Sebastian Vettel dominated from the first lap to take his third win of the season at the Canadian GP. Vettel clinched his 50^th career win and took over the top spot in the drivers’ championship. Valtteri Bottas claimed second spot as Max Verstappen closed in on the Mercedes driver in the last laps. The only blip on Vettel’s horizon happened when the chequered flag was waved one lap early.

Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth, as he held off Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps. Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon, and Charles Leclerc rounded off the top 10 positions.

Sebastian Vettel Wins In Canada And Takes Championship Lead

The race started under clear skies with air temperature at 23 degrees C and track temperatures at 33 degrees C at the Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit. Sebastian Vettel started from pole position. Valtteri Bottas joined him on the first row.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were on the second row. Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo lined up on the third row. Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez lined up at the front of the grid.

Ferrari and Mercedes drivers started on the ultrasoft tyres. The Red Bull Racing drivers started on the softer hypersoft tyres. Romain Grosjean and Pierre Gasly started at the back of the grid.

The Start

Vettel had a comfortable start and led into turn 1. Ricciardo got ahead of Raikkonen for P5. Ocon overtook Hulkenberg for P7. But behind the leaders, Lance Stroll and Brendon Hartley had a big crash and the Safety Car (SC) came out until lap 4.

On the restart, Vettel led the way. Perez and Sainz had a racing incident that saw Perez run wide and drop down the grid. On lap 10, the order was Vettel, Bottas, Verstappen, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Leclerc, and Alonso.

First Pitstops

On lap 12, Ocon was the first driver to pit and rejoined in P15. Between lap 14 to 17, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Hamilton, and Verstappen made their pitstops. On lap 18, Ricciardo made his pitstop and came out ahead of Hamilton for P4.

On lap 33, the first of the top drivers who had not pitted Raikkonen made his first pitstop. The Finn rejoined behind Hamilton in P6. On lap 37, Bottas and then Vettel made their first pitstop. All the frontrunners were on the supersoft tyres now.

At the end of the first pitstops, the order was Vettel, Bottas, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Ocon, Alonso and Leclerc.

Fernando Alonso Retires From The Race

Alonso’s 300^th Grand Prix ended with a DNF. On lap 42, the two-time world champion was running in the points when an exhaust problem ended his race.

Bottas closed the gap to Vettel to 3 seconds, but a mistake when clearing traffic saw the gap extend to over 7 seconds. Verstappen closed in on Bottas in the final laps. Hamilton was within DRS range of Ricciardo, but could not overtake the Australian.

Vettel Clinches a Dominant Win

Vettel comfortably coasted to his third win of the season. After the German won the first two races, he had to wait until the seventh race to win again. As Hamilton finished fifth, Vettel overtook him in the drivers’ championship and took the lead by one point.

It was a processional race without any dramatic moves. Vettel is back on top with this dominant win. The Mercedes stranglehold in Canada was broken. This was the first win for Ferrari at this race, since 2004.

The season will resume with the returning French GP in two weeks time. This highly competitive and intriguing season with form swings between the teams continues.

RACE RESULTS:

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