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Sebastian Vettel put on a dominant show in Montreal to take the 29th victory of his career and end Red Bull’s win duck in Canada. Fernando Alonso took the second spot on the podium after starting the race from 6th place while Lewis Hamilton completed the podium. There were some great drives elsewhere as well – Jean Eric Vergne finished in a career best 6th position while Paul di Resta gained 10 positions in the race to finish in 7th place.
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We rate our top 5 drivers of the Canadian Grand Prix and include opinions of fans’ about the same.
Sebastian Vettel – 10/10
Sebastian Vettel brought back the memories of 2011 with a dominant win in Canada, a place where he and Red Bull have never won before. Vettel took pole position in wet and changing conditions on Saturday by just one-tenth of a second, but on Sunday he was in a class of his own.
The Red Bull driver got a clear start and took a massive lead over the rest of the field, which at one time was as much as 20 seconds – enough for a free stop. However, he did have two moments in the race – once he just brushed the Wall of Champions and once he ran wide at turn 1 and had to take the escape road to return to track. Otherwise, he looked faultless on his way to his 29th Grand Prix win, that takes him 36 points ahead of Fernando Alonso in the drivers championship.
Fernando Alonso – 10/10
A 6th place grid slot was pretty average for Alonso, considering he’s a main championship contender, but qualifying has always been the weakness of Ferrari and they failed to capitalize on the wet conditions on Saturday. But on Sunday, in dry conditions, Ferrari looked strong and Alonso drove a masterful race to finish in second place, albeit 14 seconds behind race winner and championship leader Sebastian Vettel.
Alonso got past Bottas in the first few laps and then chased the Red Bull of Mark Webber, who in turn was on the back of Mercedes‘ Nico Rosberg. They both overtook Rosberg and then Alonso put a DRS assisted move on Webber to move into 3rd place. He was not going to stop then as he started chasing his former teammate Lewis Hamilton. The duo had some close, including contacts on two occasions. Eventually, Alonso passed Hamilton for second place after the latter lost a bit of time behind the lapped cars of Felipe Massa and Adrian Sutil.
Lewis Hamilton – 8/10
Lewis Hamilton, who is the king of Canada with three victories, arrived in Montreal with loads of pressure from his teamamte Nico Rosberg. Rosberg had just won his first race of the season in Monaco and has outpaced his teammate in qualifying in last three races. But yesterday, Hamilton fended off the pressure and finished ahead of his teammate in both qualifying and the race. In qualifying, he put his car on 2nd place, a place where he could have improved on had the conditions not worsened between 1st and 2nd run in Q3. In the race, he drove a great race, staying in 2nd place for much of the race before losing out to Fernando Alonso. The backmarkers had a role to play but one can’t deny that his Mercedes didn’t have the pace to challenge Alonso.
Jean Eric Vergne – 9/10
Jean Eric Vergne put on a fantastic drive to finish in a career best 6th place. This is the last year for the two Toro Rosso drivers to prove themselves that they are worthy of the seat and if they don’t, they will be sacked in the same way Alguersuari and Buemi were sacked two years ago. As far as this race was concerned, Vergne started the race from 7th place and gained a place over Valtteri Bottas. While he didn’t had the pace to catch the frontrunners, he was able to keep the Force India of Paul di Resta behind who was on a reverse one stop strategy.
Paul di Resta – 9/10
Paul di Resta was furious with the team on Saturday after technical problems relegated him to 17th on the grid. But in the race, Di Resta drove brilliantly on a reverse one stop strategy, completing 57 laps on one set of medium tyres. And his first stint was not really about saving tyres, he was able to push and post some competitive lap times. After pitting from 7th place, he stayed in that position as his teammate Sutil, who was then running in 8th was over 20 seconds behind. We’d be analysing tomorrow where Di Resta would have finished had he started the race from the top 10. Either way, Di Resta and Sutil helped Force India take a double point finish at the occasion of their 100th race.
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