Lewis Hamilton went a long ways to rectify the Monaco GP loss with a comprehensive victory in the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix Sunday. Having secured his 44th pole position, number 44 went on to win the race besting his teammate by a couple of seconds.
Hamilton’s teammate, Nico Rosberg, put up a decent fight and remained within touch of the 2014 champion but couldn’t mount an effective challenge having had to manage his brakes and fuel load.
Win
Certainly a win for Lewis and Nico with a 1, 2 finish for Mercedes and a redemptive performance from Lewis and his side of the garage after giving away the Monaco GP. Also a win for Valtteri Bottas who took advantage of a spin by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen to finish the podium—which was the first podium for Williams this year.
A clear win for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, Williams F1’s Felipe Massa, Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado and Force India’s Nico hulkenberg who finished in 5th, 6th and 7th respectively. For Vettel and Massa, it was a run through the field having started in the back of the grid to secure big points and for Maldonado for turning around his season and also hauling home points in a race in which his teammate was mired with issues. Hulkenberg had a stellar performance and ran incredibly well all weekend.
Fail
Daniel Ricciardo finished 13th while his teammate, Daniil Kvyat, claimed 9th and a points finish. Ricciardo says he’s banging his head against the wall and hasn’t forgotten how to drive—I believe him.
McLaren had a double DNF and a miserable weekend. For Fernando Alonso, he felt his race made him look like an amateur and Jenson Button couldn’t have sounded more patronizing when the team called him in to retire the car saying, “well, ok…I’m on my way in”. Miserable weekend.
It was a fail for Romain Grosjean who secured a 5-second penalty for simply slamming the door on a backmarker Will Stevens and taking his front wing off then telling the team that Stevens hit him.
I think the WTH moment has to come from McLaren who used tokens to improve their engine and only managed to make things worse.
Romain Grosjean was a WTH moment period.
Another WTH moment, for me, is how the team was telling Lewis exactly how much fuel he had and where to brake, how many meters to brake early and relayed that his teammate had brake issues. In return, when Nico Rosberg asked how he was doing on fuel, the team refused to reply with any information. WTH? The radio communication shared to Lewis is now banned, as evidenced by the refusal of the team to tell Nico any information, but it seems it was okay for the other side of the garage. I don’t like double standards. That’s why I don’t like DRS, it’s not the same for everyone as the leading car gets hosed. IF you’re not going to tell Nico any details, then don’t tell Lewis either.
Race Results
| Pos | Driver | Car |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
| 2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari |
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes |
| 7 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus/Mercedes |
| 8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes |
| 9 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull/Renault |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Mercedes |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Renault |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault |
| 14 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari |
| 15 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso/Renault |
| 16 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari |
| 17 | Will Stevens | Marussia/Ferrari |
| – | Roberto Merhi | Marussia/Ferrari |
| – | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda |
| – | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda |
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP:
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | 151 |
| 2 | Nico Rosberg | 134 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | 108 |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | 72 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | 57 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | 47 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | 35 |
| 8 | Daniil Kvyat | 19 |
| 9 | Romain Grosjean | 17 |
| 10 | Felipe Nasr | 16 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | 11 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | 10 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | 9 |
| 14 | Max Verstappen | 6 |
| 15 | Pastor Maldonado | 6 |
| 16 | Marcus Ericsson | 5 |
| 17 | Jenson Button | 4 |
| 18 | Fernando Alonso | 0 |
| 19 | Roberto Merhi | 0 |
| 20 | Will Stevens | 0 |
CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP:
| Pos | Constructor | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercedes | 285 |
| 2 | Ferrari | 180 |
| 3 | Williams/Mercedes | 104 |
| 4 | Red Bull/Renault | 54 |
| 5 | Lotus/Mercedes | 23 |
| 6 | Sauber/Ferrari | 21 |
| 7 | Force India/Mercedes | 21 |
| 8 | Toro Rosso/Renault | 15 |
| 9 | McLaren/Honda | 4 |
| 10 | Marussia/Ferrari | 0 |
I think it’s more along the lines of the Merc guys forgetting themselves for a moment.
I think you are more than likely right Paul. However, I’d expect the other teams to protest what seems to be a flagrant breach of the sporting regulations. If they do and Hamilton is then given a penalty……….. (and I think you can guess where I’m going with this)………will Hamilton EVER be able to forgive the team for letting him down, so badly, again???????
