Vettel crushes Alonso and Hamilton in Montreal

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel crushed Lewis Hamilton and then Fernando Alonso to cruise to victory in the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

The three time world champion is the best driver in F1 today and was on a different level throughout the race. Again he left his teammate Mark Webber in an identical car in the dust and now (29 wins) is just two overall wins behind Nigel Mansell yet he is only 25 years old.

Vettel beat Hamilton to Turn 1 and never looked back

Starting from pole position he demoralized Lewis Hamilton by the end of lap one with a 2-second lead – already outside of reach of DRS.

He then built the lead to 20s before Vettel was told by the team to slow his pace and save the car. He then controlled the pace to second the rest of the way.

Vettel's victory was his and Red Bull's first ever in Canada. Vettel now leads by 36 points in the drivers championship, over Alonso, who jumps to second in the standings.

"It’s great to win today. I was pushing very hard, especially at the beginning of the race – I had a moment when I hit the wall, but I didn’t feel it; I was trying to get away from the field, as you don’t know what will happen towards the end. It turned out that we could control things in the later stages, but you don’t know that, so I was just trying to push all the time and stay in the rhythm.

"It was good to see that we were quick in all conditions this weekend and had speed in the race. We had average tire wear, which hasn’t always been the case for us, so we have made a step forward there. It’s nice to win here, as it’s a very special race. Not just the track, but the whole city enjoys the race and it’s a nice atmosphere."

Alonso hunts and passes Rosberg and then later does the same to his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton

Fernando Alonso outdrove Lewis Hamilton at the end to get second for Ferrari.

Alonso ran down and caught Hamilton on lap 62 of 70 and the pair spent much of lap 63 side by side before Alonso made it ahead.

Hamilton stayed within DRS range and tried to retaliate on the next lap, but the move failed and he had to settle for third ahead of Webber and Rosberg.

Jean-Eric Vergne drove a strong race to a career-best sixth for Toro Rosso.

QUOTES

Red Bull-Renault

Sebastian Vettel (1st): "It's great to win today. I was pushing very hard, especially at the beginning of the race – I had a moment when I hit the wall, but I didn't feel it; I was trying to get away from the field, as you don't know what will happen towards the end. It turned out that we could control things in the later stages, but you don't know that, so I was just trying to push all the time and stay in the rhythm. It was good to see that we were quick in all conditions this weekend and had speed in the race. We had average tire wear, which hasn't always been the case for us, so we have made a step forward there. It's nice to win here, as it's a very special race. Not just the track, but the whole city enjoys the race and it's a nice atmosphere."

Mark Webber (4th): "I got a sensational start, but I didn't have too many places to go. I went to the middle and Bottas and Nico were there, so I went to the other side and lost some momentum. We are certainly getting our starts sorted, but so far there's been no opportunity to show how good they have been! We lost some time with Nico in the first stint, and the car was getting hot behind him in the slip stream. Once I got in free air, the car was handling much better. Then we had the incident with Giedo van der Garde which caused some front wing damage and made it more difficult; the whole top section of the wing was gone on the left hand side, so it didn't help from then on. I don't know what he was doing. We had a lot of blue flags as we approached the hair pin and I rolled to the inside, giving him plenty of space so he knew I was there, but when we got to the apex he tried to hit it; I don't know what was going on with that. There were some positives from today, but it would have been nicer to have finished a bit further up the road."

Christian Horner, Sporting Director: "To win in Montreal is a fantastic result for the team. Having come so close two years ago, to win in the dominant fashion that we did today was a tremendous performance, despite a couple of heart stopping moments, particularly when Seb touched the wall. He was totally commanding today and thoroughly deserved the victory. It was a shame for Mark that his race was compromised by van der Garde, who just seemed to shut the door on him for no reason damaging the front wing. But, despite that damage Mark did a tremendous job to still finish fourth."

Thierry Salvi, Renault: "A very classy performance from Sebastian today, but it wasn't at all easy – he was pushing all the way. Montreal is one of those circuits that highlights a good overall package and everything came together today. The potential was there for Mark to score a podium, but the incident with van der Garde cost some time. All the same getting the first win in Canada for Red Bull and the first Renault-powered win since 2006 is a great end to the weekend."

