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The 2013 Canadian GP concluded yesterday with Sebastian Vettel winning the race in an utterly dominant fashion. Although the race was a bit uneventful and dull, here are some of the major talking points from the Gilles Villeneuve circuit.
Paul di Resta’s amazing race
Paul di Resta started with medium tyres at the 17th position and raced 56 laps with them before making his first and only pit stop. This strategy earned him a fully deserved 7th position.
Other drivers like Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen too went 42 and 47 laps on their respective medium tyres (so much for talking about the tyre-gate!) But the difference is di Resta started on Medium tyres while the others switched to them after wearing out their super-softs.
17th to 7th is a pretty amazing stat for di Resta who has managed to get points in 6 races out of the 7 this season.
Valtteri Bottas has arrived
Valtteri Bottas came into the F1 world with a huge reputation. But, unfortunately for him, the Williams do not have a car that is up to the mark. But during the qualifying session in Canada, Bottas had a level field. The swinging wet and dry conditions made it difficult for everyone and Bottas made the best out of it, pushing his car to the limit to achieve an impressive third position.
But, as expected, he was overtaken in the race and dropped 11 positions to finish 14th. Despite that, Bottas has won over the admiration of many people in the F1 world.
Kimi Raikkonen’s 24 consecutive point finishes
You read it right. The Ice Man has now finished 24 consecutive races with points. That equals the world record set by Michael Schumacher during 2001 to 2003. Many were skeptical when Raikkonen announced his return to F1 with Lotus, but he has proved them all wrong.
Raikkonen’s point run which began at last year’s 4th race in Bahrain GP where he finished 2nd, has lasted till now. Last season, he managed to finish every single race, the only one out of the 24 drivers to do so. That included 6 finishes on the podium and that impressive win at Abu Dhabi. If he was given a better car, he would have easily won the title last season.
This season, out of the 7 races so far, Kimi has managed three second positions and the win at Australia. What a fantastic run it has been by the Ice Man.
What was van der Garde doing?
Red Bull’s Mark Webber was fighting it off with Lewis Hamilton for the third place. At that time, Catherham’s van der Garde, who was being lapped, had to give way to Webber. The blue flags were shown but van der Garde supposedly ignored them. He then collided with Webber at a hairpin which let Fernando Alonso, who was racing in 4th, to pass Webber.
So, instead of being on the podium, Webber had to settle for a 4th spot. A visibly furious Webber later commented, “We made contact. Fair enough on position but when you’re getting lapped with the leaders coming through battling for the top spots and you’re closing the door on the leaders, it’s not very clever.”
van der Garde was awarded a 10-second drive-through penalty for the move but his race didn’t end there. He later collided with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg once again while being lapped, causing both the cars to retire. He has now been awarded a 5-place gird penalty for the next race at Silverstone.
Adrian Sutil is an angry man
Adrian Sutil had a pretty mixed race yesterday. At lap 6, he was trying to overtake Bottas who was losing places that he had gained in qualification. But Pastor Maldonado resisted this move and hit Sutil on his rear wing. Sutil managed to avoid an accident, spun 360 degrees and regained control in a matter of seconds. It was quite amazing to see. But Sutil had to pit to change his rear wing. Here’s that amazing 360 spin:
He later began gaining positions and made it to 8th. But then he was awarded a drive-through for ignoring the blue flags while being lapped by Lewis Hamilton. He had to settle for a 10th place finish after this.
Sutil was furious with the penalty and commented, “I can’t understand it and I’m not accepting this”. He then added, “I was stuck behind the slow backmarkers, the Marussias, the Caterhams, and they wouldn’t move and you had to overtake them into a corner. No penalty.”
The Canadians hate Sebastian Vettel
Vettel might be the champion but he is not a popular one. Vettel managed to win the race by a staggering 14.4 second margin and looked perfect throughout the race.
But it looks like he isn’t popular with the crowd. Canadians, who are mostly Ferrari supporters, booed and jeered when Vettel made his speech at the podium. Vettel was also booed in Australia and at Malaysia earlier this year when he ignored team orders and overtook his teammate Mark Webber.
So, will Vettel win over the crowd in his upcoming races? Let us wait and watch.
Worker dies after a crane mishap
After the race was over, the workers were retrieving the cars that crashed during the race. While retrieving Esteban Gutierrez’s car, a marshal, whose name has still not be announced, dropped his radio. When trying to get it back, he stumbled and was run over by the crane that was retrieving the car.
This incident marred an otherwise successful Canadian GP. The worker was the third marshal to be killed working at a Formula One race since 2000.
