Hamilton regains momentum in Canada with decisive win, Rosberg a non-threatening 2nd; Williams’ Bottas breaks through for P3

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

After a gut-wrenching defeat in Monaco, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton righted the ship at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on Sunday with a wire-to-wire victory. Having earned an emphatic pole it seemed nothing was going to stop the reigning World Champion from holding off his charging rival and teammate Nico Rosberg. Come race day, nothing did. Rosberg was never able to mount a real threat and in the end both Silver Arrows sailed to a seemingly comfortable 1-2 finish with the rest of the field well behind. Hamilton’s win reestablished his dominance in the Mercedes team and built his points lead back up to 17 after Rosberg’s lucky 2-race victory streak. It was a much needed return to form that demonstrated not only Hamilton’s peerless skill as a racing driver but also his mental toughness in the face of adversity after the bizarre own-goal in Monaco.

For team Mercedes as whole, Sunday’s GP represented an ominous return to their untouchable speed and metronomic precision as a unit, particularly when compared with Ferrari’s stumbles this past weekend. After starting 3rd with an outside shot at victory, Kimi Raikkonen threw away a probable podium for the Prancing Horse with an unforced spin in the hairpin after his first stop for tires. That enabled his fellow Finn, the excellent Valtteri Bottas, to snatch 3rd and hold off Raikkonen for the position until the end of the race, earning team Williams its first podium of the season. On the other side of the Ferrari garage, Sebastian Vettel started from 18th on the grid with a poor Quali due to mechanical issues and a self-inflicted 5-spot grid penalty for passing under the red flag in rainy practice. But Vettel had a storming drive, slicing his way through the field to finish a remarkable 5th. His outstanding 2015 Montreal effort should be played as Exhibit A whenever someone whinges about how you can’t pass in Formula 1. Exhibit B could be Bottas’ Williams teammate Felipe Massa. Massa also started way back in the pack in 15th after technical problems in Quali. Yet the veteran Brazilian managed to fight his way up to 6th with another gutsy, aggressive effort from a savvy pro. So if the battle for the win seemed like a fait accompli, the fight for points behind the 1-2 slots was a wild ride all race long.

Lotus somewhat made good on their Qualifying efforts for a change with the much-maligned Pastor Maldonado taking P7 and Romain Grosjean hanging on for P10 after a self-inflicted 5-second time penalty for a sloppy, contact-producing overtake late in the race while lapping Will Stevens’ Manor/Marussia. Taking the rest of the points were Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg in P8 and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat who finish P9, besting more experienced but utterly mystified teammate Daniel Ricciardo (P13) for the second GP in a row.

As for the also-rans, McLaren had a major setback after Jenson Button scored their first points in Monte Carlo a fortnight ago. Both Button & a very frustrated Fernando Alonso were forced to retire prematurely with exhaust problems and their pace while running was way off. Teams Sauber and Torro Rosso also had ragged weekends after their promising early races and all their drivers finished well out of the points. Obviously Manor/Marussia was nowhere as usual, although their young pilots were more than game. But there are rumors in the paddock that the troubled team could be acquired by Renault if they de-link themselves from Red Bull and choose to stay in F1. So perhaps next year will see this perpetually star-crossed backmarker team finally get the benefits of a full factory effort.

Top 10 finishers in Canada:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next Grand Prix weekend is in two weeks at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. It’s highly doubtful that team Red Bull will be able to keep up with Williams or Ferrari despite their “home track” advantage, much less mighty Mercedes. This may further prompt Dietrich Mateschitz to wonder why he’s spending all that money now that the team is no longer winning. But here’s hoping he doesn’t take all his sweet, sweet energy drink cash and go home. After all, it’s easy to stick with it when you’re dominating and much harder when you’re rebuilding. Just ask McLaren. Hope to see you in two weeks!