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso (2nd):

Felipe Massa (8th):

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal:

Pat Fry:

Luca di Montezemolo:

McLaren-Mercedes

Sergio Perez (11th): "This wasn't the race we were hoping to have. We tried our best to try and score a few points, but it was impossible to do any better than we did out there today. It's a pity, because the car felt quite good during our installation laps. But the car didn't work that well on the Option tire, and we struggled to find enough grip. At Silverstone, I hope we can make a step forward. We brought some upgrades to this race, but didn't really get the running we needed to verify them. Hopefully, they'll work better at Silverstone."

Jenson Button (12th): "This wasn't the best race for us as a team. It's particularly tough because this circuit is usually very good to us. With hindsight, I think we'd have been better off starting on the Prime tire, rather than the Option. During my first stint, all the two-stoppers pitted ahead of me, then came back to overtake me, so it was a bit tricky. However, we showed today that, irrespective of strategy, we wouldn't have gone any faster. Our car tends to work better on fast and flowing circuits – such as Malaysia or China – so I'm looking forward to my home race at Silverstone at the end of the month. We tried some new parts this weekend, but they weren't really suited for this type of circuit – they should work better at Silverstone, so I'm feeling positive about the future."

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: "This was a difficult afternoon. Credit goes out to Jenson and Checo – both drivers performed brilliantly, attacking when necessary, and driving with the foresight and caution needed to look after their tires across long stints. They deserved to score points. Unfortunately, with the benefit of hindsight, we were a touch too conservative with our tire management this afternoon. The Prime turned out to be a stronger tire than we'd anticipated, and we could have exploited it for longer and further in the race than we did. The data that we've accumulated this weekend will nonetheless provide us with a useful basis from which to move forwards, and we've learned some valuable lessons this weekend. Our focus now turns to our home race at Silverstone. We'll be doing our utmost to score a better result for the many British fans who'll be supporting Vodafone McLaren Mercedes on home soil."

Lotus-Renault

Kimi Raikkonen (9th): "My race didn't start very well and then my brakes were fading with the pedal going soft; similar to the problem we had on Friday. It wasn't ideal but at least the brakes were good enough to slow me down for the corners. Unfortunately though it meant I lost a lot of time and wasn't able to attack, plus we lost a few seconds in the pit stop which obviously didn't help either. Most of my race was just following the cars in front and defending from those behind, so not the most enjoyable day nor the most enjoyable result. It's been a bad weekend, but at least we scored a few points."

Romain Grosjean (13th): "It was always going to be a tough race coming from the back, but it's still disappointing to miss out on the points. Things were looking good until we switched to the option tires, but they dropped off far quicker than we expected which forced us to stop again. Sadly that effectively put an end to our race as by that time there was no way back. After a promising start on Friday it's not been the best weekend, but we had good pace last year at Silverstone so we'll come back looking to put things right."

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: "Today was certainly character building. On the plus side, Romain drove a measured and mature race through the field and should have finished in the points had we not had to make a second stop, which wasn't to our original plan. Kimi had a frustrating day, but still scored some points. We couldn't show the pace we wanted this weekend and will be all the more focused when we get to Silverstone as we are obviously very keen to get our championship challenge back on track."

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: "We clearly haven't been quick enough all weekend and we'll go back to Enstone to analyze why. We'll then react to those conclusions and hopefully get ourselves back up to where we want to be, which is fighting for podiums and wins. We have an aero test before Silverstone, a new bodywork package and other tweaks to come so there is plenty of potential to improve. We simply weren't quick enough this weekend."

Riccardo Penteado, Engine Support Leader: "That was a race to the finish, in many respects. Every lap we were changing settings to try to give an extra advantage over the competition, particularly from the starting positions we were in. The change in weather conditions changed fuel consumption so we had to play with that, plus we had to control the temperatures throughout the race as we were in traffic every lap. Getting P9 for Kimi keeps the points going, but we hope we can return to the front at the next race in Silverstone."

Mercedes GP

Lewis Hamilton (3rd): "The car felt fantastic today and I had good grip for the low-speed corners but we just weren't quite on the pace of Seb and Fernando. I was on the maximum that I could possibly drive and we got absolutely everything out of the car today. It would have been nice to have kept second place of course but Fernando was very quick today and it was difficult to keep him behind. I got close to taking the place back but he was just that little bit too fast. Still I'm very pleased with third place and it was a strong points-scoring day for the team with Nico's fifth place as well. We've taken a step up in the Constructors' Championship which is great for the team and gives us a nice boost going into Silverstone."

