Ferrari had the best start of the season. However, it came a bit short as Lewis Hamilton secured his second consecutive win at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Starting from P3, Sebastian Vettel moved left of Hamilton, who in pole position was caught off guard. The reigning champion then wrestled his teammate, Nico Rosberg out of the track to come out in P2 at turn two. The championship leader, Rosberg spent the rest of the race, fighting in the top five.
Jenson Button retired from the race on lap 10, and his car was parked on the long straight leading to the final turn, which initiated the Virtual Safety Car and Ferrari made the first move.
Vettel came into the pits while the Virtual Safety Car was on, while Hamilton stayed on. With a clear track, Hamilton matched the Ferrari’s time lap after lap. Vettel came behind the two Red Bulls, and Vettel had to spend 3-4 laps to overtake them.
The Ferrari was clearly the fastest car on track going by the ease at which the four-time champion went past the duo of Red Bulls. Kimi Raikkonen, who had a bad start was equally quick and made up places as the focus of the race for the first 20 laps were on Ferrari.
Hamilton stretched the Ultra-soft tyres and Vettel inched closer to take the lead. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes were under pressure, and it was Ferrari who gave the German team a lot to think on their strategies.
Ferrari won the first round of pit stops, however Vettel’s super-soft tyres were 14 laps old compared to Hamilton’s.
The duel continued until lap 38 when Vettel came in for his second pit-stop, this time Vettel opted for soft tyres, similar to Hamilton. Vettel upped his pace and notched a series of fastest laps, as he inched closer to Hamilton to take the lead.
A misjudgment in taking the final turn costed Vettel a crucial two seconds. With thirteen laps to go, Hamilton led the race by 6 seconds. The momentum was lost, as the slight detour affected his front right tyre, and thereby could not maintain the pace needed to overtake Hamilton.
It was a cool day in Montreal with overcast for the entire duration of the race. This was one of the contributing factors for Hamilton to race 46 laps on the same set of tyres. Hamiton won his 45th race of his career at a venue which earned him his first ever victory in 2007.
After a string of bad results this season, Hamilton trails his teammate Nico Rosbery by nine points.
If the last three races are anything to go by, the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari are closer to Mercedes and therefore, we can expect more close finishes in the coming races.
The driver of the day, well, if you ask me for sheer performance, then it has to be Sebastian Vettel. He made the race interesting the moment lights went out and he would have won his first race of 2016, if not for being too fast and a bit reckless in tyre management.