Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle reviews the Canadian GP and another peerless display by Lewis Hamilton on one of his favourite circuits...
Thursday 3 August 2017 13:58, UK
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve usually serves up a great race and we weren't disappointed on Sunday, although the key action was much different to what we were expecting.
An engineer caught my attention when we were discussing the gap between Mercedes and Ferrari and the rest of the pack. He said it was impressive that they had carved out such an advantage on a relatively short circuit with only six grip limited zones in its 2.7 miles. There isn't much to it in many respects.
It's an old school temporary track with suitably slippery and bumpy tarmac, and walls to punish inevitable errors. It is basically a tired out series of drag strips connected by slow chicanes and hairpins - and we love it.
Probably not as much as Lewis Hamilton loves it though, he just keeps winning and showing unbeatable speed there. The scene of his first ever F1 victory 10 years ago, it was fitting that he matched Ayrton Senna's 65 pole positions dancing between the walls.
Apparently, Lewis hadn't realised qualifying was an hour earlier than normal and was eating lunch as Q1 was about to go green. That's a relaxed way to go about it.
It was one of those weekends where a happy bubbly Lewis looked and was unbeatable. Yet still it looked as if he was cruising in the race with his motor turned down, watching the rest of the action on the big screens around the track, and finding the time to acknowledge Lance Stroll with a cheery wave as he lapped him 'because he's had a hard time and it looked like he was going well'.
Hamilton was 20 seconds ahead of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the flag, who put in a solid performance but Max Verstappen and Seb Vettel could well have split the Mercs.
Hamilton wins in Canada to cut Vettel's title lead
Verstappen had one of those lightning starts where a perfect amount of wheelspin off the line generates maximum traction followed by perfect gearshifts, and a lightning reaction saw him steaming down the outside into turn one and seizing second place while the 'old boys' were taking it steady on the inside.
Slicing across Vettel's front wing he could easily have been spun around or suffered a punctured rear left. Fortune favours the brave and he got away with it to run a comfortable second until his battery lost interest and once again he was on foot. Difficult days for the teenager through no fault of his own.
Critically neither Vettel nor his team realised he had a damaged front wing otherwise he could have pitted under the safety car created when Carlos Sainz connected with Romain Grosjean and arrived at turn three backwards at great speed, also collecting up an innocent and somewhat surprised Felipe Massa.
This would have made Vettel's comeback drive much easier because he eventually pitted on lap 5 under green flag conditions. His pace was impressive especially when he pitted again for a new set of Ultrasofts on lap 49 of 70 and a podium looked just possible.
Vettel yet again delivered some very aggressive overtakes on the Force Indias but crossed the line just 0.6 seconds behind third place man Daniel Ricciardo who had a solid race although apparently struggling on the soft tyres.
Without braking issues Kimi Raikkonen would have been right in the mix too but poor starts from both Ferraris meant that we didn't have the titanic red v silver battle we were hoping for.
Thankfully Force India moved to centre stage instead with both drivers showing great speed, Esteban Ocon running as high as second as he waited until lap 32 before making his only pit stop, whereas Perez stopped on lap 19.
Force India had a chance to be on the podium with Ocon and beat Red Bull and Ferrari to the chequered flag on pure pace. They either couldn't, or didn't want to quickly navigate the faster fresher tyred Ocon past Perez, the whole negotiation process over the radio wasted many laps and in fact never happened in the end. Chattering drivers were focused on each other and not the enemy.
This let Ricciardo off the hook and allowed Vettel to cruise up and past, and so the Force Indias ended up finishing 5th and 6th with no doubt plenty of tension between their drivers now.
Two cars so high up in the points is normally Force India's dream result, but there was more available to them on Sunday.
Lance Stroll used the chaotic day and some combative driving to score a couple of well deserved points in front of his home crowd, but with Massa speared out of the race it was a disappointing day for Williams overall.
We are seeing quality drivers such as GP2 champions Jo Palmer and Stoffel Vandoorne struggling for ultimate pace albeit in comparison to two mighty fast team-mates. The 2017 cars are clearly faster but the drivers have to take the extra speed, it's not easy or free time.
Montreal showed us that the drivers who are confidently on top of their cars and pushing the limits are really making a difference especially in the three places in Montreal where full throttle is needed while landing from a high kerb strike and staring at a very close concrete wall.
This is why relatively new boy Esteban Ocon has a strong claim on driver of the day alongside impressive performances from the two main championship contenders.
It was race of wall to wall action although unusually nobody made it properly into the Wall of Champions. We are in for a hell of a championship as fortunes ebb and flow.
MB
