2013 Canadian Grand Prix - A Canadian cruise for Vettel

By Simon Wright

World champion Sebastian Vettel delivered another crushing performance in the Canadian Grand Prix this evening.  The German cruised to victory on a baking hot afternoon at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal to strengthen his claim for a fourth successive drivers’ championship.

Sebastian Vettel sees the chequered flag for a first career win in Canada

The combination of his chassis and the ability to push his Pirelli tyres to the maximum meant Vettel was utterly imperious.  He led 67 of the 70 laps, only relinquishing his lead for three circuits during the first round of pitstops.  He beat Fernando Alonso to the chequered flag (pictured) by a comfortable 14 seconds.

Lewis Hamilton was Vettel’s nearest challenger all weekend, but was overhauled by Alonso in the closing stages and had to settle for third place, ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.  Paul di Resta made a one-stop strategy work on his way to seventh from 17^th on the grid, but Jenson Button had a torrid day, as McLaren’s 64-race streak of consecutive points finishes came to a disappointing end.

After a weekend where dry running was at a premium thanks to cold track temperatures and showers that interrupted both Friday first practice and qualifying, there was a real sense of the unknown on raceday.  The sunshine made a welcome appearance in North America, and it was Vettel who showed his class right from the off.  He made the best start, and immediately built a three-second cushion to ensure he wouldn’t be vulnerable to any early attack from the DRS zones.  Hamilton settled into a nice rhythm from second, but could do little about his rival infront, while Nico Rosberg and Webber jumped surprising qualifier Valtteri Bottas in his Williams to move into the top four.  Starting sixth, Alonso had to make quick early movements, and also dealt with the young Finn by the end of the first lap.

It was Bottas who was heavily involved in the early action, as he started holding up a congested queue in the midfield, featuring the likes of the Force India, Lotus and Toro Rosso cars.  On lap six, Jean-Eric Vergne made a brilliant pass stick on the rookie going into turn one.  Adrian Sutil attempted to follow through a few corners later, but made a rash error and spun his Force India around a full 360 degrees before rejoining, mercifully without being hit.

Sadly for the Williams team, Bottas couldn’t keep up with the pace, with the team’s gamble of a higher downforce setting in the hope of some Sunday rain simply not paying off.  He faded to 14^th, and Pastor Maldonado’s clumsy outbrake into the hairpin early on saw him swipe his front wing against Sutil’s rear wing, and landed him with a drive-through penalty.  He could only recover to 16^th, as the Grove team continue to remain pointless in the 2013 season.

Sutil had his own dramas and reflected on a difficult day which saw him later penalised for ignoring blue flags.  Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he lamented: “I was in the back of the field and Maldonado missed his braking point – again – as he always does – and he hit my rear.  That had a big effect with damage on my car.

“I was quite disappointed with the drive-through.  I was just racing Raikkonen, trying to push on.  I tried to give them the straight to pass me, and that is where Hamilton overtook me with the DRS as well.  I thought ‘ok, they were behind me for one lap, but that’s usual around this type of circuit.

“I’ve spent many laps behind lapped cars until I got past.  It’s just so inconsistent from the FIA and something I don’t understand.”

Vettel built up a useful advantage, but did get away with a kiss along the barriers exiting turn four on lap 11.  He managed to shave the letterings off the Pirelli labels, as evident from his first pitstop, but escaped major harm.  When he pitted, Hamilton had a brief stint at the front of the field before pitting on lap 20.  Considering the stick they have taken left, right and centre in 2013, Pirelli’s tyre choice in Canada was spot on.  This weekend, the drivers were able to push to the limit without needing to go into ridiculous tyre conservation mode.

If one driver was using up his tyre life the most, it was Rosberg.  Webber was stuck behind him until lap 30, when he finally got a run on the Monaco GP winner in the first DRS zone and cleanly got ahead before the braking point.  Out of the final chicane, and better traction from the Ferrari enabled Alonso to comfortably follow Webber past Rosberg.  Rosberg would pit three times during the afternoon, making the most visits of anyone in the race.

