Mercedes AMG driver Nico Rosberg has had his championship lead cut to just nine points, following another tough GP.
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Lewis Hamilton dedicated his victory at the Canadian Grand Prix to the late Muhammad Ali.
In Monaco two weeks ago, he finished seventh after starting the race on the front row.
But the four-time champion was back in the pits eight laps later for his second stop of the afternoon, allowing Hamilton to retake the lead.
Hamilton had a bad start, and his teammate tried taking advantage of it. His vehicle was clearly quicker, but Verstappen defended like a veteran, placing the auto where Rosberg wanted to be and making Rosberg work for the place.
“Yeah, I’m ok”, he said softly in response. Both Jenson Button and Jolyon Palmer failed to make it to the end of the race after suffering mechanical issues. Of course when you sniff the victory that is nearby you, you get a bit nervous or disappointed straight after the race because it has happened to me [and we didn’t get it].
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” Vettel regained the lead when Hamilton pitted for fresh super-soft tires on lap 24.
Having qualified a close third, the German made a tremendous start to jump both Mercedes and lead into the first corner.
Alonso made Q3 for the third race in succession by bumping Sergio Perez out of the top 10 in the closing moments of Q2, so the second Force India ended up 11th fastest.
“We got the set-up right”.
Rosberg blamed his non-podium finish on that impromptu visit to pit lane.
Vettel praised the progress Ferrari had made, pointing back to their winless season in 2014 which persuaded Fernando Alonso to leave the team and opened up the seat for Vettel to take in 2015 after he chose to leave Red Bull.
The reigning world champion is a four-time victor at this circuit, the most winningest driver behind only Michael Schumacher’s record of seven wins. “And it was hard to understand how low”. That is where Rosberg, victor of the opening four rounds of this season, would remain after he failed to find a way past Verstappen and spun at the chicane in attempting to do so on the penultimate lap.
“That was the big problem with Max, I could only launch a couple of attacks”.
Vettel insisted he had a case, even if he then undermined it by stating: “I’m a racing driver, so I have to find some sort of excuse for why the hell you beat me today. We struggled a bit the last two races and now, to see the auto has performance, it was a really fun race”. On the final chicane, Rosberg gave it his all on turn 13 but he lost control of his auto and spun off the track.
“We overestimated the degradation on the tyres, this is the reason why we called him in”. Despite a spin on the last lap, Nico Rosberg finished fifth.
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“In Spain I went for the outside and made it work. I fought for it”.