Nico Rosberg (5th): "I think fifth place was probably my optimum today and, even if my race had gone perfectly, I wasn't able to match the pace of the guys in front. The guys had a difficult decision to make at the first stop: we were worried about the warm-up of the harder tires, so we went for the option to protect my track position against Webber and Alonso, but in hindsight it would probably have been better to go the other way because I could have run a longer second stint. I scored some good points and we know that there are areas where we can still improve our performance. But looking back to where we were a month ago, we have made some good steps forward, and it was great for Lewis to be on the podium again. We are heading in the right direction and looking forward to the next race at Silverstone, in front of our team-mates from Brackley and Brixworth."

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: "It has been rare in recent seasons to have backmarkers become such a factor in a race as they were today. They played a decisive role in the final result but getting through traffic is one of the challenges that you have to tackle in Formula One. The car performed reasonably well but we still had some anxiety about the tire performance in the high temperatures, so we were managing the situation carefully, particularly in the opening laps of the stints. Lewis drove a very strong race although it was a shame that he could not quite hold on to second position in the closing laps. However, that wasn't down to him but rather the fact that we still need to find a little more performance from our car to compete with Ferrari and Red Bull. Nico had a reasonably quiet race after a strong first stint and we will have to analyze if we could have made more of the car's performance today with him. We called him in for a third stop as a precaution, because he had flat-spotted badly the right-front tire badly and we had nothing to gain or lose in terms of track position. Overall, a positive afternoon and another strong two-car finish that is important for our position in the Constructors' Championship."

Toto Wolff, Mercedes Motorsport Director: "Lewis and Nico did a great job on track today and it was nice to see Lewis on the podium again. He tried to hold off Fernando towards the end of the race but the Ferrari was just too quick today. Nico dropped back on the option tire and our strategy didn't quite come to him this afternoon unfortunately. Looking ahead, we know that we need to keep bringing performance to the car and that Silverstone will be a bigger test for our tire management. But it's the second race in a row that we have had both cars in the top five and that is building a good platform in the championship. Well done, too, to Sebastian and Red Bull today: they didn't put a foot wrong all afternoon."

Sauber-Ferrari

Esteban Gutierrez (20th, Accident): "For the entire race the car was difficult to drive, and I was always pushing to the limit. Right from the start everyone was closing in. The first set of tires was difficult to drive on and a one stop would have been impossible. When I came out from my second pit stop into the fist corner, I went over one of the bumps, the front locked up and I couldn't stop."

Nico Hulkenberg (DNF, Damage): "It's disappointing to finish a race like this. Lapping can be troublesome, but these guys are racing too and have things happenings in the race, the same as us. I lapped Giedo van der Garde and braked. At first I didn't feel anything until I came out of the corner and realized the car wasn't going straight, so we decided to stop. Even after we lost positions at the start of the race, we didn't really have the pace today. I was fighting for 14th and couldn't do much more. Of course this is not an ideal way to end a race, but in the end we wouldn't have gained much more."

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "This is a weekend to forget. We knew this track wouldn't really suit our car. If you have weaknesses on the car in addition to a track that doesn't suit you, then it's twice as hard. We have a lot of work to do."

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: "The circuit's characteristics were going to make it a hard day for our car. Ultimately it was a double DNF, which is very disappointing. On the strategy side we attempted a one stop with Esteban and a two stop with Nico, which was the base strategy today. But ultimately the tire degradation and wear were too high for Esteban, so we had to convert to a two stopper late in the race and unfortunately he had the incident exiting the pits. Looking forward to Silverstone, that's a track that should suit us better. We have to make sure to get the maximum out of our car."

Force India-Mercedes

Paul di Resta (7th): "To finish the race in seventh having started 17th is a great result and a top job by the team. I didn't manage to get any long run data on Friday so it feels extra sweet to make this one-stop strategy work with a very long stint on the mediums. It also feels good to come back so strong after a difficult qualifying session. The tires lasted very well, the lap times were competitive and the team told me it was my decision about when to make my stop. As soon as I felt the tires starting to drop off, I came in. Then it was a case of looking after the supersofts for the final few laps."

