After Daniel Ricciardo fended off a power issue to claim victory on the streets of Monte Carlo, round seven of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal for the Formula 1 Grand Prix Heineken Du Canada 2018. This will be the 55^th running of the Canadian Grand Prix and the forty-ninth time as a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship since the sport began in 1950. Also, it is the 39^th time that the Canadian Grand Prix has been held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

 

 

A look at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

 

 

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a motor racing circuit in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and has been held there since 1978 when it was formerly known as the Circuit Ile Notre Dame.

 

The circuit is located in a part of the city of Montreal known as Parc-Jean Drapeau. The park is named after the mayor of Montreal who was responsible for the organization of Expo 67.

 

The circuit lies on Ile Notre Dame, a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River most of which was originally built up for the Expo 67. Also, the neighbouring island Ile Sainte-Helene had been artificially enlarged for the fairgrounds and a prominent remnant of the fair, the Biosphere can be regularly seen during television coverage of racing events. Almost half of the track from the hairpin turn until after the pit area runs alongside the Bassin Olimpique, a huge rectangular basin which was created for the rowing and canoeing events of Montreal’s 1976 Summer Olympics. Barriers run close to the circuit and many experienced drivers have been caught out by them.

 

A particularly famous part of the circuit is the wall on the outside of the exit of the final chicane before the start/finish straight. During the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix the wall, which bears the name Bienvenue au Quebec (“Welcome to Quebec”) giving it the nickname “Mur du Quebec” (Quebec Wall), ended the race of three Formula One World Champions, Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve along with FIA GT champion Ricardo Zonta. Since then the wall has been nicknamed “The Wall of Champions. In recent years 2009 world champion Jenson Button (2005) and 4-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel (2011) have also fallen victim to the wall.

 

Before the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve became Canada’s permanent home of Grand Prix racing, the Canadian Grand Prix was first staged Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario in 1961 as a sports car event before it alternated between Mosport and Circuit Mont-Tremblant, Quebec after Formula One took over the event. After 1971, safety concerns led to the Grand Prix moving permanently to Mosport. In 1978, after similar safety concerns with Mosport, the Canadian Grand Prix moved to its current home on Ile Notre Dame Circuit (which was renamed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve since 1982 weeks after Canadian Gilles Villeneuve tragically lost his life at Zolder in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix) in Montreal.

 

Canadian native Gilles Villeneuve was the first winner at the circuit for Scuderia Ferrari in 1978 and is the only Canadian driver to win a Canadian Grand Prix.

 

The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 4.361km (2.71 mi) in length with 14 corners.

 

Race distance is 305.270km (189.694 mi) with 70 laps in total.

 

Rubens Barrichello holds the fastest lap record from 2004 with a 1:13.622 set in his Scuderia Ferrari F2004.

 

Michael Schumacher holds the record for most Canadian Grand Prix victories with seven.

 

Scuderia Ferrari and McLaren are both tied on 13 victories as the most successful Constructors at the Canadian Grand Prix.

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2015: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2014: Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing. 2013: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing.

 

Tyres

 

 

As in Monaco, sole tyre supplier Pirelli will be bringing with them to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the softest tyre compounds in their range, the pink-walled Hyper-Softs, the purple-branded Ultra-Softs and the red-marked Super-Softs along with the green-marked Intermediates and blue-branded Full Wets in case of rain.

 

Reigning Champions Mercedes will have the fewest sets of Hypersofts than the entire field with just five sets for both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, opting for a more conservative approach along with five sets of the Ultrasofts and three sets of the Supersoft rubber.

 

None of the other teams will have less than seven sets of the hypersofts available whilst the Silver Arrows archrivals Ferrari and Red Bull have opted for eight sets of the pink-walled tyres.

 

All teams in the field have selected the same amount of hypersoft sets across both cars while Haas, Sauber and Williams have opted for different strategies between their drivers with the two harder sets in the ultrasofts and supersofts.

 

Williams have chosen more sets of the red-branded supersofts than it’s rivals, with five-sets available to Lance Stroll and four to Sergey Sirotkin.

 

DRS Zones

 

There will now be three DRS Zones in Canada with a new zone being added between turns seven and eight. The first detection point will be 15 metres after turn five and the activation point 95 metres after turn seven. The second detection zone remains unchanged, located 110 metres after turn nine. The second DRS activation point is 55 metres before turn 12 and the third 70 metres after turn 14.

