Hamilton’s first effort in Q3 was enough to secure a fifth pole at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, just one off Michael Schumacher’s record tally.
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Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) overcame a firm challenge from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to win his 5th Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal.
Hamilton edged Vettel by five seconds in the 70-lap race, while Valtteri Botta brought his Williams in third for a second straight year in a row. The championship leader, who now leads Hamilton by just nine points, says he was struggling with fuel in the final part of the race.
Lewis Hamilton doesn’t dedicates wins to anyone, but he made an exception Sunday for boxing great Muhammad Ali. To him, and his family, rest in peace.
“I wanted to get below the 13-(second) mark because I knew it would be very close with the Mercedes”, said Vettel, the four-time world champion who won here in 2013.
The Mercedes drivers then tussled on the way into Turn One as they attempted to recover and as they banged wheels Rosberg was forced to cut the corner and he dropped to tenth.
“As a team it was a really strong race for us”, the Finn said. “But when it came around for real it felt like I was going nowhere, so I need to figure out what happened there”, Hamilton said.
JENSON Button’s hopes for a points finish in the Canadian Grand Prix went up in flames as his McLaren ground to a halt with engine trouble early on.
In the constructor’s standings, Mercedes with 223 points leads Ferrari (147 points). “I almost ran out of fuel – that’s why I couldn’t really attack Max (Verstappen) properly and he did a very good job to defend”. It’s my job to make sure that I’m in front after a battle like that next time.
“The laps weren’t particularly that great – even my pole lap was at the lower end of poles that I have had – so, I am pretty happy that I am still on pole”. 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 very costly, I lost a lot of places. Actor Michael Douglas was at the track as well, conducting the post-race interview from the podium. Vettel spent the rest of the race unsuccessfully trying to catch up.
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Max Verstappen showed his confidence has not been dented by crashing out in Monaco, just two weeks after his historic win in Barcelona, with the fourth fastest time ahead of Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
