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Vettel cruises to second Canadian win

Writer's picture: Andrew ZarbAndrew Zarb


Sebastian Vettel has won the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix in what was a dominant dirve by the German, helping him to reclaim the lead in the World Championship. Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas finished in second place, whilst Red Bull driver Max Verstappen finished in 3rd place with what was a composed performance by the Dutchman which helped him to answer some of the critics he's faced in the media of late. Fellow Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo finished in fourth place ahead of reigning champion Lewis Hamilton who came home in fifth, in what was a rather processional race.

At the start, Vettel got away well and led going into turn 1. Verstappen got a good start and was side by side with Bottas in the first couple of corners, but eventually Bottas kept that second place. Verstappen's team-mate Ricciardo, however, overtook Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen for fifth place, which was to have an effect on strategy. Further back, Toro Rosso driver Brendon Hartley was involved in a rather nasty-looking collision with Canadian driver and local boy Lance Stroll, where arguably the Williams driver (Stroll) was at fault. The collision caused the Safety Car (SC) to be deployed. Brendon Hartley has now been sent to the hospital for a scan. Of course, everyone hopes that all is well for the New Zealander.

The SC came in at the end of lap 5. Vettel got a good restart and opened up a decent lead to Bottas behind. Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez were involved in slight contact which led to Perez going off track and nearly collecting another driver as he rejoined the track in a rather sloppy manner (not that it was his fault as he lost control following the contact). Meanwhile, upfront, Vettel was controlling the race beautifully and opening up the gap slightly to Bottas. On lap 12, Force India driver Esteban Ocon pitted from seventh, but had a slow stop which ultimately led him to losing track position to both Renault drivers Nico Hulkenberg, as well as Sainz.

On lap 13, Verstappen was the first of the frontrunners to pit, together with Hamilton who pitted on the same lap - position was maintained between the 2 drivers, though, i.e. Verstappen re-emerged ahead of Hamilton. Ricciardo pitted on the following lap, and thanks to a fast in-lap (where at that point he was the fastest of anybody in the first 2 sectors on track), he managed to re-emerge ahead of Hamilton in fourth place. At this point, the top 6 order was: Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen (none had yet made their pitstop), Verstappen, Ricciardo and Hamilton.

Of the top 3 at that point, Raikkonen was the first to pit on lap 34, and he did re-emerge from his stop just behind Hamilton. Bottas pitted on lap 37, and re-emerged in second place. Race leader Vettel pitted himself a lap later, and comfortably re-emerged in first place. On lap 42, McLaren driver Fernando Alonso, who was running in the points, retired with a reported exhaust issue.

Bottas was actually beginning to close the gap to Vettel and at one point closed the gap to around 3s, though when lapping the Renault of Sainz, he over-shot the entry slightly into turn 1 and ended up on the grass, which effectively killed off any chance of victory that the Finn may have had. There was slight confusion at the end of the race, as the chequered flag was waved a lap before Vettel started the final lap, and thus the classification was taken until only 68 laps - it had little effect on the end result, though Marcus Ericsson's pass on Sergio Perez for 14th did not count (not that it was worth any points), and Ricciardo's fastest lap set on lap 70 was deleted and the award instead went to team-mate Verstappen. Charles Leclerc of Sauber drove an impressive race to earn another point in tenth place, however, the Driver of the Day award went to race winner Vettel.

Classification: Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari Nico Hulkenberg - Renault Carlos Sainz - Renault Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes Charles Leclerc - Sauber-Ferrari Pierre Gasly - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Renault Sergey Sirotkin - Williams-Mercedes

World Championship standings:

Sebastian Vettel - 121 points

Lewis Hamilton - 120 points

Valtteri Bottas - 86 points

Daniel Ricciardo - 84 points

Kimi Raikkonen - 68 points

Max Verstappen - 50 points

Fernando Alonso - 32 points

Nico Hulkenberg - 32 points

Carlos Sainz - 24 points

Kevin Magnussen - 19 points

Pierre Gasly - 18 points

Sergio Perez - 17 points

Esteban Ocon - 11 points

Charles Leclerc - 10 points

Stoffel Vandoorne - 8 points

Lance Stroll - 4 points

Marcus Ericsson - 2 points

Brendon Hartley - 1 point

Romain Grosjean - 0 points

Sergey Sirotkin - 0 points

Constructors' Championship standings:

Mercedes - 206 points

Ferrari - 189 points

Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 134 points

Renault - 56 points

McLaren-Renault - 40 points

Force India-Mercedes - 28 points

Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda - 19 points

Haas-Ferrari - 19 points

Sauber-Ferrari - 12 points

Williams-Mercedes - 4 points

Did not finish the race and therefore not classified: Fernando Alonso, Brendon Hartley, Lance Stroll


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