Story highlights
Canadian Grand Prix produces seventh different winner in seventh race of F1 season
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton wins Montreal race for the third time in his career
Romain Grosjean's Lotus comes second, with Sauber's Sergio Perez in third
Hamilton leads drivers' standings with 88 points, two ahead of Fernando Alonso
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday to record his first victory of the Formula One season and move top of the drivers’ standings.
Frenchman Romain Grosjean in a Lotus produced an impressive drive to finish second, just ahead of Sauber’s Sergio Perez.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finished fourth, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in fifth, which kept the Spaniard just two points behind Hamilton in the title race.
“I never had a doubt in my mind that there would not be a possibility to win,” said Hamilton, who is the seventh different winner in seven races this season.
It was Hamilton’s third Canadian Grand Prix victory in five attempts, and his 18th from 97 races overall, while teammate Jenson Button was out of the points in 16th.
While Alonso and world champion Vettel opted for a one-stop strategy, Hamilton made two stops but was able to force his way past the Spanish and German drivers.
Hamilton had problems at both pit stops – almost stalling at the first and then had a difficulty with one of his wheels at the second – but the British driver recovered to first overtake Vettel on lap 62 and then motor past Alonso three laps later.
As Alonso’s tires faded the Ferrari driver slipped down to fifth, but he did manage to hold off Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.
“Fernando and I took the decision to stay out,” said Vettel, explaining Red Bull’s race strategy.
“I felt pretty comfortable on the tires and obviously we were hoping to get the place back, but as it turned out it was the right thing to go for the second stop.
“We decided a few laps from the end to do a pit stop – a stop here is not so long, about 15 seconds – and in the end it was the right decision.
“Before the stop we were three to four seconds behind Fernando, but we ended up six seconds ahead of him.”
Grosjean also adopted a one-stop strategy but with better success than Alonso as he secured the second podium placing of his career, both coming this season.
“It’s been a great day for the team. It was an incredible race and the one stop strategy worked perfectly for us. It wasn’t an easy race, but we wanted to be aggressive to achieve a good result,” he said.
His teammate Kimi Raikkonen was eighth, behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
Sauber had both cars in the points as Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi was ninth, while Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was 10th after recovering from an early spin.
