Prelude
Traffic was jammed on the BQE,
brakelights solid red. An early promising start combined with some
well spotted overtaking and an allegedly healthy disregard for posted
limits had seen the GPS move it's needle from 8 after to 4 after when
the awful sound announced traffic was building up and I was not going
to make the start of the race, after it turned out my gig started an
hour later than I was told.....
A new route put me back to arriving 2
minutes before the start of the race, and some spirited driving saw
me claw back another minute, banging the wheels against the kerb with
3 minutes to spare... A sprint up the stairs and I was cranking up F1
TV as the app announced the beginning of the parade lap. No picture
of course and 10 minutes of chatting latter, and having cleared my
cache and restarted my browser I was FINALLY able to get visuals, but
not before I missed the interesting bits. AS for the race, well,
looked to be a one stopper and I'm increasingly of the opinion that
that is the default for this season, due primarily to the slow pace
they need to run to protect the engines and save fuel....
Summary
Lights Out!!!! Rocking start from
Vettel and huge effort from Verstappen to bring himself into
contention with Bottas around T2. Bottas kept his foot in and managed
to fight him off to maintain P2. Ricciardo didn't get the greatest of
starts but hung it round the outside of Raikkonen T1 and then took
the position neatly away. Ocon slung it round Hulkenberg for P7 and
then a massive smash!!!
Stroll, having had a good start as well and gaining several places, lost the car on the way to T6 and took Hartley, who could ill afford it, straight into the barriers, showering the circuit with debris. Safety Car was out and brought an immediate halt to the fun.
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 10, 2018
Stroll, having had a good start as well and gaining several places, lost the car on the way to T6 and took Hartley, who could ill afford it, straight into the barriers, showering the circuit with debris. Safety Car was out and brought an immediate halt to the fun.
The Safety Car came in... but almost had to come back out after this collision between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez 👀#CanadianGP 🇨🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/lDWajKXAxK— Formula 1 (@F1) June 10, 2018
On the restart Verstappen again was
close to Bottas, Perez had an off road incident and was back on
without crash, but not before Alonso and Kmag got round. According to
the immediate and somewhat agitated radio commentary, Perez was
clocked by Sainz which resulted in his adventure.
Hulkenberg, complaining mightily about
being faster, was on Ocon but with DRS not yet enabled not much
progress was being made. Lap 7 and Vettel was making no real time,
1.7 seconds up the road as Verstappen closed up to the back of
Bottas. Meanwhile, a fairly angry Perez was calling for Sainz to be
black flagged, despite the replay looking rather like he turned into
the unfortunate Renault driver.
Hulkenberg continued to put the screws
to Ocon but was unable to get round the Force India, even after DRS
was enabled. Slightly further back, Leclerc, in the last points
paying position, was giving a vigorous defense to Fernando Alonso,
who was trying all his wily veteran type tricks on the youngster, to
fairly little effect.
Lap 12 and Ocon put himself out of
Hulkenberg's misery, pitting for a set of Supersofts. It was a
massively slow stop which was good news for Hulkenberg who had been
overheating massively behind the Force India driver. Hulkenberg was
all over it, turning a lap in the 1:15's the only midfielder to visit
that rarefied air, on his way to a slam dunk overcut. Along with
that, reports that Bottas was on the edge of overheating his tyres
hit the airwaves from team radio.
Hullkenberg managed to exit the pits in
front of Ocon after his pit stop, which should've been a no brainer,
but as Renault was also slow in the box, it was a little more
entertaining than it should've been. Lap 15 and Sainz was also in,
both of the Renaults rocking the Supersofts, popular choice. The full
price of Force India's slow stop then became apparent, costing them
not just P7, but also P8 as Sainz, too, emerged in front of the young
Frenchman as he hit the far end of the pitlane. But that was quickly
forgotten as both Verstappen and Hamilton bounced into the pits and
right back out on Supers, just ahead of the long runners, now
led by Leclerc, who was close enough to get a bit racy. Ricciardo
radioed in Hamilton was struggling, and his engineer encouraged him
to go for it, not that it was needed.
Ricciardo was in the following lap and
with a smashing stop, managed to pass him in the pits, as Hamilton's
outlap mirrored the troubles he had yesterday in qualifying, a
fundamental lack of grip and difficulty getting the power down
midcorner. Frying pan, meet fire for Mercedes at the moment as Vettel
switched to plan B, swanning along comfortably ahead of Bottas with a
4.5 second gap on lap 20. In all likelihood, that meant going long
for a 1 stop as Bottas was fundamentally unable to put any kind of
pressure on the Ferrari.
