Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton has won the Canadian Grand Prix for a fifth time to bring himself firmly back into contention in the Drivers’ Championship.
The win marks the first time in his career that he has won five times at one circuit and it means that he is now only nine points behind Nico Rosberg in the championship standings after his teammate had another difficult race.
Hamilton made a tribute to the late Muhammad Ali after crossing the line over his team radio, saying: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. That was for Muhammad.”
The Briton finished five seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who had a fantastic start to get around Hamilton and take the lead of the race going into the first corner.
Vettel may have had an opportunity to win had his team decided to use a different strategy and if he did not lock up three times at the final chicane losing at least 2.5 seconds when battling Hamilton.
The team could have employed a one-stop strategy instead of a two-stop strategy, stopping just as a Virtual Safety Car was ending on lap 12, or made their first stop slightly later in the race to give Vettel a better chance of fighting Hamilton closely.
Williams’ Valtteri Bottas finished third to claim his and the team’s first podium of the season, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Rosberg.
Rosberg had the exact opposite fortunes to Vettel at the start of the race. The German had to cut the first corner after banging wheels slightly with his teammate and lost many positions during an awful first lap which he completed in tenth place.
Rosberg complained of having warnings on his dashboard later in the race, had to make a second pit stop when he suffered a right rear slow puncture, while the last drama of his day was on his penultimate lap when he spun trying to pass Verstappen.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished in sixth place, with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in seventh place. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was the first driver to be lapped in eighth place, with Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz recovering from 20th on the grid after a five-place gearbox penalty to claim ninth place. Force India’s Sergio Perez completed the top ten and claimed the final point.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso finished in 11th place as the team were denied a fourth consecutive race with a points finish for the first time in their renewed partnership with Honda. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat finished 12th, ahead of Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez, who was the first driver to be lapped twice.
Romain Grosjean was 14th, ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen. Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein finished in 17th with Sauber’s Felipe Nasr in 18th and Wehrlein’s teammate Rio Haryanto the last driver to finish the race.
There were three retirements from the race. Jenson Button was the first retirement of the race as his McLaren-Honda was “down on power” and then on fire down the back straight where he stopped. Renault’s Jolyon Palmer became the second retirement almost 20 laps previously, also retiring to his garage due to suffering a water leak.
Williams’ Felipe Massa retired from the race on lap 37, parking in his garage due to power unit problems with extremely high temperatures, despite this being a new power unit.
