A combination of outright pace and tyre strategy has handed Lewis Hamilton victory for McLaren at the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix. Of course, that makes it seven different race winners from seven races so far this season.
At the start of the race pole sitter Sebastian Vettel made a clean get away in his Red Bull. He was able to build relatively comfortable lead on Hamilton and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. But by the time the first round of pit stops came the top three had bunched up again.
Vettel made the first move, followed the next lap by Hamilton. McLaren has been poor in the pits this year, by F1 standards, but they did enough to get him back out ahead of Vettel. However, it was Fernando Alonso who emerged in the lead after being the last of the leading trio to pit.
Hamilton was soon able to take the race lead away from his former teammate and the race appeared to settle into a predictable pattern; a two-stop strategy was the expected way forward.
Speaking on the radio Hamilton asked for confirmation if his rivals were definitely going to stop again for tyres. He received a positive reply and subsequently came in for new rubber. Immediately Hamilton was quick, but the signs from Alonso, now in the lead, and Vettel indicated they were trying to run to the flag without a further stop.
A few moments of frustration for Hamilton would have fast disappeared when it emerged he had the pace to catch and pass the leaders. The tyre drop off for Vettel meant he had no hope of defending the Briton and as soon as he lost P2 to Hamilton he came in for a belated tyre change.
It wasn’t long before Hamilton repeated the dose on Alonso; the Ferrari man had left it too late and had to stay out until the end of the race. His tyres were now virtually useless and not only did Alonso lose out to eventual surprise podium winners Romain Grosjean (Lotus, P2) and Sergio Perez (Sauber, P3), but Vettel also had the pace to overtake the Ferrari on the second last lap.
It’s worth noting that both Grosjean and Perez did manage to complete the race using a one-stop tyre strategy.
Mark Webber (Red Bull, P7) was unable to make the most of his two-stop strategy and would be disappointed to finish where he did after maintaining touching distance with the leaders in the first stint.
Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso, P14) finished ahead of his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne (P15).
Special mention to Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG) for adding his name once again to the F1 history books. We believe he is the first man forced to retire from a race due to his DRS wing staying open.
And so it was Hamilton who won the tyre battle and took the chequered flag for the third time in Montreal. Despite cutting a forlorn figure in the McLaren garage at times this year, Hamilton now leads the drivers’ championship.
The amazing run of individual winners continues and who would bet against it becoming eight from eight when the teams head to Valencia for the European Grand Prix in a couple of weeks.