 

Pitlane Speed Limits

 

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

 

ICYMI: Monaco GP Rewind – Ricciardo fends off power issue to win Monaco GP

 

 

When the 78-lap race began, Ricciardo kept Vettel behind at St. Devote and built a gap of over 3.5 seconds before the leaders pitted to switch their pink-walled hypersofts.

 

Vettel came in on lap 16 to put on his ultras with Ricciardo remaining out a lap longer before stopping and emerging with a three second lead.

 

Ricciardo then reported over the radio over a loss of power as Vettel started to close in.

 

The team replied that it would not get worse as Ricciardo continued to push on and maintained the gap with a reduced pace.

 

This allowed Vettel to be narrowly over a second behind the Australian, with Hamilton getting closer and the top three became within three seconds of each other.

 

Hamilton was concerned about his tyres over the radio and started to slip back to a distant third.

 

Ricciardo’s pace slip meant that Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas could have stopped battling for fourth and catch the leading trio but were unable to do so.

 

Bottas briefly was the dark horse in the race when pitting for the red-branded supersofts while the top four runners went on ultras and the Finn was much faster in cleaner air.

 

Bottas’ push ended when he caught his fellow Finnish compatriot and was stuck behind the Ferrari, although the duo caught Hamilton at the end as their positions remained stable.

 

It was redemption on the streets of Monte Carlo for Ricciardo who claimed his first victory in the principality finishing ahead of Vettel and Hamilton who came home second and third respectively.

 

The two Finns of Raikkonen and Bottas completed the top five with Force India’s Esteban Ocon taking sixth place and was the best of the rest.

 

Ocon stopped later than most of the leaders but not as late as Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, who ran longer stints and had stronger pace in the second half of proceedings.

 

Gasly was on supersofts whilst Hulkenberg was on ultrasofts, but the Frenchman just managed to hold seventh place as Ocon kept the duo behind him.

 

The other Red Bull of Max Verstappen scored points after the crash in FP3 jeopardised his weekend as the Dutchman started at the back of the grid.

 

Verstappen slowly climbed through the field to finish ninth after putting on a great move on Sainz into the Nouvelle Chicane.

 

Sainz remained ahead at first by cutting the chicane, but the following lap later, Verstappen made the move on the outside, ran a little deep into the corner and cut half of it, jumping half of the kerb on the right-hander apex and took the place.

 

A tame ending to the race was halted by Sauber’s Charles Leclerc rear-ending the Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley under braking heading into the Nouvelle Chicane with seven laps remaining.

 

Hartley was in 11^th place with Leclerc tucked right behind when the hometown Sauber rookie crashed into the rear of the Honda-powered Toro Rosso just after exiting the tunnel.

 

Leclerc reported of a brakes failure immediately after the crash, and his C37 racer slid down the escape road with the front of his car battered, while Hartley limped his way to the pits with a destroyed rear wing.

 

That deployed the virtual safety car, but with not much time left, the leaders decided not to take the risk pitting and the positions remained stable, as Vettel dropped further back from race leader Ricciardo.

 

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was the other casualty of the race with the Spaniard on his way to finishing seventh until the rear of his Renault-powered MCL33 racer started smoking and was forced to retire at the end of St. Devote with 25 laps remaining.

 

The Situation

 

 

Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton returns to Montreal on top of the Driver’s Championship with 110 points and 14 ahead of Sebastian Vettel who is second on 96 points while Monaco Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo is a further 38 points behind the Briton in third on 72 points.

 

Mercedes comes to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on top of the Constructors Championship with 178 points and has a 22-point advantage over nearest rivals Ferrari who is second on 156 points while Red Bull Racing is a further 71 behind the Silver Arrows in third on 107 points.

 

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 110 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 96 Points.
3. Daniel Ricciardo – 72 Points.
4. Valtteri Bottas – 68 Points.
5. Kimi Raikkonen – 60 Points.
6. Max Verstappen – 35 Points.
7. Fernando Alonso – 32 Points.
8. Nico Hulkenberg – 26 Points.
9. Carlos Sainz – 20 Points.
10. Kevin Magnussen – 19 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 178 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 156 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 107 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 46 Points.
5. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 40 Points.
6. Sahara Force India F1 Team – 26 Points.
7. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 19 Points.
8. Haas F1 Team – 19 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 11 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

The Formula 1 Grand Prix Heineken Du Canada 2018 weekend kicks off Friday June 8 with Free Practice 1 and 2, then Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday June 9 and the 70 lap Race Sunday June 10.