‘Perfect’ result for Hamilton

An assured pole-to-flag win, without safety cars or strategy blunders, was just what Lewis Hamilton needed in Canada on Sunday – even if relief was too strong a word.

“Did I need this? I think so,” the Formula One world champion told the crowd on the podium after his fourth win in seven races this year and the expansion of his overall lead to 17 points.

“I love Montreal. I love this track; I love the city and really just a fantastic weekend and great to get back on the top step.”

In Monaco, the previous race two weeks ago, a needless late pitstop had robbed Hamilton of victory and handed it instead to Mercedes team mate and closest title rival Nico Rosberg.

Montreal, a favourite track where the Briton had won three times before including his first victory in Formula One back in 2007, allowed him to reclaim some of the lost points and get back to where he wanted to be.

The feeling, Hamilton emphasised, was not relief, however. “I don’t feel I needed to be relieved,” he said. “I was quickest all of the previous race weekend as well.

“Obviously we had the problem which enabled Nico to win the race but otherwise generally I had good pace for the last two races,” added the double world champion. “So it’s not a relief, it just feels good to continue with good strength and it’s great that the team is continuing to be strong as well and continue to move forward.”

Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff, who found himself in the spotlight after Monaco for what some derided as one of the biggest gaffes in recent F1 history, felt a weight had been lifted off the team’s shoulders.

“I must say that there after Monaco it was very difficult for the team to handle that sometimes,” said the Austrian. “We were exposed to massive criticism, it looked like all the victories and the world championship was forgotten and suddenly a bunch of idiots were managing the team. This is a satisfying result considering what happened in Monaco.”

Niki Lauda, the retired triple world champion who is now non-executive chairman of Mercedes F1, said the result was ‘perfect’ for Hamilton. “He couldn’t have done a better job and that’s it. The whole strategy and whatever we had to produce here was back to normal,” he added.

Team by team analysis (listed in current championship order)
MERCEDES (Lewis Hamilton 1, Nico Rosberg 2): Hamilton’s fourth win of the season, fourth in Canada and 37th of his career. He started on pole for the sixth time in seven races and now leads Rosberg by 17 points. The one-two was Mercedes’s fourth of the season and 20th in F1.

FERRARI (Kimi Raikkonen 4, Sebastian Vettel 5): Raikkonen started third and missed out on the podium, spinning at the hairpin. The team changed his strategy from one stop to two. Vettel made up 13 places from his grid position but finished off the podium for only the second time this year.

WILLIAMS (Valtteri Bottas 3, Felipe Massa 6): Bottas became the first driver from outside Mercedes or Ferrari to finish on the podium this season. Massa drove a strong race from 15th on the grid.

RED BULL (Daniil Kvyat 9, Daniel Ricciardo 13): Red Bull slipped further behind Williams with a performance that equalled their worst of the season. Kvyat started eighth, Ricciardo, who won last year, ninth and struggled for pace.

LOTUS (Pastor Maldonado 7, Romain Grosjean 10): Lotus moved up to fifth. Maldonado scored his first points of the year with his best result since 2012 and Grosjean made it a double haul despite tangling late on with Manor’s Stevens and collecting a five second post-race time penalty as well as having to pit. The Frenchman had started fifth.

SAUBER (Marcus Ericsson 14, Felipe Nasr 16): Ericsson was classified 14th but had to stop his car on track with a fuel problem. Nasr suffered an intermittent loss of power and overheating brakes.

FORCE INDIA (Nico Hulkenberg 8, Sergio Perez 11): Hulkenberg now heads to Le Mans for his 24 Hours debut after only his second scoring finish of the season. The German came out worse in a battle with Vettel, spinning off before resuming. Both were fighting the Red Bulls for position.

TORO ROSSO (Carlos Sainz 12, Max Verstappen 15): Verstappen had a 15-place grid penalty and 10-second ‘stop go’ at his first stop as a result of his crash in Monaco and exceeding his engine allocation. Sainz lost one place from his grid start in a race he had expected to be hard.

MCLAREN (Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button retired): Third successive retirement for Alonso and still no points for the Spaniard. Both cars retired with unrelated exhaust problems. Button had started last after failing to take part in qualifying due to engine problems.

MANOR MARUSSIA (Will Stevens 17, Roberto Merhi retired): Merhi suffered the team’s first retirement after a broken drive shaft. Stevens collided with Grosjean as the Frenchman passed him, snapping the Manor’s front wing in two.