Adrian Sutil (10th): "That race was quite an adventure so it's good to come away with a point given everything that happened. I had a spin when I tried to overtake Bottas, which cost me quite a few positions and I was lucky nobody hit me when I was in the middle of the track. I dropped back and the pack was bunched together, which is when Maldonado ran into the back of me and damaged my rear wing. Even with all those things I was running in eighth until the drive-through penalty. I don't think it was a fair penalty because I too had to lap so many cars today and it sometimes took one or two laps, and that's normal for this circuit. The penalty cost me two positions and three points."

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "It's great to see both our cars in the points at our 100th Grand Prix. It brings our tally to 51 points and strengthens our fifth position in the championship. Paul showed his fighting spirit with a remarkable drive to seventh with just one stop. The car had great pace and he looked after his medium compound tires extremely well. I don't think anybody thought there were 56 laps in those tires but he pulled it out of the bag. Adrian's afternoon was rather more eventful, but it was a disappointment to pick up the penalty in the closing laps so it's something we need to review. Overall I think we should be pleased with the outcome after a challenging weekend. The car remains competitive and we can hopefully carry our form into our local race at Silverstone at the end of the month."

Williams-Renault

Valtteri Bottas (14th): "We fought hard to try and secure some points today but ultimately we just didn't have the pace in the car. I didn't get a great start which allowed a few cars to jump me on the first lap, and in the dry conditions we simply couldn't match the level of competitiveness we showed yesterday. The tire wear in the first stint was also high which made it tough to stay in the top ten. Nevertheless I feel like I have learnt a lot from the race today and as a team we can take positives from the weekend. Hopefully we can continue to make progress and have a stronger race at Silverstone with the home crowd cheering us on."

Pastor Maldonado (16th): "We were expecting a better result today in the race. We knew we didn't have the top speed to challenge at the front, but we struggled for pace right from the beginning of the race. The car felt better in the wet conditions compared to the dry hot weather we saw today so we need to understand why. After the good result with Valtteri yesterday, it was a tough weekend for us to end with neither car in the points. There are now three weeks until the next race so we need to keep working to improve our overall race performance."

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: "We knew Vattern’s grid position was not representative of our current pace, but we had hoped to be able to challenge for some points. The tire degradation was quite high on the supersoft tires though and we lost time in the first stint with both cars, which compromised our race. The medium tire was working better which allowed us to do longer middle stints, but we weren't able to gain an advantage on anyone around us. Pastor was also compromised by a drive-through penalty but then pushed hard to close the gap, finishing 16th..Valtteri drove a solid race without making any mistakes, but ultimately the pace wasn't in the car to enable him to hold a top ten position today. We need to keep the momentum going following our qualifying performance to keep working hard to improve ahead of our home race at Silverstone."

Laurent Debout, Renault: "There have been a lot of signs of improvement here this weekend so it's a shame that we could not convert them into points. All the same third on the grid yesterday was a good confidence booster for everyone and something to take forward to the team's home race in three weeks' time."

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Jean-Eric Vergne (6th): "Incredible! I'm very happy. The best result for me of course, but also the highest finishing position since Vettel's results for the team in 2008. It is even more satisfying, because it was a normal race in the dry, with no one going out in front of me so we achieved this position fair and square. It's a great result for the team as we are making progress race by race and it's very encouraging for the rest of the season. It wasn't too complicated, because we had the pace to maintain that position, although we did not have the speed of those ahead. I passed Bottas and Raikkonen and from then I managed my race, keeping an eye on Sutil who was behind me for much of the time. That meant I could never ease up until the flag. After finishing eighth in Monaco, this result on another difficult track has boosted my confidence and I feel I have progressed as a driver. We must continue to push hard on the development of the car, starting with the next race at Silverstone, so that we can aim even higher than this."

Daniel Ricciardo (15th): "I got a really good start, making up two positions off the line and then I was on the outside for Turn 2, which meant Hulkenberg took me back. When he ran wide at the chicane, I was ahead of him again and I gained another place when Sutil went off. At that point, I felt we could have a good race, but after just four laps, the car was oversteering like crazy and I couldn't manage the tires anymore. As the race went on, we tried to improve the car balance and maybe we improved it a bit, but our pace was really slow. We didn't change so much on the car since Friday, so why we were so slow is a mystery to me at the moment."

