F1 2016: Hamilton triumphs in Canada as Vettel settles for second

Lewis Hamilton has won the 2016 F1 Canadian Grand Prix for Mercedes making it his fifth win in Montreal. Sebastian Vettel finished second for Ferrari and Valterri Bottas claimed third for Williams.

As the lights went out, Mercedes’ worst nightmare came true. Sebastian Vettel from third on the grid got the best start to dive into turn 1 ahead of both Mercedes cars. Lewis Hamilton managed to keep second place to himself. His team-mate, Nico Rosberg ran out of room into turn 1 and went off the track. This dropped the German all the way down to tenth place.

On Lap 11, Jenson Button pulled his car over with a flaming engine to retire from the race. To take advantage of the virtual safety car period, Ferrari called in both drivers (Vettel and Raikkonen) for the supersoft tyres banking on a two stop strategy hoping for the gamble to pay off.

Vettel comes out in fourth behind the Redbull of Daniel RIcciardo. With fresh tyres, Vettel made his move on Ricciardo at the harpin on lap 17, takes second from Verstappen the following lap helped by DRS. Vettel was now in second place and starts to charge at the race leader, Hamilton.

Hamilton was called into the box for a fresh set of the mandatory soft tyres on Lap 24, opting for a 1 stop strategy. Vettel went past Hamilton to retake the lead but still had one more stop left with the soft tyres yet to be used. Vettel had a 13 second lead over Hamilton with a goal to achieve 19 seconds to get a clean pit stop in.

With the grip from his tyres starting to fall off, Vettel dived into the pits on lap 37 for the soft compound tyres. He then came out seven seconds behind Hamilton with half the race still to go and much fresher tyres on his Ferrari that the ones on the Mercedes.

The question at this point was weather Hamilton would have to abaondon the 1 stop strategy like some of the other drivers down the order were? If not, can Vettel close the gap to make a move with fresh rubber?

Vettel closed in the gap to less than five seconds, but a mistake at the final chicane forced him to concede one and a half seconds to Hamilton. Vettel made the same mistake again and the gap grew back to over six seconds. This destroyed Vettels chances and had to settle for second place as Hamilton crossed the finished line with a five second lead to take the victory of the Canadian GP.

2016 F1 Canadian GRAND PRIX (13/06/2016)
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – 4.361KM, 13 TURNS, 70 laps