonso outbraked himself into the corner, running a little wide. However, Alonso was more confident with his brakes than the rookie ahead, allowing him to maintain the pressure.
While this was going on, Sergio Pérez pitted for fresh supersoft tyres to attempt to get the best out of his hindered race. The supersoft tyres are were predicted to last just 50 laps, meaning that Pérez would need to stretch his tyres an additional 10 laps. Esteban Ocon also pitted for fresh tyres, after holding up the Renault drivers.
With Daniel Ricciardo rapidly closing the gap on Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes decided to pit their driver for fresh tyres. This gave Ricciardo a lot of clear air to push the car to the limits for a fast lap time. Hamilton made it out of the pits narrowly ahead of Leclerc, as he struggled to get on the power at the pit exit. Verstappen also pitted with Hamilton for new tyres.
The following lap, Ricciardo pitted for fresh tyres. He came out right behind his teammate and comfortably ahead of Hamilton. However, Hamilton appeared to be more comfortable on the supersoft tyre compound, recovering time lost from his poor pit exit and getting within the DRS zone of Ricciardo.
As the race progressed, there was a serious risk that Hamilton could still find himself behind Kimi Räikkönen when the Ferrari driver pits for new tyres. On lap 33, Räikkönen pitted for new tyres. Hamilton got stuck behind the sole remaining Williams driven by Sergey Sirotkin in the first corner, but was narrowly able to get in front of Räikkönen as his exited the pit lane.
Vettel finally pitted on lap 39, which was a lot later than any other team. The gap to Bottas behind remained over five seconds. However, with about 15 laps remaining in the race, Bottas began to close the gap slightly while Vettel was fighting his way through traffic. However, it disappeared in the blink of an eye, as Bottas ran wide in turn one attempting to get by the Renault of Sainz. The gap that had been closed to about three seconds, was doubled to six seconds.
With just five laps remaining in the race, Hamilton slipped into the DRS zone of Ricciardo ahead and started to put some pressure on the Red Bull. Hamilton needed to get P4 in the race in order to maintain his World Drivers’ Championship lead. But a combination of traffic and poor grip prevented Hamilton from getting by.
With a comfortable gap in the lead, Vettel cruised across the line to collect his 50th career race victory in Formula One and his fifth career grand slam. This latest victory gives him the lead in the World Drivers’ Championship battle from Hamilton, with a narrow 1 point separating the duo.
With the Canadian Grand Prix now over, the teams will be going to France for the first French Grand Prix since 2008. The Circuit Paul Ricard will host the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2018 on the weekend of June 24.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