Franz Tost, Team Principal: "Jean-Eric's sixth place is a fantastic result for him, the team here in Canada and everyone who works so hard behind the scenes in Faenza and Bicester. This is our best result since Daniel finished seventh in China and it is Jev's best ever F1 finish position. Our car has been making steady progress over the last few races and that was confirmed yesterday, when despite the difficult conditions, we got both our cars into the top ten on the grid, even if Daniel then had to drop one place. Jev did a great job to keep his concentration on this difficult track, just as he did when he finished in the points in Monaco a fortnight ago and here, he also managed his tires very well, which meant that once he had secured sixth place, he was able to keep it all the way to the flag. Daniel has had a tougher weekend and quite quickly in today's race, he suffered a lack of grip at the rear and found the car unstable over the curbs. But he can fight back from this disappointment and I expect both our drivers to challenge for points again in Silverstone in two weeks time."

Caterham-Renault

Charles Pic (18th):

Giedo van der Garde (DNF, Damage):

Tony Fernandes:

Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer:

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal:

Thierry Salvi, Renault:

Marussia-Cosworth

Jules Bianchi (17th): "It was good to be able to enjoy a dry race today because we were back on the pace we were showing earlier in the weekend in similar conditions. It was a little bit daunting to know we were planning a one stop strategy and would have to go so long on the Medium tire, but my engineers and I kept in close contact and worked together to ensure we could manage the tire life as we needed to. Although we had to be quite careful, in the end we got to 40 laps no problem, although it was good to switch to the Supersoft and be able to secure position. I think the result is quite pleasing and we are back where we need to be in terms of the competition. We hope for good things from our next step in Silverstone, where we will be aiming for a good performance in an important race for the Team."

Max Chilton (19th): "We got a good start but struggled on the first lap, then after a few laps we were able to see that our strategy was going to play out well for us. We started on the Medium tire and ran long for just under 40 laps. I was quite pleased with how well we were managing the tires even late on in that stint, so a good job from my engineers who were working with me to achieve that, enabling me to still be able to push hard on the last few laps before we pitted for the Supersoft. The early part of the second stint worked well but later on I was struggling with the tire wear and I wasn't able to defend my position from Pic. It was good to add to our tally of two-car finishes though and we can feel optimistic as we head towards a very important race for the Team and for me – our home race, the British Grand Prix."

John Booth, Team Principal: "It was quite a tough morning for the engineers who were working with less data than we would normally have collected on the dry tires over the course of the weekend here. Determining our starting tire and overall strategy was always going to be tough. The opening laps of the race didn't quite go as planned and we lost ground on the prime tire, which suffered with warm-up. At this point it did feel like perhaps we hadn't started the race the right way, however both the drivers and engineers did a good job to hold their nerve and allow the much improved durability of the prime tire to show over the option tire. We never expected for this to be a particularly good race for us but we've been working hard on improving our tire wear life and we reaped the benefit of this focus with our first stint of around 40 laps. That really enabled us to gain good track position on the Caterhams. With a total of only two pit stops for the Team today we knew that each had to count and the mechanics did a fantastic job to service both cars in a quick time. Really then it was about managing the wear life on the Supersoft tire and getting both cars to the end of the race. Overall we can be pleased that we have made progress at what has traditionally been a less than favorable circuit for our cars. We leave Canada pleased and in good spirits as we prepare for our home Grand Prix in three weeks' time."

Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Behind
1.	Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1h32:09.143
2.	Alonso	Ferrari	+14.408
3.	Hamilton	Mercedes	+15.942
4.	Webber	Red Bull-Renault	+25.731
5.	Rosberg	Mercedes	+1:09.725
6.	Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	+1 lap
7.	Di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	+1 lap
8.	Massa	Ferrari	+1 lap
9.	Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	+1 lap
10.	Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	+1 lap
11.	Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	+1 lap
12.	Button	McLaren-Mercedes	+1 lap
13.	Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	+1 lap
14.	Bottas	Williams-Renault	+1 lap
15.	Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	+2 laps
16.	Maldonado	Williams-Renault	+2 laps
17.	Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	+2 laps
18.	Pic	Caterham-Renault	+2 laps
19.	Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	+3 laps
20.	Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	+7 laps
DNF	Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	on Lap 46
DNF	van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	on Lap 44