Another Win I think should be given to Kyvat. He’s been under threat by Marko to up his game. Second race in row he’s taken the measure of Ricciardo and scored points. It’s interesting watching Ricciardo struggle. Not so much in the race, but in his interviews. Last year Vettel got roasted for his performance, in a crappy car, but never once lashed out at the team or expressed the level of frustration DR is now. Yet last year’s car was a much more massive step down for Vettel compared to what he had previously (not just a step, but… Read more »
I don’t think DR has forgotten to drive. The car whether engine, chassis or both seems to have issues.
No, DR is the real thing. He knows how to drive but he said the chassis is as challenging as the lack of power. More than one element at play for sure.
I think Nico is learning where he stands on the Merc totem pole. Unbelievable the disparity in the radio transmissions. He is the “Felipe Massa” of Mercedes. If he wants to win a race, he needs to tell the team to step off and just press the attack and try and beat Lewis, for better or worse. I just kept getting more and more annoyed with the “wait X long until you can attack” transmissions. Just attack and if the brakes start going off then hold off until the next chance. Agreed w/ Boyd’s comment as well. As a Vettel… Read more »
I agree completely, This is the race I lost any respect I had had remaining for Nico. He was only 1-1.5 seconds behind Lewis for over 30 laps and did not do anything to try to get by. I think once he got within DRS range, but that was it. He seemed to just coast behind and keep a gap of 1.5 seconds to not ruin his tires and do whatever the team said to keep him from even attempting to challenge Lewis. The team kept saying wait 10 more laps, and after those 10 wait even more laps, and… Read more »
At Turkey in 2010 Lewis slowed down, because he was told that himself and Jenson were told to save fuel. Jenson saw an opportunity, a sneaky one at that to pass Hamilton, after Lewis was told that Button wouldn’t challenge him, but he did and passed him for the lead. A slightly angered Lewis, and one that you could blame him for, took the lead back from Button in a very forceful manner. Lewis then asking in a irate tone the pit wall…….What the hell is going on? It was at that race, and Jenson’s actions that I felt that… Read more »
Pass of the race: Mass on Marcus
Donkey of the race: Grosjean
Drive of the race: Pastor
After the Renault article on how they adjust the elements of the power unit and its control to suit the rigours of the Canadian circuit, its apparent there is a world of difference between understanding the concept and making it work practice. Also interesting to hear Paul De Resta (on the Sky coverage) give his opinion on why Kimi span at the hairpin, just after coming out of the pits . Apparently the car goes to a different throttle map to let the driver have finer control at small openings when peddling out of the pits, and so is coarser… Read more »
So, not only pole postion #44 for #44, it was pole #4 and race win #4 at Montreal… So while 4 is an unlucky number in Japan, it doesn’t seem to be the same in Stevenage :) Re the radio restrictions, Nico was asking the team how “the other car” (iow Lewis) was doing on fuel, which his engineer didn’t want to comment on. You are allowed to tell the driver how he himself is doing on fuel, as well as (as it seems) give instructions on how much lift-and-coast is needed at any given time. But you can’t tell… Read more »
They did tell Lewis that Nico’s brakes were having issues. Is that not similar to telling him where Lewis is on fuel? Just wondering.
The message to Hamilton did seem borderline. Perhaps Charlie W told Mercedes off, which is why they were careful with Rosberg? Otherwise it would be double standards.
I agree that telling Lewis about Nico’s brakes could be seen as borderline, although in fairness it’s probably something every engineer would relay to their driver once they’ve heard Nico’s engineer telling Nico about it. So I think it should be ok to answer Nico’s question about Lewis’ fuel status, provided that you don’t give any more information than what has already been broadcast publicly over the radio (from Bono to Lewis). In the end, the “driver coaching” radio ban (or, rather, the interpretation of how the “alone and unaided” rule relates to radio messages) was intended to stop engineers… Read more »
I think it was in Autosport that I saw the following conversation reported from Monaco Free Practice:
Driver “how’s my speed through turn one?”
Engineer “I can’t tell you that”
Driver “How’s the weather?”
Engineer “Good”
It would appear that some have found ways around the radio ban, some more subtle than others.
Yes, I heard that conversation, and it made me (as well as the Sky commentators) giggle. It was Lewis and Bono, IIRC.
And to that point, they could argue that relaying brake issues could be a situation for both cars meaning Lewis needed a heads up about the brakes possibly failing etc.
I don’t know, it’s possible merc were trying to keep nico back to keep from risking one driver taking the other out, thus throwing away good constructors points, I mean it wouldn’t be something new, can’t blame them, holding station was a smart move, may not be what the fans wanted but, merc got the 1,2 finish, without some dumb incident, which is good for them, people forget, the constructors title means more to these teams than the drivers title