Van der Garde faces the wrong way after his clumsy tangle with Webber

By this stage, Vettel was already lapping cars that were in the points and probably loving every single minute of his Sunday afternoon stroll.  Further back, team-mate Webber was in the wars, when he got into some contact with dozy backmarker Giedo van der Garde (contact pictured).  The Caterham man was being lapped, and left some space on the inside of the Casino hairpin for the Australian, only to stupidly turn in and make sure a connection was inevitable.  Van der Garde spun but continued, and it was Webber who suffered, damaging the left part of his front wing.  The team elected not to change the wing at the second pitstop, but it left Webber deeply frustrated.

He told ESPN: “Obviously it was his fault.  Obviously the stewards see it like that, he gets a time penalty and so do I obviously because I have a damaged front wing. 

“I couldn’t believe it – fair enough for position but when you’re getting lapped with the leaders coming through, battling for the top spots and you’re closing the door on the leaders it’s not very clever.”

The damage and other delays in traffic made it easy for Alonso to pass Webber for third, and when the final pitstops were concluded, he hunted down the seven second gap Hamilton had in his pocket.  As Hamilton described, Alonso chased him like a ‘bull,’ but enjoyed the battle with his former McLaren team-mate.  It ended with Alonso claiming second spot in a fierce scrap on lap 62.

On the podium, Hamilton was quoted: “I think a small part of the wing came off it was really close, we had a great battle, he is a fair driver and had a great drive.  We just have to keep pushing so we can get closer to these guys.

“It’s a bit disappointing.  It’s not been a very mellow weekend.  It would have been nice to have held on to second but Fernando was generally just quicker but it is an improvement in the constructors’ championship.”

The fight between the former world champions was the standout moment in a distinctively average race, with few retirements and no safety cars for the second successive year, despite some great passing moves with DRS helping, but not proving to be as clear-cut as it has at some other circuits.

Although Webber stole some late thunder with the fastest lap on the penultimate tour, it was Vettel’s day, as he drove easily to the chequered flag and broke Red Bull’s bogey streak in North America.  This was the first victory for both driver and team in either Canada or the United States, and it increased his championship lead to a healthy 36 points over Alonso.

On his team radio, he expressed his delight: “Woo, we won Canada – thank you guys.  The car was amazing, the car was absolutely amazing.”

It is his 29^th career victory, and this will go down as one of his most dominant performances since his title-winning season in 2011 when this kind of success became a frequent normality.

Second place for Alonso was heavy damage limitation.  The Spaniard should never be written off, but Ferrari need to find some extra speed, especially on a Saturday afternoon as they seem to have too much to do on a Sunday in too many events.

Hamilton took third place for his third Mercedes podium, although it is the first time he hasn’t won the Canadian Grand Prix when he made the finish.  Webber was a further 10 seconds back, with Rosberg a distant fifth.

Vergne recorded Toro Rosso’s best result since Vettel won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.  The Frenchman backed up his strong weekend in Monaco with a fine run to sixth.  Di Resta brought home more points for Force India with another impressive run in the team’s 100^th grand prix in this guise.  He went a remarkable 57 laps on the medium compound tyre, proving that some Pirelli tyres do have a sense of durability around them.

After a crash in Q2 on Saturday left him down in 16^th, Felipe Massa had an action-packed run to eighth in the second Ferrari.  Despite his late penalty and a scrappy drive, Sutil took the final point.

Two teams that will leave Canada scratching their head with a severe lack of performance will be Lotus and McLaren.  Kimi Raikkonen had an appalling weekend, picking up a clumsy qualifying penalty for a pitlane infringement, then looked timid in traffic, and he had a dismal pitstop when the rear electronic jack failed on his car.  Ninth place was not the outcome either team or driver wanted, and since technical director James Allison left the team on the eve of the Spanish Grand Prix, a total of three points in two races is threatening to derail a championship challenge from Raikkonen.  Team-mate Romain Grosjean made no impact on proceedings and finished 13^th, as the pressure over his short-term future in Formula One remains.

McLaren collected no points in a race for the first time since Abu Dhabi 2009.  Neither Sergio Perez, nor Jenson Button qualified in the top 10, and neither looked capable of challenging for the points.  Perez finished two seconds behind Sutil in 11^th, whilst a dejected Button lost far too much time on degrading super soft rubber on a one-stop strategy that never looked like it was going to work out.  He was 12^th, and both cars were convincingly lapped by their former employee Hamilton.  McLaren will be best to abandon this car, as it is the worst one they have designed for a long time, and focus on 2014.  Canada 2013 has seen them hit rock bottom, and managing director Martin Whitmarsh continues to wear the look of a man who looks on seriously borrowed time to turn the sinking ship around.

