Five things we learned from the Canadian GP

Sport360 staff 06:13 14/06/2016
Victorious: Lewis Hamilton celebrates in Montreal.

Lewis Hamilton closed the gap on Nico Rosberg at the top of the Formula One driver’s championship to just nine points on Sunday with victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Despite a poor start, the Brit fought pack to claim maximum points and once more narrow the gap on his team-mate dramatically in the race for the world title.

But what did we learn from the events at Gilles Villeneuve Circuit?

Luck shines on Lewis

They say you make your own luck, and after a run of torrid fortune the Formula One Gods appear to be shining once more on Lewis Hamilton.

Following another poor start, and with Sebastian Vettel controlling the race, Hamilton had no right to win Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix. But a disastrous strategical call from Ferrari – just as with Red Bull’s pitstop blunder a fornight ago in Monaco – gift-wrapped Hamilton his second victory in as many grands prix.

Suddenly, the 31-year-old is now within nine points of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg as he bids to become the first British driver to win four championships.

No blame game at Ferrari

We must doff our caps to Sebastian Vettel who refused to take aim at his Ferrari team for throwing away what would have been his first victory since last September’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Vettel had the pace to match Hamilton in the opening phase of the race, but Ferrari hoped to take advantage of a Virtual Safety Car period by pitting their man. The move backfired, but Vettel, the four-time champion did not wish to apportion blame.

“I will always defend our strategies, and what we committed to as a team,” said Vettel. “With hindsight maybe they would do a different job but as I said, that’s a decision we take as a team.”

Another day to forget for Rosberg

Rosberg dodged the written media after boarding an earlier-than-scheduled flight out of Montreal in the wake of another afternoon he will wish to forget in a hurry.

Following an abject display in Monaco last time out, Rosberg was 10th at the end of the first lap after banging wheels with Hamilton at turn one. But despite possessing a quicker car than a number of drivers ahead of him, Rosberg failed to make the progress back through the field you may expect of a championship leader.

A puncture, and an embarrassing spin, on the penultimate lap also added insult to injury.

It was important for Rosberg to put on a strong display in Montreal, but a fifth-place finish will do little to improve his confidence ahead of the inaugural European Grand Prix in Baku in just six days time.

DNF cost Button points

Jenson Button believes he was denied a top-10 finish after he retired with an engine problem. The 2009 world champion was running just outside the points when his Honda engine expired on lap 10.

“It’s a shame as we could have got some points today, but I didn’t get to see what we could do,” said Button. “It’s always like that when you are in a good position and saving fuel that you don’t finish.”

Palmer rues bad luck

Button’s compatriot Jolyon Palmer also failed to make it to the chequered flag on another difficult day for the rookie. Palmer, whose position at Renault is already under scrutiny, completed just 16 laps before he was forced to park his car with a water pressure issue.

“I was feeling good with the car out there even though it was cold and slippery,” said Palmer. “I was stuck behind one of the Manors early on, but once I was in clean air my pace felt good. Certainly a little bit of luck wouldn’t go amiss too.”

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