But a curious decision from Ferrari to adopt a two-stop strategy enabled Hamilton to seal his second victory in as many races and slash the gap to Nico Rosberg to just nine points after the German finished only fifth.
Advertisement
Vettel had already suffered as a result of poor strategic calls in Melbourne and Barcelona this season and Ferrari team principal Arrivabene knows his team made the wrong call at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Hmailton is now just nine points behind championship leader and team-mate Nico Rosberg, who was fifth in Montreal.
After parking up, Hamilton did an “Ali shuffle” in another mark of respect for the former heavyweight champion whose funeral was on Friday (local time).
“Sebastian had a great start and I had a decent one and Lewis had a really bad one and my position was on the outside”, Rosberg told the UK’s Sky Sports F1.
In a repeat of the season-opener in Australia, both Mercedes drivers were gazumped by a scintillating start from third-placed Vettel, who was nearly immediately ahead of polesitter Hamilton as the lights went out.
From then on it was always an uphill battle for the German, he even spun out on the final lap when he tried to overtake Max Verstappen but lost his rear brakes in the process.
Vettel took the lead with a great start to the race from P3. Vettel then dropped back behind Lewis Hamilton due to a different strategy, but he still managed to keep the Briton on his toes all the way to cross the line only five seconds adrift. “I was driving and just thinking of him, and maybe he would be watching the race”. “Obviously in Formula 1 there was no one of the same colour as us as a family, so it was another athlete for me to look up”.
Vettel moved into third in the points race, with 78, and said he doesn’t second-guess the team’s calculation that fresher tires would help him catch Hamilton.
Hamilton said Ali was someone he latched onto as a child.
“We touched and I was off and that’s it”.
“But that’s racing”, he said.
Vettel admitted that he did not have enough speed to win. The tardy getaway was traced to an overheating clutch on Hamilton’s vehicle and Wolff said the team would investigate why its starts were so poor compared to Ferrari’s. He has now gone three races without a podium finish.
Advertisement
Kimi Raikkonen finished sixth in the second Ferrari, ahead of Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India.
