Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari were denied a first victory of the 2019 Formula 1 season following a five-second time penalty for forcing a driver off track. This handed the Canadian Grand Prix victory to rival Lewis Hamilton.
Vettel led the majority of the race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve but was demoted to second position by a penalty picked up after running wide at the first chicane and almost colliding with Hamilton as he rejoined.
That handed Hamilton his fifth win of the season and maintained Mercedes’ perfect winning record after seven races.
Vettel had a big enough advantage to hold on to second position, as Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc completed the podium.
Ferrari was in contention to end its winless start to the season after Vettel kept Hamilton at bay through the opening stint, then came under increasing pressure in the second half of the race.
Hamilton dropped to almost five seconds behind Vettel of extending his first stint by a couple of laps, but had stronger pace on the hard tyres and quickly caught the Ferrari.
In nine laps he reduced Vettel’s lead and moved within DRS range, then briefly fell out of it again after a lock-up at the hairpin.
But the two started lap 48 of the 70 Hamilton was closer to Vettel again, and Vettel took to the grass at the first chicane after briefly losing the rear of his car on corner entry.
Vettel took a trip over the grass and rejoined just as Hamilton tried to move into the gap between the scrambling Ferrari and the wall on the exit of the corner.
Hamilton backed out to avoid a collision and Vettel maintained his lead, but was punished after a lengthy investigation by the race stewards.
Vettel never came close to building a big enough gap to cancel out the penalty and complained over the race that the officials were “stealing the race” from Ferrari.
Hamilton finished 1.4 seconds behind at the flag, which became a 3.6 seconds winning margin and extended his points lead to 29 points – after a pre-race scare when his team rushed to replace his car’s hydraulics system.
Leclerc ended up one second behind Vettel in the final race results, with Ferrari’s first double podium finish of the season scant consolation for the Italian team.
Valtteri Bottas was left a distant fourth place as a Mercedes driver finished off the podium for the first time in 2019.
Bottas only qualified sixth and fell behind the second Renault of Nico Hulkenberg on lap one, then struggled to make progress on medium tyres with his immediate rivals on softs.
He eventually worked his way through to fourth and picked up a bonus point for fastest lap after building up a big enough gap for a free second pitstop near the end.
Max Verstappen recovered to fifth place after starting ninth, running a long first stint on hard tyres before passing the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Hulkenberg after switching to mediums at the end.
Ricciardo withstood a late assault from Hulkenberg to finish sixth, with Pierre Gasly only eighth for Red Bull despite starting fifth – having lost ground in traffic after an early pitstop.
Lance Stroll fought through to ninth and banked two points in his home grand prix, despite his Racing Point being fitted with an older-spec engine after a fiery failure in final practice.
Daniil Kvyat completed the point scorers for Toro Rosso.
Despite an ultra-hot day that prompted major braking and temperature problems for the teams, there were only two retirements.
Lando Norris was first to stop, suffering a peculiar failure after eight laps that left his McLaren on three wheels, while Alex Albon – who picked up wing damage at the start – retired 11 laps from the finish.
So a controversial Canadian Grand Prix, with the deserved winner was denied race victory. Sebastian Vettel feels angry with the race stewards’ decision and just heartbroken that the sport of racing has been ruined.
As for Lewis Hamilton, congratulations in winning the race for the seventh time. The Mercedes driver is now the most successful Canadian Grand Prix winner.
