Hamilton sweeps to victory in Canada

June 11, 2017 • Event Reports, Featured • Alexander S

Lewis Hamilton scored his 56th victory in the Formula 1 after winning the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The Mercedes driver led from start to finish and reduced a gap to Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers’ Championship.

The start of the race was quite exciting. Lewis Hamilton kept his lead but Max Verstappen had a flying start and jumped to the 2nd position, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel, and Daniel Ricciardo. Back on the grid, Carlos Sainz Jr made a mistake and had a contact with Romain Grosjean. The Spaniard slid off the track but before crashing into the barriers went straight into the car of Felipe Massa. Both drivers were out of the race and the safety car was deployed.

The start of the Canadian Grand Prix

Soon after the race was restarted, Vettel had to make an unplanned pit stop to change a front wing that was damaged in the contact with Verstappen’s car at the start. While the former champion was dropped to the back of the grid, Verstappen stopped his car on lap 11 what was another disappointment for the Dutch driver, especially after having the fantastic start of the race.

Verstappen retired after the car failure

After that Hamilton had a strong lead to Bottas and Ricciardo while Vettel on lap 20 already was in the 9th position and resolute to continue his progress to the top. Lewis pitted on lap 32 and resumed comfortably in the lead. It was obvious that only set of unpredicted circumstances can stop him on the way to victory in Montreal. At the same time Esteban Ocon did a very nice job and battled with Kimi Raikkonen for the 5th place but the trouble for the Frenchman was that Vettel was behind him.

With 20 laps to go, in the focus was the battle between Ferrari and Force India for the positions from 4 to 7. Sergio Perez and Ocon had a solid advantage to Vettel and Raikkonen and they were eager to battle with Ricciardo for the 3rd. Vettel was flying around the circuit in the last 10 laps. He overtook Ocon for the 5th, and soon after Perez for the 4th place, but Ricciardo was too far for the German who, after all, must be happy with the 4th place.

Lance Stroll scored his maiden points in the Formula 1 in front of his fans

This was Hamilton’s third win of the season and first 1-2 finish for Mercedes in 2017 while Ricciardo finished 3rd in the third consecutive race. Local crowd favorite and the Williams driver Lance Stroll scored his maiden points after taking the 9th position.