Sebastian Vettel crossed the winning line first but due to controversial penalty by stewards had 5 seconds added to his time and managed to finish only second behind Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari came to the Canadian GP as favourites, because of the extended power in the engine and the advantage of faster long straights on the track. However, Mercedes brought in their first engine upgrade of the season to cover the power deficit and challenge Ferrari.
The practise sessions and qualifying suggested Ferrari were the quickest. Lewis Hamilton had an early crash in FP2 and had a hydraulic leak, but the team got it fixed and Hamilton sat on the second spot in the grid after qualifying. Bottas had a problem with his rear and hence struggled grip and pace. Bottas could only manage a P6 after Q3.
P1 ??? This weekend hasn’t been easy and I am so thankful of my team. We faced different challenges but we persevered and got the job done. It’s not the way I wanted to win but this is racing. It was tough out there, I really put the pressure on @MercedesAMGF1 ? @MSI_Images pic.twitter.com/xiOsGafpti
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) June 9, 2019
Kevin Magnussen hit the champion’s curve at the end of Q2 leading to red flag and the rest of the session being cancelled leading to a shocking exit of Verstappen from qualifying. Verstappen had only started his second lap when Magnussen hit the wall and session was cancelled, and Max could only register one timing which had placed him on P11.
The start of the race saw Alex Albon being squeezed by Perez and Giovinazzi , in which he lost his front wing and had to take an early pit stop. He had to retire from the race before the end.
Lando Norris also retired due to an overheating in his rare brakes melting the suspension and causing a fire.
Vettel had a 5 second lead on the top but after the pit stop Hamilton covered the gap with hard tyres on, and the pressure from Hamilton saw Seb making a mistake going into the sidelines.
He managed to glide back to the track in haste and the car’s drift towards right made him block Hamilton who was about to wheez past him. The stewards checked on the incident and handed Vettel a 5 second penalty for dangerously entering the track. Lewis Hamilton finished 2 seconds behind the ferrari driver and secured the record breaking 7th win at Canadian GP. Charles Leclerc finished 3rd, Bottas 4th and Verstappen 5th. The fastest lap of the race was done by Valterri Bottas and secured an extra point for it.
In the post race interview Lewis Hamilton said “I took the corner normally. When you come back on track, you’re not supposed to go straight back on racing line, you’re supposed to come back safely. I assume that’s why…
Asked if he thought he’d had the pace to overtake Vettel on-track even without the penalty, Hamilton replied: “Not towards the end I don’t think.
“I think we were all struggling with brake temps towards the end. The tyres were good at that point where he made the mistake, so I was as close as I was ever going to be. I got that block and then the gap opened up. It’s very hard to follow here. It’s such a great track, and if it wasn’t for the fans, it wouldn’t be as great as it is.”
“Thank you to my team, I wouldn’t be standing here without them,” he said. “It was an incredible effort. We had a problem this morning with the engine, with my crash on Friday. If they hadn’t been so diligent, I wouldn’t have been able to race today as I have.”
The Canadian fans started to boo Hamilton on the podium, with a large majority of the fans in Montreal supporting Ferrari. “All I can say is, I didn’t make the decision,” was the now seven-time Montreal winner’s response. “I don’t know what they are booing at. Maybe it’s the decision…”
Vettel showed his class and sportingly jumped in to defend his rival: “The people shouldn’t boo at Lewis. I think he saw what was going on, I don’t think there was any intention to be in his harm’s way. I had trouble to stay on track. The people shouldn’t boo at Lewis, if anything they should boo at these funny decisions.”
The win in Canada takes Hamilton to a 30 point lead over his teammate Bottas in the Championship.