Canadian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 70 1h29m07.084s
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 70 3.658s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 70 4.696s
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 70 51.043s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 70 57.655s
6 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 69 1 Lap
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 69 1 Lap
8 Pierre Gasly Red Bull-Honda 69 1 Lap
9 Lance Stroll Racing Point-Mercedes 69 1 Lap
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Honda 69 1 Lap
11 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren-Renault 69 1 Lap
12 Sergio Perez Racing Point-Mercedes 69 1 Lap
13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 69 1 Lap
14 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 69 1 Lap
15 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 69 1 Lap
16 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 68 2 Laps
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 68 2 Laps
18 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 67 3 Laps
– Alexander Albon Toro Rosso-Honda 59 Retirement
– Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 8 Brakes
Drivers’ standings:
1 Lewis Hamilton 162
2 Valtteri Bottas 133
3 Sebastian Vettel 100
4 Max Verstappen 88
5 Charles Leclerc 72
6 Pierre Gasly 36
7 Carlos Sainz Jr. 18
8 Daniel Ricciardo 16
9 Kevin Magnussen 14
10 Sergio Perez 13
11 Kimi Raikkonen 13
12 Lando Norris 12
13 Nico Hulkenberg 12
14 Daniil Kvyat 10
15 Alexander Albon 7
16 Lance Stroll 6
17 Romain Grosjean 2
18 Antonio Giovinazzi 0
19 George Russell 0
20 Robert Kubica 0
Constructors’ standings:
1 Mercedes 295
2 Ferrari 172
3 Red Bull-Honda 124
4 McLaren-Renault 30
5 Renault 28
6 Racing Point-Mercedes 19
7 Toro Rosso-Honda 17
8 Haas-Ferrari 16
9 Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 13
10 Williams-Mercedes 0
Canadian Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com.
Lewis Hamilton secured a record-breaking seventh win at the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix, after a penalty for Sebastian Vettel, who finished first on the road, demoted the German to second in the standings.
A race-long battle between the pair came to a head on Lap 48 of 70 when race leader Vettel, under pressure from Hamilton, ran across the grass at the Turn 3-4 chicane, in the process squeezing Hamilton when he re-joined the track, for which the stewards later awarded a five-second race time penalty.
That meant Hamilton took a record-equalling seventh victory at the Canadian Grand Prix to match Michael Schumacher’s record in Montreal, as well as claiming his fifth win of the season to stretch his lead at the head of the drivers’ standings.
Behind, Leclerc finished third, which at least gave Ferrari their best result of the year so far, while Valtteri Bottas took fourth for Mercedes and the fastest lap bonus point after a late stop of soft tyres.
After failing to make Q3 yesterday, Max Verstappen made a 49-lap stint on hard tyres work to finish fifth for Red Bull, ahead of the Renault pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg in P6 and P7, who secured the Anglo-French team’s best result of the season.
Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly endured a frustrating race to finish P8, while a strong home race from Lance Stroll saw him finish ninth from 17th on the grid, ahead of the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat.
The 2019 Canadian Grand Prix witnessed excitement on track and off it, with a controversial incident between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton looking set to enter the pantheon of key moments in the sport. The classification will forever read Hamilton first, Vettel second… but how did we get here?
At the race start, Vettel nipped off his line well from pole position, as behind Leclerc challenged Hamilton but eventually had to hold onto his third place behind the Mercedes. Ricciardo failed to use his soft tyres to get in amongst the top three fight as he’d threatened, but held onto fourth ahead of the Red Bull of Pierre Gasly. Behind, Antonio Giovinazzi swept his Alfa Romeo in front of Alex Albon’s Toro Rosso in Turn 1, damaging the Thai driver’s front wing and forcing him in for a new one.
Further along Lap 1, Lando Norris locked up into the Turn 10 hairpin, briefly allowing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to pass him for P8, before Norris brazenly outdragged him again to nick the place back. For Norris, though, that was about as good as his afternoon got. On Lap 9, the McLaren driver crossed the finish line with his right-rear looking decidedly off-kilter. A touch with the Wall of Champions was suspected, but it ultimately looked as though his brakes had cooked the rear suspension.
Up at the front, Vettel was maintaining his lead with Hamilton in close company, Hamilton having overcome a shaky start to his day which saw Mercedes forced to bleed his brakes on the grid, having already repaired a hydraulic leak earlier in the morning.
Vettel made his medium tyres last until Lap 26, when he pitted for hards, with Hamilton aping the strategy three laps later, while Giovinazzi continued his adventurous afternoon, spinning his Alfa through Turn 2 before getting underway again.
