Was that the greatest win of Lewis Hamilton’s career?
Hamilton’s mood was in stark contrast to that of his team mate Jenson Button,
who began the race in 10th and finished down in 16th, his title hopes now
hanging by a thread.
Perhaps that sounds premature but with a deficit of 43 points to Hamilton and
six other people between himself and his team mate, he is going to need a
lot of people to trip up if he’s to stage a recovery.
There is still time, with 13 races of the season left to run, but Button needs
both his form and his luck to turn around fast. “I feel lost and very
confused,” he admitted last night.
At least he has a fast car at his disposal, as Hamilton proved this weekend.
What a race. What a day. Despite the glorious sunshine, it actually started
under something of a cloud with another 28 people arrested overnight on
suspicion of trying to disrupt the race.
Students here have been demonstrating for months against rising tuition fees,
and the grand prix had been underscored by nightly clashes between
protesters and riot police armed with tear gas and sound grenades.
A heavy security presence ensured all was calm yesterday, with Montreal police
reporting one unfounded bomb threat.
There was even a joke doing the rounds that the entire Canadian Air Force had
been scrambled for the pre-race fly-by. Both F18s were lovely. Instead of
trouble, the 100,000-plus crowed basking in the 30C heat on the Ile Notre
Dame were treated to an enthralling, slow-burner of a grand prix.
All 24 cars got away cleanly, pole-sitter Vettel reaching turn one in the
lead, closely followed by Hamilton and Alonso. Behind them everyone strung
out in pretty much grid order. It was only after the first round of pit
stops between laps 16 and 19 that things really started to happen. Vettel,
who was beginning to come under pressure from Hamilton, pitted first at the
end of lap 16.
Hamilton stopped one lap later, briefly claiming the lead, only for Alonso,
who waited an extra two laps, to leapfrog the pair of them.
The Spaniard was unable to hang on for long, though, with Hamilton re-passing
him in the DRS zone on lap 20. He never looked back.
Although there was that moment of alarm during his second stop on lap 50 –
Hamilton’s girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger, watching on from McLaren’s
hospitality area, was seen banging on a table with her fist at this point –
he emerged into fresh air and put pedal to metal.
Red Bull eventually conceded defeat, hauling Vettel in for a second stop on
lap 63 in order to avoid haemorrhaging further positions. The German
recovered to finish fourth.
Alonso stuck with the one-stop strategy, slipping and sliding his way down the
field to fifth.
It was some finish and sets the season up nicely as we return to Europe and
Valencia next week. An eighth different winner? Who knows.
Say what you like about the new Pirelli tyres, about the unpredictability of
the racing, but having Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel.
Results
1. Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1hr 32mins 29.586secs, 2 Romain
Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:32:32.099, 3 Sergio Perez (Mex)
Sauber-Ferrari 1:32:34.846, 4 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull
1:32:36.881, 5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:32:42.997, 6 Nico
Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:32:43.428, 7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red
Bull 1:32:44.671, 8 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:32:45.153, 9
Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:32:54.018, 10 Felipe Massa
(Bra) Ferrari 1:32:54.858, 11 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India
1:33:07.279, 12 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:33:15.822, 13
Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:33:16.638, 14 Daniel Ricciardo
(Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33:34.061, 15 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra)
Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 lap, 16 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren at 1
lap, 17 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams at 1 lap, 18 Heikki Kovalainen
(Fin) Caterham at 1 lap, 19 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham at 1 lap, 20
Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia at 3 laps
Not classified: 21 Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia 56 laps completed, 22
Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 43 laps completed, 23 Pedro de la Rosa
(Spa) HRT-F1 24 laps completed, 24 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 22 laps
completed