Lap 21 and with both Leclerc and Alonso
having pitted, it was now Gasly, the sole Toro Rosso left in the
race, momentarily leading the best of the rest. Astonishingly, Gasly
was running a set of Hypersofts, though his laptimes reflected the
care required to get them over 20 laps. Lap 23 and Hamilton had
brought his tyres up to temperature and his car to the gearbox of
Ricciardo, their race long duel due to commence.
Grosjean was now leading the midfield,
and having not stopped, Hulkenberg made short work of him and it was
back to status quo ante as the Hulk retook P7. Up ahead, Vettel
managed a rather large lock up into T10, bits of rubber shredding off
in the slo mo beauty shot. Raikkonen had managed to clear Hamilton
from his pit window. Sirotkin was in leaving Grosjean the sole
midfielder without a stop. At the sharp end, the top 3 continued to
circulate at a reasonable tempo.
According to Sky, Hamilton had been
suffering with power issues due to an "incorrect cooling"
configuration, which they remedied as best they could at his stop.
The more you know kids... RoGro continued to plague Ocon, who was
unable to get round the exceedingly wide HAAS, unlike the Renaults
who were busy making time. Hamilton asked why the early stop, and was
told it was exactly to have a go at that incorrect configuration
before things got out of hand. At the cost of 1 place, which is still
a lot less than not finishing at all.
Lap 33 and Raikkonen was finally in
from P3 and back out directly in front of the back of Hamilton, who
had been told to unleash his right foot and found himself momentarily
jammed between the rather slow moving Williams of Sirotkin and the
fast approaching Ferrari of Raikkonen.
Lap 37 and Bottas was finally called
in, 6.3 seconds behind the Ferrari of Vettel, so not really an
undercut but to forestall Verstappen rocking into his pit
window. Raikkonen lingered inside the DRS of Hamilton as Vettel boxed
the following lap, a formality as much as anything else, no real
pressure as they were simply covering Bottas off.
Once they settled down, the top three,
Vettel, Bottas and Verstappen were all well into the 1:14's, but the
intervals between them were wide, nearly 5 seconds a piece. Things
compressed a bit after that, with Hamilton just 2 seconds adrift of
Ricciardo, and Raikkonen 1.8 seconds back of the Mercedes as lap 42
ticked over.
And then Alonso's McLaren gave up,
300th GP over and soon to be forgotten as the march of misery
continued for the team from Woking. The rest carried on, unaffected,
and truthfully, not a single car was in DRS and the gaps seemed fixed
as in amber with Lap 45 in the books. Amazingly, Grosjean still
hadn't stopped and if the app was telling the truth, Ocon had briefly
wandered into DRS range yet again. OOOH juicy rumour, random
speculation from the Beeb that Leclerc might well be headed to HAAS
for some more seasoning before heading to Ferrari, replacing
Grosjean. It was at this point it became obvious they were reaching
given the lack of on track action...
Ocon finally got in front of Grosjean
on lap 49 as RoGro prepared to pit, this forced RoGro to take to the
grass as the braking point for the pits is distincly later than the
braking point for the chicane, and resulted in some world class
moaning from the HAAS driver. Macca reported exhaust issues were the
cause of Alonso's retirement and Hamilton had inched his way back
into DRS on Ricciardo at the end of Lap 52. The retirement of Alonso
also promoted Leclerc into P10 and the prospect of points for the
Sauber driver immediately prompted the conversation to turn back to
silly season, and whether or not he should now take over for
Raikkonen this time.
Lap 55 and the closest battle was Perez
on Kmag, but just then Bottas ran off the track lapping Sainz. Just a
bit wide, but it cost him precious time in his slow burn to
reel Vettel in, from 3 seconds, to over 5, and crucially, put the two
Renaults ahead of him yet again.
Lap 58, though, and Vettel pressed his
advantage, turning fast lap of the race and extending his lead to 7.3
seconds, basically mocking Bottas and Mercedes, telling them not to
bother and setting himself up for the Grand Schelem. But the real
race was back between Hamilton and Ricciardo, as Lewis needed to
finish ahead of Danny Ricky to leave Montreal still leading the
championship and the pitstop hoodoo Mercedes performed was apparently
enough to make him think he had a shot.
