Here comes a new twist in the history of the 2014 Formula 1 season — Red Bull’s driver Daniel Ricciardo claimed victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. Eight drivers did not get a chance to see the chequered flag with Daniil Kvyat and Lewis Hamilton among them.
The seventh round of the 2014 Formula 1 season was held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. A year ago, track marshal Mark Robinson lost his life while recovering the stranded car of Esteban Gutiérrez. Robinson was run over by a mobile crane. Serious violations of safety regulations were revealed in the course of investigation. Circuit officials had to conduct special staff trainings after that incident.
The city track was built in 1977; its length is 4,361 m. It was here where Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) scored his first victory in 2007. He also came first in 2010 and 2012.
As reported by f1news.ru, Hamilton was in a fighting mood before this Grand Prix: «I'll be guessing, but I don't feel that will be the case. We're particularly strong in the straights. Maybe we'll be surprised this weekend, but the long straights do suit us very well”.
Many teams faced technical issues during the practice sessions. For instance, car of Jean-Éric Vergne from Toro Rosso suffered battery issues, while fuel leak leading to power unit damage ended Daniil Kvyat's session early. However, Kvyat was still keeping his chin up: “The Gilles Villeneuve Circuit is another one on the calendar where I have never raced before and Canada is another country that will be new to me. In preparation, I watched a few Canadian Grands Prix on television, especially the on-board footage and a few days ago, I spent several hours in the simulator preparing for it”.
The track in Canada is high-speed and leaves no place for mistakes. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull): “There is definitely a high risk potential, especially in Turn 15, where you will soon get to know the notorious 'Wall of Fame' should you be driving a few centimetres too far to the right”.
Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull): “I doubt anyone on the grid lacks motivation, but there's definitely a little extra edge to it at some circuits. It's a clear choice: some guys will play it safe and sacrifice half a tenth to get through there cleanly; others who will take a risk and go flat out trying to find a little bit. The nearer you are, the faster you'll go. Give the wall a kiss and you feel pretty good; kiss it too hard and that's it!"
Alonso (Ferrari) set the fastest time in the first practice session, while Hamilton topped the times in the second and third ones.
By the way, Stefano Domenicali, who has actually accepted responsibility for all Ferrari failures and left the team, showed up together with Alonso and talked to the journalists: “After the incredible and long-lasting work at Ferrari I decided to take a pause and step aside from Formula 1. It was a great experience, I will always support Ferrari and Fernando Alonso, I will definitely miss them”. Domenicali has not taken a decision regarding his future yet, neither has he announced his further plans.
But let’s get back to our drivers. Esteban Gutiérrez (Sauber) crashed his car in the third free practice session and mechanics were not able to fix it before qualifying. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) left his car in the pits as it started losing power during qualifying.
Marcus Ericsson (Caterham) crashed his car and first qualifying session ended with red flags. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) set best lap time in qualifying — 1:14.946, Hamilton was second, then came Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas (Williams). Daniil Kvyat had fifteenth starting position.
Lewis Hamilton: “Obviously since we came into this weekend I decided to go at the end, but in actual fact it was probably not the best idea to do so. I was a bit behind traffic on the out lap up to the last corner and generally I was behind people and having to back up, which is not the best preparation for a lap. But it's okay, we've got a long race tomorrow."
The pilots could not have imagined at that time what a complicated and amazing race was waiting ahead.
Lewis tried to attack his teammate right from the start; however, Rosberg was keeping the lead. Moreover, Vettel managed to get through to the second position. Marussia’s pilots had a collision with both of them dropping out of the race — Chilton lost control over his car and hit Bianchi. Safety car came out; clearing operation lasted till lap 8. Rosberg was still in the lead, Kvyat had a spin but no damage was done to the car. Ericsson left his car in the pits due to power loss.
Lewis was furious being third and was able to overtake Vettel and get back to the second position; however, he was still 2 seconds behind Nico. He wanted to overtake his teammate by any means. Trying to defend his position, Rosberg braked far too late blocking the wheels and cutting the corner. Stewards got tense, however, they let Lewis go unpunished. Then came another trouble — engines of both Mercedes cars started losing power. Their pace reduced by 3 seconds!
Meanwhile Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) suffered a spin but continued the race: “We knew this would not be an easy race, because on this track, we were not fast enough down the straights and we had some problems in the slow corners. On top of that, today I never had a clear track ahead of me, for one reason or another I was always stuck behind other cars”.
“Silver Arrows” were exchanging sparks of good and evil, they were doing everything to survive, however, Hamilton ran into brake trouble and then, giving a sad puff of smoke, the car went into the pits. It was the end of the struggle for Lewis.
A bit later Daniil Kvyat also had to retire due to engine issues, watching the rest of the race from the sidelines. Romain Grosjean (Lotus), who suffered rear wing damage, joined him a few laps later: “Today was not great in terms of pace for me, however there are some positives looking forwards. We can see that a Renault Sport F1 team can win a race so we have a target there, especially when the win came at a circuit that is not thought to be one of the stronger ones for them”.
So the question is, what happened to those left on the track?
There was a keen struggle within the range of several seconds. Ricciardo’s car was heating up but he was increasing the pace. He managed to avoid collision with Sergio Pérez (Force India) by some miracle. On lap 68 Rosberg lost the lead to Ricciardo. Vettel overtook Pérez securing third position. Massa (Williams) decided that if everyone managed to overtake the Mexican, he could do that too. But he was totally mistaken! The two collided and flew off into the barrier. The race ended under yellow flags. Both pilots were taken to the medical centre — it was a large impact of 27g for Massa and 32g for Pérez.
Well, it was the first career win for Daniel Ricciardo: “I’m a Grand Prix winner! I think it still seems a bit surreal to be honest, just because it all happened so quickly at the end. I was third for a while and then it all happened in a really exciting fashion. Once I got past Perez I knew I just had to drive clean and get in Rosberg’s DRS zone and, from then on, it was just awesome!”
Nico Rosberg, 2nd: “That was a big battle all the way through today! I had a tough start but I was able to defend in the first few corners and fight against Lewis. The race went smoothly for a while then both cars suddenly lost the MGU-K system and a lot of power which was really tough. Towards the end of the race, I tried to defend against Sergio which was fine but Daniel was too fast on the straights with much more power than I had available and he was able to get past. With so much going on, I had to ask my engineer where I finished at the end as I thought I was probably about fifth or sixth. I was so happy to hear that I was in P2! Congratulations to Daniel for his first Formula 1 win!”
Sebastian Vettel, 3rd: “Congratulations to Daniel for his first win, which is very, very special, so I’m happy for him and happy for the team, especially after such a horrible winter. It’s nice to be able to finally break through to get a win this year and capitalise on Mercedes having a problem. I think we could have taken more risk with the strategy today — but it’s hard to know exactly what was going on around me when I’m not sitting on the pit wall.”
It was unreal to predict the results of this race but it was definitely incredibly thrilling. Ricciardo received congratulations from all the drivers, as the first victory is always the sweetest!
