Canadian Grand Prix 2015: Winners and Losers from Montreal Race
With victory in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton extended his lead at the top of the Formula One drivers' standings to 17 points.
The Montreal race marked a return to the top step of the podium for the reigning world champion, who despite hardly putting a foot wrong in Spain and Monaco had been waiting for his fourth win of the campaign since April's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Hamilton's latest pole-to-flag win was just one of a number of notable performances at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where a jumbled grid saw the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa, the Williams man, embark upon strong recovery drives and the same old niggles frustrate Renault and McLaren-Honda.
Here are the winners and losers from the Canadian GP.
Winner: Lewis Hamilton
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After the disappointment of Monaco, where he and Mercedes grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory, Lewis Hamilton needed a near-perfect weekend to restore some calm to his title challenge.
And at a venue where he has always excelled—he won his first Formula One race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007 and took the chequered flag in 2010 and 2012—that was exactly what he had.
There were some fears of a Monaco hangover early in the weekend when he slid into the wall on Friday afternoon and then failed to get laps under his belt in FP3.
But those dramas no longer affect Lewis in the way they might have done in previous seasons, and the reigning world champion was always going to be the man to beat regardless of his lack of preparation.
At a place where his qualifying frailties first became noticeable in 2014, a pole position time that was, according to the official F1 website, over 0.3 seconds faster than team-mate Nico Rosberg was symbolic of how much Hamilton has evolved in the space of 12 months.
Rosberg, perhaps surprisingly, shadowed Hamilton throughout the race as both Mercedes drivers managed their machinery, but you always felt the British driver had enough pace in hand to stretch the gap whenever he needed to.
Without a win for the best part of two months, normal service has resumed for Hamilton.
Loser: Kimi Raikkonen
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It was telling that, on the grid, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene chose to stand beside Sebastian Vettel's car and not that of Kimi Raikkonen, who, starting from third, was undoubtedly the Prancing Horse's best bet for victory.
It seemed to indicate that Ferrari do not quite trust Raikkonen to lead the team's quest for success, even when Vettel, starting a lowly 18th, is out of contention.
And their reservations over Raikkonen, if indeed they exist, were justified as the 2007 world champion limped to a distant fourth-place finish.
Raikkonen seemed almost certain to secure his second podium finish of the season when he held third place in the opening stint, but his day was hindered shortly after his first pit stop when he spun at the hairpin, a mistake he made in the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix.
The time lost there handed third place to his fellow Finn, Valtteri Bottas, and Kimi was alarmingly anonymous from that point, crossing the finish line just 4.3 seconds ahead of Vettel, according to the official F1 website.
Ferrari are looking ever more like a one-man team.
Winner: Williams
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The low-downforce demands of Canada meant Williams were bound to return to form this weekend, and they did so by recording their first podium finish of the season.
Valtteri Bottas might have been a little disappointed to miss out on qualifying within the top three in Canada for the second time in three years, missing out to Kimi Raikkonen by 0.1 seconds, according to the official F1 website.
But he made up for that by producing the kind of drive we have come to expect from the Finn since last season, taking his chances—in this case, Raikkonen's spin—and making few mistakes en route to yet another assured, well-deserved third place.
Bottas' team-mate, Felipe Massa, was a contender for victory in Canada last season, but his afternoon was set to be a struggle from the moment of his elimination in Q1 on Saturday.
The Brazilian, though, made good progress through the field on a one-stop strategy, which saw him start the race on soft tyres before spending 33 laps on the super-softs at the end to ultimately finish a comfortable sixth.
There is a sense that Williams, if anything, have underachieved so far this season, having failed to truly build upon the promise shown in the second half of 2014.
The fact that they have secured their first podium a race earlier than last season, however—the team had to wait until the Austrian Grand Prix to record a top-three finish in 2014—suggests they are continuing to head in the right direction.
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Loser: Renault
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The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's long straights were set to hurt the Renault-powered teams in Canada, and a mere glance at the results should tell you all you need to know about the difference between Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso and their rivals.
Mercedes- and Ferrari-engined cars locked out the top seven places on the grid in qualifying as the Red Bull's and Toro Rosso's were forced to settle for the positions between eighth and 12th, only split by the underperforming Force India of Sergio Perez.
