Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes team won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, the seventh race of the Formula 1 calendar after the dominant racer of the GP, Sebastian Vettel of the Ferrari team, suffers a 5-point punishment due to a risky turn.
The controversial win is Hamilton's fifth victory this season and the third straight after Monaco and Spain, which allows him to strengthen the leadership of the World Championship in F1 racing. On the other hand, it is Vettel's second time finishing behind Hamilton. The 2nd place finish makes him 3rd in the F1 statistic board.
Sebastian Vettel, who started for the first time from pole position, took out the best of his Ferrari to drive in a circuit where the SF90 has performed better than the Mercedes, something that we had only seen this season in the Bahrain GP, dominated the Canadian Grand Prix, showing both speed and skill in defensive driving.
Vettel crossed the finish line first but was betrayed by a 5-point punishment in his only moment of vulnerability in the race. He escaped the track in turns 3 and 4 and returned almost bumping Lewis Hamilton, which set up dangerous driving in the eyes of the commissioners. Thus, Hamilton, who crossed the finish line less than 5 seconds after him, bags the triumph in Montreal.
After being informed by the radio about the penalty, Vettel was upset and defended himself. He said that there's really nowhere he could go and that he had no space, that is why he is left with no choice but to take that risky turn. He also said that he is disgusted by the punishment and accuse the commissioners of stealing his victory.
After the race, Vettel even refused to park his racing car in the position assigned to the second place. Instead, he went straight to the commissary room, ready to tell them everything. When he got out, he carried out an interesting scene where he removed the number 1 sign from Hamilton's car and put the number 2 on it.
Parc Ferme... #CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/cJOuT5hnwP — Formula 1 (@F1) June 9, 2019
As for the race itself, the start of the race was marked by strategy. All the pilots chose to quickly put pressure on the tire, which resulted in Carlos Sainz's early stop on lap 4 to solve a problem with the brakes, which proved to have worked. The race leaders, however, did not stop until lap 26. The first to do it was Vettel, to protect himself from Bottas, who was rolling several places behind him. Hamilton followed him two laps later, and Leclerc, in the 34th.
Hamilton got the best out of his Mercedes to press the German driver out of the lead and on lap 39 he reduced the gap to less than a second, but Vettel is just too tough. Hamilton was close enough to Vettel on lap 48, when the German made a mistake, went off track and cut short on the outside.
When Vettel had returned, the FIA announced that it sanctioned him with five seconds. Vettel was very angry and lost focus to extend his lead further. Vettel finished first with Hamilton on the second. The podium was completed by Charles Leclerc at 3rd place, who left Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes out of the podium for the first time this F1 racing season. Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo also had great performances.
The next F1 race is the French Grand Prix set on June 23. It would be interesting to see if the Vettel - Hamilton feud will continue.
