Picture this: it’s the 9th of June. It’s a sunny day in Montreal. And we have no idea what’s about to happen. Welcome to the Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix du Canada.
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel scored his first pole position of the year at Canada, clocking in at 1m 10.420s, only two tenths ahead of Hamilton in second, and only seven tenths ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc in third.
Q1 oversaw the departure of the five slowest cars on track, which were (from slowest) KUB, RUS, STR, RAI, and PER. Q2 featured a red flag after a big crash for Haas’ Kevin Magnussen who was trying to set a time fast enough for Q3. As a result, the drivers knocked out in Q2 were (from slowest) GRO, ALB, GIO, KVY, and VER.
Race
Canada 2019 certainly goes down as one of the most infamous races of the hybrid era thanks to its controversial result (deja vu perhaps?), where Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won despite crossing the line after Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who had been given a five second penalty.
The incident which gave Vettel the penalty occurred on lap 48 of the race, when he ran across the grass between turns 3 and 4, effectively squeezing Hamilton almost off track as he fought to keep the place. All was not lost for Ferrari however – while they lost a race win, they were still able to achieve 2nd and 3rd place with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc respectively. This was Ferrari’s best result of the year… for now!
Fellow Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas took fourth place along with the fastest lap after a late pit stop for soft tyres, which along with a race win gave Mercedes an excellent points haul coming away from the weekend.
An excellent weekend for Renault saw Daniel Ricciardo finish in 6th after holding Bottas behind him for a considerable time, and Nico Hulkenberg 7th – a brilliant show of the talent of the drivers and the power of the car (and don’t we all miss the wasp-like Renaults buzzing around the track?).
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fought hard for the fifth place finish with an extra long first stint on his tyres after being unable to qualify in the top ten the day before. Teammate Pierre Gasly was only able to finish in eighth place, a surprisingly disappointing result for such a strong team.
It was a similarly dismal result for McLaren – after Lando Norris had to retire his car due to the brakes overheating and cooking the rear suspension, all hopes rested on Carlos Sainz – although the Spaniard was only able to achieve 11th place, meaning the team left Montreal with no points.
It must also be noted that Racing Point driver Lance Stroll drove an astounding race in his home country. He started the race in 17th, which usually does not leave much to hope for – but the Canadian kept his head down and finished the race in ninth place, an excellent result for both driver and country.
Written by Tara Gardener
About The Author
Leave a Reply