It was a similar story in the race as Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen all finished well outside the points, with Daniil Kvyat salvaging a ninth-place finish.
According to the FIA's Speed Trap data, the slowest Renault runner in qualifying, Ricciardo, was 14.3 kilometres per hour slower than the benchmark pace set by Lotus' Romain Grosjean, indicating just how much Red Bull and Toro Rosso are suffering from Renault's troublesome power unit.
With the upcoming races at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone also placing an emphasis on engine power, the next few weeks could be humiliating for the French manufacturer.
Winner: Sebastian Vettel
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Technical issues in qualifying and a five-place grid penalty for overtaking under red-flag conditions meant we were robbed of seeing just what Sebastian Vettel could achieve with an updated Ferrari power unit.
Yet starting at the rear of the field presented a compelling challenge for the four-time world champion.
Lewis Hamilton's championship-winning campaign in 2014 was very much built upon his ability to bounce back from disappointment, with the British driver recovering from qualifying disasters in Germany and Hungary to still reach the podium, neutralising the effect of his misfortune.
From 18th on the grid, Vettel, like Hamilton and Mercedes, had the chance to show just how formidable his alliance with Ferrari really is at this early stage in their relationship.
And the German delivered, finishing fifth with a performance that he described to Sky Sports' Mike Wise as "the best we could do."
Vettel made good progress in the opening laps, but after being stuck in traffic headed for the pits on Lap 7 in an uncharacteristically bold move by Ferrari.
Bad luck struck again as a slow pit stop dropped him to the rear of the field, but still Vettel and Ferrari bounced back, coming through the field—a pass around the outside of Nico Hulkenberg at the final chicane was particularly impressive—to ensure he preserved his record of finishing in the top five at every race this season.
Now 43 points behind Hamilton in the drivers' standings, it is increasingly unlikely that Vettel will sustain a title challenge this season. But with Seb and the Prancing Horse executing a near-perfect recovery drive in just their eighth race together, the future looks bright.
Loser: Fernando Alonso
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McLaren-Honda suffered yet another wretched weekend as both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button retired with what the team's official Twitter account confirmed were "unrelated exhaust issues."
Like the Renault-powered outfits, McLaren's weaknesses were expected to be magnified in Canada, but also exposed were the increasing tensions within the team as they continue to flounder toward the rear of the field.
When instructed to save fuel on Lap 24, Alonso, according to Autosport's Ian Parkes, said he didn't "want to" over team radio and later told Sky Sports' Pete Gill how he chose to have "some fun" instead of conserving his car.
Alonso's retirement soon after risked making his outburst seem like a trivial matter, but a team such as McLaren, the second most successful in F1 history, simply do not have "fun" in the middle of a grand prix.
The Spaniard's careless, uncooperative remarks reflect poorly on the two-time world champion and should raise relevant question marks over his commitment to the McLaren-Honda project and his place in a team environment.
Almost exactly eight years since the first cracks in his relationship with McLaren appeared, it seems history is repeating itself.
Alonso remains one of three drivers yet to score a point in 2015.
Winner: Pastor Maldonado
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The Lotus drivers experienced something of a role reversal in the Canadian Grand Prix.
Romain Grosjean, the unofficial team leader, was transported back to the dark days of 2012 when he collided with Will Stevens while lapping the Manor Marussia driver, with the Frenchman forced to make a spontaneous pit stop as a result.
While Grosjean was making a foolish error, Pastor Maldonado was for once a man in complete control en route to his first points finish of the season.
The Venezuelan, because of a combination of rotten luck and unforced errors, failed to finish five of the first six races of 2015, but he made a convincing return to form in Montreal, where he finished in the top 10 in every single session.
Just 0.2 seconds slower than Grosjean in qualifying, according to the official F1 website, Maldonado, per Pirelli's race report, spent more time on the soft-compound tyres than any other driver, with those 53 laps instrumental to his drive to seventh place.
It is only Maldonado's second points finish since joining Lotus at the beginning of 2014 and only his sixth since his surprise victory in the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, but this could be a turning point in his season.
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