CANADIAN GP - RACE - RE-CAP & RESULTS
It was quite a dramatic start to race day as there was trouble on the grid before the warm-up lap. Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso stalled with a gearbox malfunction while the rest of the cars had already started to head around the circuit. Kvyat failed to re-join his grid position before the first Safety Car line. Kvyat was then supposed to start from Pit-Lane but instead moved back to his original grid spot. The Toro Rosso driver was given a drive-through penalty and then an additional 10-Second-Stop-Go-Penalty as well as 2 penalty points on his license.
Once the race started, Lewis Hamilton pulled away from Vettel in the Ferrari, while Bottas was quick to follow his team-mate. Max Verstappen managed to get ahead of Vettel as well with a fantastic start. Further in the back, there was contact between three cars: Grosjean, Massa and Sainz.
Carlos Sainz had attempted to move to the right side of the track and failed to see Grosjean coming up alongside of him. The two collided and Sainz was sent sliding into Massa. Both Sainz and Massa spun out and Sainz ended up in the barriers while Massa's Williams came to rest in the grass. Grosjean suffered front wing damage and pitted shortly after the accident. Sainz was given a 3-Place-Grid-Penalty for the upcoming Azerbaijan GP and also 2 penalty points were added to his license.
Despite Verstappen's fantastic start, the Red Bull driver pulled over to the side of the track with a faulty battery on lap 11. His race was over. Mean while, team-mate, Ricciardo, was running up in 3rd behind Bottas and Hamilton.
Kevin Magnussen was given a 5-Second-Time-Penalty and 2 penalty points to his license after overtaking under the Safety Car while the marshals were removing Verstappen's stricken Red Bull.
In the later half of the race, after Raikkonen pitted, there was a tight 3-way battle between Ocon, Perez and Ricciardo for that last spot on the podium. Ocon had moved up to 5th following Raikkonen's pit-stop and was just under 2 seconds behind his team-mate. Perez was quickly catching Ricciardo and made multiple attempts to overtake the Aussie. As laps continued to fall away, Force India made the suggestion to Perez that he let Ocon by so Ocon could have a try at passing Ricciardo. Perez, however, insisted the team let him continue trying. There were no official team orders and they continued to battle it out on their own terms.
Towards the end of the race, Kvyat reported vibrations coming from his engine. He went into the pits and took his penalties and then the pit-crew had trouble while changing his tyres. They then quickly attempted to place on another set, but by then he was told to stop the engine and they retired the car.
By the final laps, both Ferrari drivers had caught up with the Force India duo and while Raikkonen had looked to be quick, he overshot the chicane and lost his pace due to overheating rear brakes. Sebastian Vettel, however, was able to overtake both Ocon and then Perez a few laps later.
What looked to be McLaren's first points finish of the season with Alonso running in 10th, bad luck struck the team once more and the Spaniard retired on lap 68 due to an engine issue. Vandoorne managed to get to the end of the race but finished in 14th, just a handful of positions away from scoring any points.
Lance Stroll finished his home grand prix and scored 2 points for Williams by crossing the finish line in 9th. It's quite a victory for the rookie, who had never driven on the circuit in prior years with other racing series.
Lewis Hamilton took home the win for Mercedes, followed by his team-mate, Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo who managed to hold on to that last podium position, despite Vettel being super close in the final laps.
The teams can now look forward to heading to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in two weeks' time.
RESULTS:
1. Lewis Hamilton / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain / + 25 Points
2. Valtteri Bottas / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland / + 18 Points
3. Daniel Ricciardo / Red Bull-TAG-Heuer / Australia / + 15 Points
4. Sebastian Vettel / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany / + 12 Points
5. Sergio Perez / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico / + 10 Points
6. Esteban Ocon / Force India-Mercedes / France / + 8 Points
7. Kimi Raikkonen / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland / + 6 Points
8. Nico Hulkenberg / Renault-Renault / Germany / + 4 Points
9. Lance Stroll / Williams-Mercedes / Canada / + 2 Points
10. Romain Grosjean / Haas-Ferrari / France / + 1 Point
11. Jolyon Palmer / Renault-Renault / Great Britain
12. Kevin Magnussen / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark
13. Marcus Ericsson / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden
14. Stoffel Vandoorne / McLaren-Honda / Belgium
15. Pascal Wehrlein / Sauber-Ferrari / Germany
RETIRED - Fernando Alonso / McLaren-Honda / Spain / Engine
RETIRED - Daniil Kvyat / Toro Rosso-Renault / Russia / Mechanical Issue
RETIRED - Max Verstappen / Red Bull-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands / Battery
RETIRED - Felipe Massa / Williams-Mercedes / Brazil / Collision
RETIRED - Carlos Sainz / Toro Rosso-Renault / Spain / Collision
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Article Written By: Amy Hawk
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