Vettel finishes first but is demoted to P2 by penalty, Hamilton elevated to the win in controversial Canadian GP; Leclerc P3 on disappointing day for Ferrari

It was all going to plan for Ferrari and their lead driver Sebastian Vettel during Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix. Having pipped Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton for pole in Saturday qualifying, Vettel showed that exquisite Ferrari performance was no fluke in race trim as the German 4-time World Champion got away to a fast start and led nearly every lap on the tight and dusty street/park Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on the Ille Notre Dame in Montreal. But after their first and only stop for fresh tires, Vettel on Lap 26 and Hamilton on Lap 29, the Englishman turned up his superlative Mercedes engine to “party mode” and slowly began to reel in the leading Prancing Horse. While Ferrari also gave their man maximum available power, by Lap 39 Hamilton was in DRS range of Vettel, filling his mirrors with the hard charging Silver Arrow. After nearly 10 laps of non-stop pursuit it was Vettel who finally blinked with disastrous consequences for his hopes of victory on the day. On Lap 48 Vettel lost control as he was entering the twisty Turn 4 complex and found himself sliding onto the grass behind the curbs. Hamilton was close and dove to the outside to make the pass but Vettel swerved back onto the track barely in control of his car and nearly forced Hamilton into the wall. That the cars didnt touch was testament to Vettel’s remarkable car control but nonetheless Hamilton’s progress was balked as he had to back out of the throttle and Vettel flew away from him down the circuit.

LAP 48/70

Vettel goes wide at Turn 4!

He re-joins the track, and Lewis goes for the gap, but it quickly closes 😱#CanadianGP 🇨🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/FvZodPqt6K

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 9, 2019

Mercedes immediately complained to the stewards, of course. And on Lap 57 one of the most consequential decisons of the season was made when the stewards judged that Vettel had rejoined the track in an unsafe manner and levied a 5-second time penalty against the German. Hamilton, despite having lost the best edge on his Hard tires after pushing so hard to try and overhaul Vettel and locking up several times at the hairpin, was nonetheless well within 3 seconds of the leader. That meant that so long as Hamilton could keep that gap he was the de facto leader of the race despite Vettel running firmly in front of him. Vettel was livid on the radio and Hamilton made sure to keep close to the Ferrari’s gearbox. And when the final lap of the 70-lap contest ended Vettel crossed the line first but had lost the race to Hamilton due to the stewards’ controversial penalty assessment. After the cars finished their cool down laps Vettel refused to move his car to the end of the pits into victory lane or to participate in the pit lane interviews. He only very reluctantly agreed to join the podium ceremony most likely under threat of further FIA penalties. But even as he made his way to the podium, Vettel switched the order of the placing signs down in the pits, moving the #2 over to Hamilton’s Merc and the #1 in front of the empty space where his Ferrari should have been.

Pics courtesy GrandPRix247.com and Formula1.com

While the decision was generally unpopular and cast a pall over a very tense and competitive affair, as well as Hamilton’s emotions after inheriting the victory, one can see the disputed action from both angles. Vettel did make a mistake on that momentous Lap 48 while being pushed hard and pressurized by Hamilton’s onslaught. He almost certainly would have been passed on another part of the track that was not so walled in and narrow. And he was able to maintain his advantage and lead despite screwing up badly on Turn 4. On the other side of the coin, at that narrow, serpentine area surrounded by concrete barriers there was no where for Vettel to go as he desperately tried to keep his car under control and so it was hardly a deliberate action in impeding Hamilton’s progress when he careened back onto the track. In the end, it is the sort of decision that leaves everyone a bit less than satisfied and makes the final race result somewhat anti-climactic. Then again, it’s also good fodder for spirited debate about Formula 1 as we await the next race in two weeks. And it surely dials up the passion and determination for Ferrari and Vettel especially since, as Vettel shouted on the radio, they feel they had certain victory “stolen” from them.

Further back, Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas had another so-so run and was never in the mix for a podium. He was able to set the fastest lap for a bonus point with a late change for Soft tires and to stay ahead of Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen to come home P4. But the Dutchman had the better drive, working his way up to a fifth pace finish from a P9 start after an unlucky qualifying saw him ousted in Q2 by a late Red Flag. Renault had a very good day and showed the legs on their improving engine package with Daniel Ricciardo holding off Nico Hulkenberg P6 to P7. Things were not so great for Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly, who fell from fifth on the grid to a P8 finish when a very early Lap 8 pit stop yielded no long term advantage for the Frenchman. On the other hand, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll had an excellent drive to rebound from a bad qualifying effort that saw the Canadian start from way back in P17 to finish a solid P9 at his home GP after running an extra-long, very well managed first stint on Hard Pirellis. Daniil Kvyat nicked the last points paying position from McLaren’s Carlos Sainz with a bold last lap overtake for P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Canadian Grand Prix:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in France at the venerable but retrofitted Paul Ricard Circuit in two weeks’ time. No doubt the debate will rage over this coming fortnight about whether Vettel and Ferrari were robbed in Montreal. But the cold hard fact is that Mercedes and Hamilton have a stranglehold on both Championships in 2019 and all the crying in the world from Maranello and Ferrari’s fans isn’t going to change that. Hope to see you then to find out whether the Scuderia can salvage something good in France and gain at least a little vengeance against Mercedes after today’s heartbreak in Canada.