Sebastian Vettel cruised to a comfortable 50^th career victory at the Canadian Grand Prix and reclaimed top spot in the Driver’s Championship by a single point over Lewis Hamilton who had a difficult day.

 

 

Vettel lead the 70-lap race from start to finish building a solid gap from Valtteri Bottas and controlled the proceedings from there.

 

A dramatic part of Vettel’s race was the chequered flag being waved more than a lap earlier with the German well aware of the error to finish the full race distance at the end of the 70th and final lap, the race result was then based on the end of lap 68.

 

“Perfect is a good way to describe,” explained Vettel after breaking Ferrari’s winless drought at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which was last won by Michael Schumacher 14 years ago in 2004. “I said yesterday how much this place means for Ferrari. To have a race like we had today was unbelievable. After a long stretch that Ferrari didn’t win here, I looked around and the people were happy.”

 

“There’s still a long way to go so I’m not too bothered. It’s a good side-effect.” Vettel concluded as well as summing up a little tribute to the legendary Canadian Gilles Villeneuve who last won at the Ile Notre Dame circuit for the Scuderia 40 years ago in 1978.

 

Bottas’ challenge from behind came at the beginning of the race when a lightning-starting Red Bull RB14 racer of Max Verstappen pulled alongside the Finn into turn one, but Bottas held the line into the second corner and forced the Dutchman to back off.

 

After that moment, the Milton Keynes-based squad praised Verstappen for avoiding getting caught up in an incident with the Mercedes, but the Dutchman was unable to attempt another attack.

 

Bottas had a scary moment with 15 laps remaining when he ran wide at turn one overlapping Carlos Sainz’ Renault into turn one before taking an excursion onto the grass at turn two, dropping briefly behind the RS18.

 

The other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo came home in fourth place and ahead of fifth-placed Lewis Hamilton who encountered difficulties earlier to jump the Silver Arrow in the pitstop window.

 

Whilst the Red Bull duo pitted earlier due to starting on the faster pink-walled hypersoft tyres compared to their leading rivals who began on ultras, Hamilton stopped at the same time despite running the purple-branded rubber that could have been ran much longer.

 

But the Briton was forced to stop early due to an engine problem, which the Mercedes team attempted to fix after Hamilton reported power drop outs in the early stages of the race.

 

After dropping behind Ricciardo during the pitstops, Hamilton was under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari but also got ahead of him when the Finn stopped later on in the Grand Prix, but Hamilton held onto fifth place as Raikkonen returned from the pits just behind him at turn two.

 

Despite having fresh rubber 16 laps younger than Hamilton’s, Raikkonen was unable to charge at Hamilton and slowly fell back from the Mercedes.

 

The Brackley-based squad reported to Hamilton that he could turn the engine down but declined as the Briton put Ricciardo’s Red Bull under pressure and got within a second of the Australian.

 

Hamilton got close to the RB14 at the hairpin with four laps remaining but was unable to pass the Red Bull down the long straight after sliding in the middle of the corner and lost more time on the next lap behind Sergey Sirotkin’s Williams.

 

Behind the leaders, Renault were best of the rest with Nico Hulkenberg and Sainz finishing seventh and eighth respectively.

 

Force India’s Esteban Ocon who was ahead of both RS18 racers earlier on in the race, was the first car to stop and lost out to the Renaults after holding them up before suffering a slow pitstop, which dropped him to ninth.

 

Ocon charged back at the Renaults in the final stages of the race, with the Enstone-based French squad prompting Hulkenberg over the radio to push harder to prevent Sainz from being put under attack.

 

The last point on offer went to Sauber’s Charles Leclerc who grabbed 10^th when Fernando Alonso was forced to retire his MCL33 with an exhaust issue.

 

The Monegasque youngster kept Alonso behind early in the race before losing out to the Spaniard in the pitstops, only to reclaim the position when Alonso pitted again to retire.

 

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly finished outside the top ten in 11^th place and in-front of the Haas pairing of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen who came home in 12^th and 13^th respectively.

 

The other Force India of Sergio Perez ended the race 14^th and ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne and Sirotkin’s Williams who were all two laps down.

 

The other two drivers who did not finish were Kiwi Brendon Hartley and hometown hero Lance Stroll, who both suffered a crazy crash into turn five on the opening lap.

 

Stroll went out of shape oversteering through the fast-right-hand kink into Hartley who was squeezed into the wall on the left-hand side between the barrier and launched the Toro Rosso momentarily into the air.

 

After being examined at the nearby medical centre, Hartley was taken to hospital for more checks.

 

The Formula 1 Grand Prix Heineken Du Canada 2018 Race Results Classification (68 Laps)

POSITION	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	68	1h28m31.377s
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	68	7.376s
3	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	68	8.360s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	68	20.892s
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	68	21.559s
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	68	27.184s
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team	67	1 Lap
8	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1 Team	67	1 Lap
9	Esteban Ocon	Sahara Force India F1 Team	67	1 Lap
10	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	67	1 Lap
11	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	67	1 Lap
12	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	67	1 Lap
13	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	67	1 Lap
14	Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	67	1 Lap
15	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	66	2 Laps
16	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	66	2 Laps
17	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	66	2 Laps
–	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	40	Exhaust
–	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	0	Collision
–	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	0	Collision

 

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Sebastian Vettel – 121 Points.
2. Lewis Hamilton – 120 Points.
3. Valtteri Bottas – 86 Points.
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 84 Points.
5. Kimi Raikkonen – 68 Points.
6. Max Verstappen – 50 Points.
7. Fernando Alonso – 32 Points.
8. Nico Hulkenberg – 32 Points.
9. Carlos Sainz – 24 Points.
10. Kevin Magnussen – 19 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 206 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 189 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 134 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 56 Points.
5. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 40 Points.
6. Sahara Force India F1 Team – 28 Points.
7. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 19 Points.
8. Haas F1 Team – 19 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 12 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

Round eight of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to France following a 10-year hiatus from the sport at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France for the Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix De France 2018 from June 22-24.