Lewis edges Nico in tense Canadian Grand Prix battle to take 20th 1-2 finish for the Silver Arrows in Formula One!
Lewis converted his fourth Canadian Grand Prix pole position into a fourth victory at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to take his fourth win of the 2015 season. Nico finished P2 to complete a fourth 1-2 of 2015 for the team - the 20th for the Silver Arrows in Formula One. Lewis now leads Nico in the Drivers' Championship by 17 points, with Mercedes AMG Petronas heading Ferrari by 105 in the Constructors' battle.
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: Today our guys on the pit wall did the perfect job managing the fine line between allowing the drivers to race each other and keeping the cars healthy so we made it to the finish. Montreal is the toughest circuit of the year for fuel consumption - and the toughest for brakes, too. With no Safety Cars to spice up the action, we had a straight, flat-out fight between our two boys across 70 laps - and it was a real battle. But running one stop, which we felt was the quickest strategy, the boys had to manage the cars during periods of the race, too, as has always been the case here in Montreal. After the stops, it was very cat and mouse, with Nico saving his brakes for a charge at the end - and Lewis conserving fuel to have margin to defend. Then, when they went for it in the final 10 laps, it was very tense indeed - but they did the perfect job to keep it under control. We needed this result today, after all the discussion and criticism following Monaco, and it was good to do it with a faultless performance. I'd also like to highlight two great stops from our boys today in the pit lane - both of them clean and quick and efficient. Congratulations to Lewis for his win but also to Nico for such a strong drive; there were only fine margins between them in qualifying and in the race, and that rivalry pushes the whole team forward. It was great to see Valtteri on the podium, too. A 1-2-3 for Mercedes power after all the hard work that went into the updated engine we ran this weekend is just a great job. But we know we didn't see the true pace of Ferrari today, either, as they had a bit of a messy afternoon. So we will keep our feet on the ground, keep our heads down and keep on pushing.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): Another fantastic result for the team. In the end, our greatest difficulty today was allowing both drivers to race each other in a situation where a lot of vital parameters were on the limit - fuel and brakes in particular. This circuit is tough on many elements of the car and asking drivers to manage those demands is not necessarily the easiest thing in the heat of battle. That put a lot of pressure on the pit wall, as we wanted to allow the drivers to race and put on a great show while also managing the cars home to ensure another great result for the team. I have to say that everyone performed superbly, so the success was well-earned. Congratulations to Lewis on his fourth win in Canada and also to Nico on another strong podium this year.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A difficult race for the team today, as we simply did not have the pace to make any progress. Having said that, Dany did a very good job all weekend to salvage a couple of points and that was the maximum we could achieve today. Daniel struggled for pace all weekend, which is unusual for him so we'll now have an in-depth look at that to see what might have caused it."
Thierry Salvi, Renault: "A hard weekend for the team, as expected. We finished the weekend without any reliability issues, but the performance was not at the right level. We know the steps that need to be taken to come back to the front so it's just a question of time now. Now the reliability issues are under control we can focus 100% on the performance. We hope to be able to run the up-to-date engine spec as soon as possible to take as much advantage as possible before the end of the year."
Valtteri Bottas finished third and Felipe Massa sixth in today's Canadian Grand Prix. Valtteri capitalised on a mistake by Räikkönen to move into third after his first and only pitstop, subsequently showing strong pace to keep clear of the Ferrari to secure the team's first podium of the season.
Starting out of position in P15 after problems in qualifying, Felipe drove a brilliant race to pick his way through the field and secure valuable points for the team. The team has extended its hold on third position in the Constructors' Championship with a total of 108 points for the season so far.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: The message I gave to the team this morning was that we have to go into this race believing in ourselves and be on the top of our game. If we did that I believed we could get on the podium with Valtteri and get a lot of points with Felipe, and that's exactly what we've done. The two drivers were absolutely fantastic all race. The team has worked well as a unit and the strategies were spot on. The rewards are there when you get it right and we need to use this as a good boost to keep moving forwards. We now have races ahead of us where we should be aiming for more podiums.
Maurizio Arrivabene: "If we look at the race pace, it was good, but a lot of circumstances occurred which prevented us from getting a better result. Sebastian drove a great race, making up thirteen places from the grid position. The upgraded engine gave us a positive feedback, but the weekend just wasn't a good one. As for Kimi, he was scheduled for a one-stop race, then we switched to two tire changes when he fell behind Bottas. His spin at the hairpin is something we haven't fully understood yet, it may be a case of contributory negligence as he said the same thing happened last year. It would be wrong to blame either him or the team in any case. He was pushing hard, too, but some issues slowed him down at some stages in the race. We must remain humble and try not to let the podium slip off from under our feet as it happened this time. We're still the second strongest team, but we must look ahead instead of behind us".