There is a three-week break before Formula One returns home to Silverstone and the British Grand Prix in rural Northamptonshire.  Most will be hoping the International Tribunal into Mercedes’ illegal tyre test after the race in Barcelona will be heard by then, so the focus can fully return to the racing.  However, Sebastian Vettel has put himself in a great position after this drive.  There is still 13 races to go, but his main rivals need to put a stop on his consistent scoring, and quickly before he starts walking away with the 2013 championship.

	FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2013 RESULT
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	70	1hr 32min 09secs	1
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	70	+14.4secs	6
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	70	+15.9secs	2
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	70	+25.7secs	5
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	70	+1min 09.7secs	4
6	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	69	1 Lap	7
7	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	69	1 Lap	17
8	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	69	1 Lap	16
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	69	1 Lap	10
10	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	69	1 Lap	8
11	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	69	1 Lap	12
12	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	69	1 Lap	14
13	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	69	1 Lap	22
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	69	1 Lap	3
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	68	2 Laps	11
16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	68	2 Laps	13
17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	68	2 Laps	19
18	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	67	3 Laps	18
19	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	67	3 Laps	20
20R	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	63	Accident	15
R	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari	45	Accident Damage	9
R	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	43	Collision with Hulkenberg	21

Drivers’ Championship after 7 rounds: 1. Sebastian Vettel 132, 2. Fernando Alonso 96, 3. Kimi Raikkonen 88, 4. Lewis Hamilton 77, 5. Mark Webber 69, 6. Nico Rosberg 57, 7. Felipe Massa 49, 8. Paul di Resta 34, 9. Romain Grosjean 26, 10. Jenson Button 25, 11. Adrian Sutil 17, 12. Jean-Eric Vergne 13, 13. Sergio Perez 12, 14. Daniel Ricciardo 7, 15. Nico Hulkenberg 5

Constructors’ Championship after 7 rounds: 1. Red Bull Racing 201, 2. Ferrari 145, 3. Mercedes GP 134, 4. Lotus 114, 5. Force India 51, 6. McLaren 37, 7. Scuderia Toro Rosso 20, 8. Sauber 5

STOP PRESS (UPDATED MONDAY, 10 JUNE - 9.45AM): Since this report was published, it is sad to report that a marshal who was recovering the car of Esteban Gutierrez after his crash in the closing stages of the race has died.  The incident happened after the race involving a mobile crane, which was recovering the Sauber back to the pitlane.  The marshal dropped his radio, and as he went to pick it up, he tripped and was run over by the crane.  The individual, who has not officially been identified was taken to the circuit's medical centre, then the main hospital in Montreal before succumbing fatally to his injuries.

A statement from the FIA read: "The worker, a member of the Automobile Club de I'lle Notre Dame, was the victim of an unfortunate accident that occurred at the end of this afternoon's Formula One Grand Prix du Canada.  The worker was helping to recover a car which had stopped during the race.  The recovery vehicle had lifted the car to return it to the pits and while doing this, the worker dropped his radio and attempted to pick it up.  As he did this, he stumbled and was hit and run over by the recovery vehicle.  The worker was transported via helicopter to Sacre-Coeur Hospital where he was treated by the traumatology department.  Unfortunately, the worked succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
"The FIA, I'Automobile Club de I'lle Notre-Dame and the Formula One Grand Prix du Canada want to communicate their deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victim.  The identity of the worker cannot be revealed at this time."

It is the first fatality at a Grand Prix meeting in 12 years.  In 2000, fire marshal Paolo Ghislimberti was killed after being struck by flying debris from Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan car during a multiple crash at Monza's second chicane on the first lap of the 2000 Italian Grand Prix.  A few months later, track marshal Graham Beveridge suffered a similar fate, after he was hit by a wheel from Jacques Villeneuve's BAR after his accident with Ralf Schumacher in the 2001 Australian Grand Prix.

It is a huge reminder that without the hard work, time and dedication put in by these workers, none of the drivers, fans and the media would witness racing take place.  My thoughts go out to the marshal's friends and family, and it is a sombre way to head to the British Grand Prix in three weeks' time.

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