The Canadian Grand Prix became the dullest Formula One fans have witnessed this season as Vettel once again parked his Red Bull on pole and inevitably dominated the race from there out. Vettel and Hamilton both affected equally impressive getaways leaving the remainder of the grid to play catch up across the duration of the opening lap. However, Vettel had already broken the one-second DRS (Drag Reduction System) advantage to Hamilton by the end of the first lap. Despite a prolonged and admirable effort from Hamilton in the early stages of the race, he was unable to diminish the gap between himself and the Red Bull with the Mercedes remaining a far from ideal prospect in race conditions. Furthermore, Fernando Alonso starting sixth on the grid whilst simultaneously proving to be Vettel’s prominent Championship rival once again will have demoralised many fans who wished to witness a close and competitive race. Despite Alonso’s lowly qualifying he was able to pull off a dramatic fight to the front, overhauling Mark Webber and subsequently Lewis Hamilton in the late stages of the race in the wake of some controversial driving from Adrian Sutil. It appeared that with Alonso substantially closing in on the rear wing of Hamilton’s Mercedes, Adrian Sutil, who was being lapped, refused to adhere to the blue flags martials ceaselessly waved at him and by blocking Hamilton off, gave Alonso an incalculable advantage. The turbulent personal history of Hamilton and Sutil; supposedly friends until Hamilton refused to act as a witness in Sutil’s trial for GBH, is certainly of the utmost interest in regard to explaining Sutil’s pleading ignorant to the on track charge laid before him. The stewards penalised Sutil during the race but his unprofessional approach to the situation could spell trouble further on into the season.
Alonso went on to finish in second, marking a truly magnificent effort to preserve his hopes of a third World Championship. Although the season is only in its infancy he will be glad to have secured all eighteen points that second place has to offer. Meanwhile, Vettel was far from perfect in his completion of a lights to chequered flag race win. He had one hairy moment with the wall after the first chicane, almost sheering a rear tyre off and he then misjudged his braking into the first turn roughly ten laps later, meaning he had to take a grassy escape route and bring his tyres back into their optimum performance zone across the course of the next lap. Vettel seemed to have his race engineer Rocky sufficiently worried, as he radio messaged him asking him to calm down and bring the tyres back in. Interesting then that a treble World Champion should make such basic errors and yet lead a race by roughly sixteen seconds. There were two men who had near flawless race weekends. The first was undoubtedly the aforementioned Fernando Alonso but perhaps an unsung hero of the Canadian Grand Prix was Jean Eric Vergne who managed to bag his best career finish ever bringing his Toro Rosso home in sixth position after a mature and consistent drive. Moreover, the performance of Paul Di Resta should not go unnoticed after salvaging a disappointing qualifying session by making his tyres last an incredible fifty laps and in the process securing himself a respectable seventh place finish. Elsewhere, Webber and Rosberg had fairly uneventful races and brought their cars home in fourth and fifth respectively. Massa recovered from the farce that was qualifying and posted his Ferrari in a better than anticipated eighth.
Kimi Raikkonen’s race weekend was far from ideal. The Finn, who is renowned for his enviable consistency especially with regard to points finishes struggled to a ninth place finish. This finish meant that Kimi equaled Michael Schumacher’s record of twenty-four consecutive finishes in the points but the number of points he secured this race weekend will certainly concern him and the Lotus team with Romain Grosjean providing little if any solace in the other car. Grosjean, who finished thirteenth has come under much persistent scrutiny across the last year after being the focal point and or cause of many collisions in the sport. Indeed, I am of the opinion that this young driver must keep his nose clean and bring the car home for consistent and respectable points finishes if he is to secure his drive for next season, perhaps even for the remainder of this season. Grosjean could certainly benefit from a brief tutoring from Raikkonen but with Raikkonen’s revered frosty attitude to fellow drivers as well as the press this seems an unlikely or somewhat wishful solution to the problem this young driver poses to the sport. Another team with large cause for concern is Mclaren. Martin Whitmarsh has lost his best driver in the shape of Lewis Hamilton, and his replacement Sergio Perez has looked lively and talented but lacks the car to challenge the front of the grid. The teammate racing policy at Mclaren is a brilliant one. Formula One fans want to see wheel-to-wheel action; it is what makes the sport exciting. However, a team principal must preserve and utilise his resources wisely, and when your drivers are trading paint through a succession of three or four turns one must come to the conclusion that enough is enough. Jenson Button is a former World Champion and therefore credits respect and yet Whitmarsh seems to deny that Button has been bestowed with the number one driver status that he so craves. As a result, a titanic struggle is emerging between Perez and Button for said status, an unnecessary struggle given the calibre of their current car. With neither Mclaren finishing in the points in Canada, it marked the end of a rather impressive sixty strong run of consecutive Mclaren points finishes. Inevitably, fingers will be pointed and it must only be a matter of time before the Mclaren hierarchy has their say on Whitmarsh’s future.
Williams’s torrid run of results continues. They still have not scored a single point this season and despite the heroic endeavours of Bottas in qualifying, the abominable race pace of the car saw him drop from third to finish fourteenth with Maldonado his teammate only managing sixteenth. One must wonder as the season continues whether Mclaren and Williams will be able to vastly improve their fortunes with upgrades of whether they will simply fall by the wayside this season. In the case of Mclaren, it is likely that the team, having a great history in aggressive and successful upgrades, will see higher points finishes as the season draws on. Williams on the other hand will need to develop near unimaginable upgrades to ensure that they do not go an entire season without a points finish and hence lowering them to the status of Caterham and Marussia in the team rankings. To their credit, both Marussia’s managed to complete the race coming across the line in seventeenth and nineteenth respectively whilst Charles Pic managed eighteenth for Caterham, his teammate Van Der Garde did not finish. The conclusion to be gained from the Canadian Grand Prix is essentially a warning. Sebastian Vettel has exhibited the inherent pace in the Red Bull this season and he plans to utilise it to close out a fourth consecutive World Championship. If this is the case, Formula One fans will be in for an exceedingly dreary season. The only crumb of comfort being that the next race will be the British Grand Prix at Silverstone; being not only a proud day for British Formula One fans but also a specialist circuit for Mark Webber who may provide his teammate with some much needed competition.
Race Result:
1st Sebastian Vettel
2nd Fernando Alonso
3rd Lewis Hamilton
4th Mark Webber
5th Nico Rosberg
6th Jean Eric Vergne
7th Paul Di Resta
8th Felipe Massa
9th Kimi Raikkonen
10th Adrian Sutil
11th Sergio Perez
12th Jenson Button
13th Romain Grosjean
14th Valtteri Bottas
15th Daniel Ricciardo
16th Pastor Maldonado
17th Jules Bianchi
18th Charles Pic
19th Max Chilton
Ret Esteban Gutierrez
Ret Nico Hülkenberg
Ret Giedo Van Der Garde
Vettel secures his maiden Canada victory
Box, Box, Box. 