Today we saw a double retirement for McLaren-Honda in Montreal as both Fernando Alonso and then Jenson Button retired from the Canadian Grand Prix. Both were forced to return to the garage with unrelated exhaust issues.
Fernando began the race on the Option tyre. He got away well from P13 and had a strong first lap, rising to P11. Conserving tyres and fuel, he fell back in the opening stint after good battles with Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel. He was the final Option runner to pit, switching to the Prime tyre on lap 31. He increased his pace after his pit-stop but was forced to retire on lap 46.
Jenson started from P20 on the grid, having failed to set a time in qualifying yesterday. He also carried a penalty into the race for MGU-H and turbo replacements, and was duly required to perform a drive-through. He ran 45 laps on the Prime and was the last driver to pit-stop. Having switched to the Option, he set a string of personal best lap-times before retiring the car on lap 58 with an exhaust issue unrelated to the one suffered previously by Fernando.
Eric Boullier, Racing director, McLaren-Honda: "In a word, today's race was disappointing. Fernando made a good start, moving up from P13 on the grid to P11 at the end of lap one. Thereafter, however, he was unable to stem the tide of rival cars passing him, owing to a straight-line speed deficit compounded by fuel consumption concerns that caused him to have to lift and coast extensively all afternoon.
"By lap 20 he'd dropped to P16, and by lap 46 his race had come to an end, owing to an as-yet-unspecified exhaust issue.
"Jenson started the race from the back of the grid, having not been able to enter qualifying yesterday. He immediately had to perform a drive-through penalty, owing to our having had to replace his car's MGU-H and turbo before today's race.
"He'd climbed to P18 by lap 58, when he too was forced to retire, owing to an unrelated exhaust issue.
"Clearly, as I say, all of that was and is disappointing, very much so. But, as I said yesterday, we know what we have to do to improve, and we're doing it. It may take us some time, but we'll get there.
"I want to take this opportunity to thank and praise both Fernando and Jenson, who are continuing to drive brilliantly in very trying circumstances, both of them digging deep and working extremely hard behind the scenes to help us move forward towards reliable competitiveness and eventual success.
"The staff of both McLaren and Honda, too, are working tirelessly to effect the same result.
"Finally, I want to pay tribute to our fans, whose steadfast support in these difficult times is impressive and edifying in equal measure. Truly, they really do #BelieveInMcLarenHonda, and that's incredibly heartening to see. Thanks, guys, I really mean it."
Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport: "We're extremely saddened by this weekend's result. The team had worked so hard to rectify the issues we'd encountered during the free practice and qualifying sessions, and against the odds we'd managed to get both cars ready for the race. However, both cars then retired owing to unrelated exhaust issues.
"Fernando's car suffered a rise in exhaust temperature and had to be called back into the garage. We think Jenson's car also had an issue in the exhaust area, but we won't know for sure until the car is back at the factory.
"The next grand prix, in Austria, will be run on another high-speed circuit, but we'll get to the bottom of today's issues, rectify them, and prepare for that race."
Sahara Force India scored four points in today's Canadian Grand Prix as Nico Hulkenberg raced to eighth place ahead of teammate Sergio Perez in P11.
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "It's encouraging to see another strong performance from the VJM08 and to come away from Montreal by adding four more points to our tally. Nico has been impressive all weekend and eighth place is a well-deserved result following an excellent drive. Sergio just missed out on the points, but he wasn't particularly happy with the car balance and in such a straightforward race there were no opportunities to use the strategy to our advantage. The points' standings in the midfield are very tight and we are just a couple of points adrift of fifth place. The whole team has worked extremely hard to extract performance from the VJM08 and we are optimistic of adding more speed in the races to come. So there's plenty to look forward to as we approach the middle of the season."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "We knew that here in Canada we were going to struggle with our performance because we simply miss speed on the straights. Nevertheless, I must say that both drivers did a good job. Carlos got off to a good start but unfortunately lost some places as he was blocked during the first lap. Later he was able to recover and fight back. Max also did a very good race because, despite of all his penalties, he was still able to catch up and do some very competitive lap times. Now Montreal is over, we are looking forward to Austria, where we expect to show a much better performance also thanks to the circuit layout, which should suit our car more."
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): "A difficult race, due in part to the starting positions. We had to manage the temperatures carefully but had no real reliability concerns. Naturally we would have liked to add to our points total but the pace was not really there today. We hope for better in Austria."
