Nico Rosberg was left seething after his Formula One drivers’ championship lead over Lewis Hamilton was cut to single-digit figures at the Canadian Grand Prix.
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Great result for Valtteri Bottas in the Williams to claim their first podium of the season.
The Brit dedicated the victory to the late boxing legend Muhammad Ali, radioing his crew to say: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”.
After parking up, Hamilton did an “Ali shuffle” in another mark of respect for the former heavyweight champion whose funeral was on Friday.
“I think it was a couple that wanted to commit suicide”, said the German with a smile after finishing second to Mercedes’ world champion Lewis Hamilton at a chilly Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
After a blistering start to the 2016 Formula One season, series leader Nico Rosberg has been slowing down.
Sebastian Vettel made good use of his Ferrari in the initial laps of the race, where he managed to move to first position quickly, after starting at number 3 on the pole.
Lewis Hamilton made a smooth ran until lap 24, preventing Vettel to get any closer than about six seconds, before making his perfectly-timed stop, swapping his ultra-soft tyres for softs.
“I was a bit distracted”, he continued, “we chatted about it, I have to mention it, I don’t know why but I have to. there were two seagulls”.
Hamilton’s mother, Carmen (Larbalestier), is white British, while his father, Anthony Hamilton, is black British, making him mixed-race.
“If I was to put money down, I would never have tried to predict that”, Hamilton, reflecting on how quickly Rosberg’s advantage has evaporated, said.
“On my side I barely felt it, whereas he had to go another way, and sometimes you make it around the outside, sometimes you don’t”.
Rosberg finished only fifth, meaning his advantage over Hamilton has shrunk from 43 to nine points in just two races.
“I did not push too much on the tyre at the beginning but was very conscious that [Vettel] behind was pushing. Today we made a mistake but the big one is when you lose for this”. “In Barcelona, I gave it a go around the outside of Lewis and it worked out really well”.
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Kimi Raikkonen, in the other Ferrari, finished sixth, and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh a week after a pit stop fiasco cost him an almost-certain victory.