Lap 61 and RoGro managed to catch up to
Gasly and got right to using his newer tyres to their best advantage.
Mercedes advised Hamilton that he could turn the engine down, and he
was having none of it, with the Red Bull tantalizingly in reach. Lap
62 and off he went, closing down inside a second down the front
straight and starting to wake up what had been becoming a fairly
sleepy affair.
Lap 64 and Lewis was down to 0.6s and
traffic loomed ahead for Ricciardo, Ocon was pressuring Sainz and
that was putting stress on Hulkenberg, who requested the team stop
telling him to go faster. Ooooh and then cheeky Verstappen knocked
off a fast lap with just 4 laps left, as Lewis prepared to kitchen
sink it against Ricciardo. Verstappen, too, was suddenly
significantly faster than Bottas and with 3 laps left, he was 1.6
seconds back and 0.7 seconds a lap faster.
Lap 68 and Hamilton was finally close
enough to have a go, but a twitch on exit at the end of the straight
put paid to his best yet chance at the Aussie. Verstappen had made it
to DRS on Bottas and as they turned the corner for lap 69 some actual
racing had finally broken out. And oh dear, the celebrity waving the
chequers blew it by a whole lap, prompting a call from Vettel asking
them to please not wave the flag till they were actually done racing.
But, the race was classified a lap early according to the official
timing screens so there you go, perhaps a fitting end to a, shall we
say, less than gripping (haha tyre joke, get it) race...
Tragic race for Hartley, who, needing a
good result and FINALLY getting in a good quali, was quite thoroughly
smashed into the wall by the errant Williams driven by Stroll. Stroll
was released from the medical centre, but after having a careful
look, Hartley was sent on to hospital for some follow up scans. With
a race in two weeks, if he suffered a concussion it will be
interesting to see if he can get medical clearance for the French GP.
If not, could be some very interesting moves in the drivers market.
Tragic for Alonso, though in a different way. The word irony springs
to mind, as the PU he worked so hard to get to Macca is ultimately
what let him down. Well, that and the entire design team, as the
magnificent aero apparently would require a Mercedes or Ferrari mill
to power it towards the sharper end of the field.
Mercedes did well to keep Bottas in P2,
but they also had rather obviously missed a trick, demonstrated by
the last minute FP3 work being done to the suspension of Hamilton's
car. The old PU was no help, and the fact they misconfigured the
cooling rubbed salt into that particular wound but Canada was
seemingly a track they expected to shine at, and they couldn't put a
dent into the Ferrari, meaning a lot of toiling away at Brackley
between now and the visit to Paul Ricard...
Big Happy shiny point for Sauber and
Leclerc, and loads of silly season speculation as a result of ANOTHER
good drive from the young Monegasque. Ocon, too, scoring some for
Force India will help ease the sting a bit from their poor pitstop
that handed the best of the rest title to Hulkenberg and Renault.
Red Bull too, with Verstappen finally having a clean weekend and a podium to boot had plenty of optimism to share post race. Last minute news from Sky that the FIA official handling the chequers was to blame, not Winnie Harlow, which resulted in the race being classified at 68 laps, losing Ricky Danny his fast lap. New tyres and new circuit next up, but it's increasingly looking like Vettel's championship to lose....
LAP 14/70: Sluggish pit stop for @OconEsteban - Frenchman comes back out in P14. His teammate Perez has also pitted - he's P18 #CanadianGP 🇨🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/F5WaJwM6XP— Formula 1 (@F1) June 10, 2018
Red Bull too, with Verstappen finally having a clean weekend and a podium to boot had plenty of optimism to share post race. Last minute news from Sky that the FIA official handling the chequers was to blame, not Winnie Harlow, which resulted in the race being classified at 68 laps, losing Ricky Danny his fast lap. New tyres and new circuit next up, but it's increasingly looking like Vettel's championship to lose....
Discuss!!!
And remember to play nice in the
comments!!
Great summary and analysis of the race. I think the championship is open and a small mistake in one of the top teams will decide the championship. If the intercooler had failed mid race for Vettel rather than in a Sauber during qualifying, many of the current championship predictions may be very different. Well done to Ferrari for putting the new power unit in Sauber at Monaco, that led to getting it more fully tested on circuit.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog, thanks.
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