FORMULA ONE:LEWIS HAMILTON stormed to the top of the F1 drivers' championship standings with a commanding drive to victory in Montreal as Red Bull's Mark Webber gambled and lost in a battle of tyres at the Canadian Grand Prix.
In a fascinating mid-race duel, Webber seized the lead from polesitter Hamilton when the Red Bull driver elected to remain on track on harder compound tyres as the rest of the frontrunners pitted.
The hope was he could establish a significant enough gap back to Hamilton so that when eventually he was forced to come in for the less durable soft compound tyres, their superior performance over a short stint would allow him to reel the McLaren driver in over the final quarter of the race.
And for a while it looked like working. Having stayed out, Webber, with his tyres still working well, pulled out to upwards of a second a lap over Hamilton as the Briton struggled to get his tyres working.
With almost 12 seconds to spare over the McLaren it looked like Webber’s gamble had a shot. But within the space of just two laps, as the pair edged toward the 50 lap mark, the tables were dramatically turned, Hamilton’s tyres coming on and Webber’s suddenly drifting so he was losing almost two seconds a lap to the chasing pack.
Taking on the quicker, though more fragile soft tyres on lap 52, Webber dropped to fifth and then attempted to force his way back, hoping still the leader’s tyre performance would drop off in their long final stint. But as he hit traffic and his soft tyres grained more quickly than expected, Red Bull’s gambit fell apart, leaving Hamilton to surge through to his second win in a row, marginally ahead of team-mate Jenson Button.
“It’s been a tremendous weekend, really fantastic” said Hamilton.
“It was definitely one of toughest races so far. But that’s what you want – a hard fight and another one-two for us.”
Hamilton’s fight wasn’t solely with Webber, however. A resurgent Fernando Alonso pushed the McLarens throughout, passing Button at the start and then Hamilton in a thrilling side-by-side run out of the pitlane following their first stop.
But traffic twice outfoxed the Spaniard – first Hamilton muscled past as Alonso tangled with Sébastien Buemi and 15 laps from home Button managed to sneak through to second when the Ferrari driver was unsettled by a wayward Karun Chandhok.
“It was a good day,” Alonso said of his third place. “We were competitive and we had a really good opportunity to fight for the win. But I lost position (to Hamilton) through traffic and then lost to Jenson again in traffic. We lost 10 points both times. But, we were 50 seconds behind McLaren in Turkey and here we’re third, so we are moving in the right direction.” With the podium positions locked out, Red Bull’s drivers were forced to settle for fourth and fifth despite looking stronger at the start as they began in hard tyres while all their rivals started on the more fragile softs.
“Everything we predicted for us to happen happened to us but not to the others,” Vettel said of his team’s strategy.
“Our opponents needed to come in after six or seven laps to change tyres and usually their race would be over because they would come out in traffic but it wasn’t the case. I don’t understand how you come in as leader and you manage to come out fourth. It was strange.
“Anyway, I had a gearbox problem halfway through the race and had to slow down more and more. And then because of traffic I lost six seconds to Jenson and that was it.”
Gearbox troubles were also partly responsible for compromising Webber’s race, the Australian being demoted from second to seventh on the grid after a pre-race problem forced him to change gearbox before the start.
“Mixed emotions,” said Webber of his fifth place. “It wasn’t really a surprise (to come out fifth) because I knew people were backed up behind Lewis. It would have been nice to get a few more places. I wanted some champagne today but it didn’t happen.”
Canadian Grand Prix (70 laps)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Brit) McLaren 1hr 33mins 53.456secs
2 J Button (Bri) McLaren 1:33:55.710
3 F Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:34:02.670
4 S Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:34:31.273
5 M Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:34:32.747
6 N Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:34:49.540
7 R Kubica (Pol) Renault 1:34:50.756
8 S Buemi (Swi) Scuderia TR 1 lap
9 V Liuzzi (Ita) Force India 1 lap
10 A Sutil (Ger) Force India 1 lap
11 M Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1 lap
12 J Alguersuari (Spn) Scuderia TR 1 lap
13 N Hulkenberg (Ger) Williams 1 lap
14 R Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1 lap
15 F Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1 lap
16 H Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 2 laps
17 V Petrov (Rus) Renault 2 laps
18 K Chandhok Ind (HRT-F1) 4 laps
19 L di Grassi (Bra) Virgin Racing 5 laps
Not Classified: 20 T Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 50 laps completed, 21 J Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 42 laps completed, 22 P de la Rosa (Spa) BMW Sauber 30 laps completed, 23 B Senna (Bra) HRT-F1 13 laps completed, 24 K Kobayashi (Jpn) BMW Sauber 0 laps completed.
Drivers’ Championship
1 L Hamilton (Brit) McLaren 109pts
2 J Button (Brit) McLaren 106
3 M Webber (Aus) Red Bull 103
4 F Alonso (Spn) Ferrari 94
5 S Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 90
Manufacturers’ Championship
1 McLaren 215pts
2 Red Bull 193
3 Ferrari 161
4 Mercedes GP 108
5 Renault 79
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