Lotus F1 Team moved into fifth position in the FIA Formula 1 Constructors' Championship after a strong Canadian Grand Prix where Pastor Maldonado finished seventh and Romain Grosjean tenth at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Romain had been running in seventh before contact passing a backmarker meant an additional pit stop and time penalty. Pastor's seventh position represents his first points of the year.
Romain started from P5 on the grid on his qualifying super soft compound tyres, changing to new soft tyres on laps 27 and 49. A five-second time penalty was added to his race time, but it did not affect his tenth-place finish. Pastor started from P6 on the grid on his qualifying super soft tyres, changing to new soft tyres on lap 17.
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "It was a happy day for us. Pastor scored his first points of the season after driving a strong and measured race and Romain was in the points too even if it was in a more eventful manner. For Pastor this should be a turning point for his season and with thank all his supporters in Venezuela and PDVSA for their faith in us. Both cars scoring points is always our target and we want more of the same for the rest of the year."
Nick Chester, Technical Director: "That was pretty good. Pastor drove strongly and consistently with a long second stint for seventh place. Romain should have finished further up were it not for the rub with the Manor but the weekend overall has been positive. We ran well in qualifying and if anything lost a little bit of pace in the race, which is something we'll be studying ahead of our visit to Austria. All things considered, we have a good platform for the races ahead."
The Sauber F1 Team travelled to the Canadian Grand Prix with different expectations, but the result was rather disappointing due to mechanical issues and lack of pace. Marcus Ericsson passed the chequered flag in P14, he then had to stop the Sauber C34-Ferrari on track because of an issue with the fuel system. Felipe Nasr finished 16th after struggling with an intermittent loss of power and overheating brakes.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "A disappointing result. We certainly expected more, but unfortunately it did not work out. We need to analyse why we were not able to keep up with the pace of our main competitors."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "Marcus and Felipe did their jobs well in the race. There are other reasons why we were not able to achieve a better result. Now we have to analyse everything; there is plenty for us to do."
The Manor Marussia F1 Team's Will Stevens ended today's Grand Prix du Canada in 17th place, while teammate Roberto Merhi encountered the team's first retirement of the season on lap 53.
John Booth, Team Principal: "After what has been a strong weekend for us here in Canada, it's a shame to have experienced our first retirement of the season. Roberto suffered a broken drive shaft, which, after such a long run of reliability up until now, is disappointing. He's doing a great job at the moment though and I'm sure he'll bounce back for Austria. Will was having a very good race before he was hit by Grosjean, breaking his front wing. He was at least able to recover and take the chequered flag. So, a less than straightforward race than we've been used to, but plenty of positives to take away nonetheless."
Tyre wear and degradation were extremely low at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada, enabling a one-stop strategy for the majority of competitors and long runs on both the soft and new supersoft compounds. The performance difference between the two compounds was less than a second, meaning that a number of other strategies were also possible.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the race from pole ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg, claiming his 37th career victory to extend his lead in the drivers' championship to 17 points. The podium finishers - Hamilton, Rosberg and Bottas - all started the race on the supersoft tyre, stopping within three laps of each other to change to the supersoft.
Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, fourth, was the highest-placed driver to use a two-stop strategy, and the only driver to use the soft tyre in the middle stint: starting and finishing the race on the supersoft, which enabled him to score some very impressive lap times.
A number of drivers started the grand prix in unusually low grid positions, including Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Williams driver Felipe Massa. They both used unusual strategies to boost their positions and finish in the points. Vettel was the earliest to pit, running the majority of the race on the soft tyre.
Massa was one of only five drivers to start the race on the soft tyre, completing a long first stint to get past most of his competitors while they pitted, then running to the finish on the faster supersoft tyre. His team mate, Valtteri Bottas, became the first non-Mercedes or Ferrari driver to finish on the podium this year.
Paul Hembery: "As we expected, given the specific characteristics of this circuit, tyre wear and degradation was extremely low on both compounds today, with an extremely stable product. This can lead to some criticism, as the goal is to have more than one pit stop per race. With only four tyre specifications available, sometimes it does become difficult to provide the perfect choice for every situation. Despite that, we did see some different thinking about strategy from many of the teams. In particular, the drivers who started further down the order were able to boost their prospects by doing something different to their direct rivals."
Truth-O-Meter
We said that a wide variety of strategies were possible before this race, but a one-stopper was most likely. This turned out to be the case, with the drivers going slightly longer on the supersoft than we expected in the cool conditions. The Englishman started on supersoft and changed to soft on lap 32.
