Canadian stage of the Formula 1 is always interesting. The track «old style» with long straight and closely located to the asphalt surface with concrete strikers — unlike the current «tilkedromam».
Weakly predictable weather — year after year, the track on the artificial island of Notre Dame, located on the St. Lawrence River during flooding rains races.
And what about the «wall of champions» — bump on the exit of the last turn before the direct start-finish? And the first bunch of turns? A stud straight before returning?
In general — the original circuit, the Grand Prix of the soul, the race with the charisma... However, what surprised — so was Gilles Villeneuve, whose name and wears the circuit.
By the way, this year's «wall of champions» gathered their harvest is not in the race and in qualifying. Racers this does not become easier, even though the consequences of accidents in Saturday's qualifying rounds much less significant than in Sunday's race.
In the first qualifying segment «hit» is not the most famous wall, and chippers anonymous — no luck Rio Haryanto. His Manor crashed in the fourth turn, causing the burst wheel drive.
The second segment and had to stop at all red flags — due to the fact that Carlos Sainz Jr. hit a proverbial «wall of champions». Suspension of his Toro Rosso has been damaged, but the Spaniard managed to ohromevshem car on the roadside to pass all the finish line!
And finally, in the final session before the Wall finally reached a genuine champion — Sebastian Vettel. But luckily the German racer Ferrari escaped with slight shock — he damaged a wheel, but in the second run showed excellent third time.
We topped the same qualifications are the same and all on the same machine — Lewis Hamilton took pole and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg showed the second time.
The first three — Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel joined them — showed a very tight result: they missed a two-tenths of a second. Then — two Red Bull Daniel Riccardo and Max Verstappen, followed by two Finnish riders of different teams Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Valtteri Bottas (Williams), and closed the top ten Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg and Alonso.
Daniil Kvyat showed the 13 time, but because it imposed a penalty for a collision in Monaco, the Russian was on the grid only to the fifteenth.
But all attention of fans — and Russian, including — at the start was not riveted to Kvyat, and for the first three participants: Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel.
The duo of pilots Mercedes amicably failed launch, and Ferrari driver on the contrary reacted lightning extinguished traffic lights, then quickly maneuver Hamilton walked to the left and sprinted to the first turn.
But remaining behind Sebastian riders of the German team started a «showdown» on the way to the first bunch — it two Silver Arrows flew side by side. But Lewis Hamilton was on the inner path, so it was not difficult to oust Nico Rosberg to the outer side of the road — it came to contact the wheels — and then the outside of the track.
Germans had to cut the grass at turn and despite the fact that he was able to get back on track, damage his performance has been caused — with third position, he fell at the end of the top ten.
Rosberg still unwittingly prevented Daniel Riccardo, causing him ahead of Max Verstappen — it subsequently played a cruel joke with avstaliytsem. At the end of the peloton in the opening race faced Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Nasr — Sauber driver spun and he slipped to last position.
The leader of the race Sebastian Vettel immediately proved the increased pace of the Scuderia — German immediately pulled away from second-ranked Hamilton. However, on lap 11, everything has been turned upside down.
Jenson Button stopped on the roadside — Honda Motor rejected. Here it is briefly declared virtual safety car mode. But during this time, both drivers drove Ferrari in the pits for the first pit stop.
This decision surprised absolutely everyone — both rivals and fans with reporters. It was obvious that Scuderia uses a strategy of at least two pit stops — and Vettel and Raikkonen had to call again to put the rubber binding.
After replacing the rubber Sebastian Vettel literally flew, and after seven laps after the pit stop went up to the second position behind Hamilton, but closer to the distance attack and could not.
The race became a quiet channel, and only occasionally here and there there were some bursts of events.
Nico Rosberg broke a wheel and had to call in on an unplanned second pit stop. This led to the loss of several positions — German was in seventh position. He first beat Daniel Riccardo, and then Kimi, but ran into Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman has had a serious resistance to the Germans — he tried to attack, but in the end he himself launched before the last bunch of turns, and he left behind a few times.
As a result, Verstappen kept his position and finished the race in fourth place. He finished ahead of Valtteri Bottas — this is probably the main surprise of the Canadian Grand Prix. The second place was won by Sebastian Vettel — and in fact if not for the wrong tactics the Germans would probably have won.
And the first place has been 45 times in the course of his career, Lewis Hamilton won.
Thanks to the victory of British driver Mercedes has reduced its backlog of leaders in the individual competition of the championship Nico Rosberg to nine points — the fight for the title escalated to the limit.
The next stage of the Formula 1 will be held in the coming weekend in Baku — the capital of Azerbaijan will be held in the Grand Prix of Europe. The track is the first time will host the first Formula One race.
Photo: XPB Images