Behind, having pitted for hards on Lap 8, Ricciardo was doing a fine job in P5, holding Valtteri Bottas behind him. Several times down the back straight, the Mercedes got a run on the Australian before the Renault jinked and forced Bottas to back off. Bottas eventually got the job done on Lap 39, but was now well off the fight at the front.
By Lap 48, Vettel appeared to be struggling on the hard tyres, and as Hamilton hounded him on the run down to Turn 3, Vettel slewed wide and ran through the grass – and the race turned on its head. Keeping the throttle down, Vettel got back on track right in the path of Hamilton, who for a moment looked as though he might be forced into the wall and had to get out of the throttle. It was a heart-stopping moment before the duelling pair got on their way again, but not before Hamilton had called foul on the radio.
The stewards decided that the incident needed closer scrutiny, and after deliberating, duly handed a five-second penalty to the leading Ferrari with 13 laps of the race left to run. 13 lap to pull that gap to Hamilton – who’d barely been three seconds away from Vettel the whole race – was too much to ask, and as they crossed the line on Lap 70, Vettel knew that he’d not done enough to hold onto the win, as Hamilton swept across the line just behind to take his fifth win of the year, and his seventh in Montreal, making it now his most successful track.
Behind, and fortunately for Vettel, Leclerc in third, by design or not, hadn’t done enough to get within five seconds of his team mate, meaning that it was the German who held onto second, with Leclerc third.
Bottas, having been held up by Ricciardo, ended up in a bit of a no-man’s land, and took advantage to pit for softs on Lap 67 and take fastest lap, before crossing the line a distant fourth. Max Verstappen made a super-long first stint work a treat for him to jump from ninth on the grid to fifth by the race end – the place where his eighth-placed team mate Pierre Gasly had started – while it was a fantastic day for Renault, with Ricciardo and Hulkenberg sixth and seventh to record the team’s best finish of the year, and their first double points since Austin 2018.
Lance Stroll drove a fantastic home race for Racing Point to jump from 17th at the start to ninth by the end – having kept Gasly behind him for much of the Grand Prix – with both he and Daniil Kvyat nipping smartly past the McLaren of Carlos Sainz in the race’s closing stages, Kvyat finishing 10th for Toro Rosso.
The drama wasn’t done when the chequered flag fell, however, a disgusted Vettel – who’d argued his case in the final laps over team radio – parking his car in the pit lane before walking to Ferrari hospitality. Having missed the immediate post-race interviews, Vettel, having been voted Driver of the Day by race fans, eventually made his way to the podium – but not before he’d put the second-placed board in front of his vacant parc ferme spot in front of Hamilton’s Mercedes…
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was left feeling furious and hits out at “blind” Canadian Grand Prix race stewards. Motorsport.com has the news story.
An angry Sebastian Vettel suggested that stewards needed to be “blind” to think he could have kept control of his car in the incident that resulted in a penalty that cost him victory in the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver was left furious at being handed a punishment for running wide at the first chicane on lap 48 and coming back in track in front of Hamilton.
The stewards felt Vettel was guilty of a wrongdoing and handed him a five-second penalty which led to him dropping behind Hamilton at the chequered flag.
Speaking on team radio after the finish, Vettel vented his fury at what happened.
“You need to be an absolute blind man to think you can go through the grass and then control the car,” he said. “I was lucky I didn’t hit the wall. Where the hell am I supposed to go?
“This is a wrong world I tell you. This is not fair.”
Team boss Mattia Binotto tried to calm Vettel down but the German was having none of it.
“I am not staying calm. This is not fair. It is not fair. I’m angry..and I have the right to be angry. I don’t care what people say.”
Vettel refused to drive his car down to the post-race holding area and stormed immediately to his team hospitality unit.
He later returned and shuffled the number one banner on to the spot where his car should have been, after moving the number two in front of Hamilton’s car, before attending the podium ceremony where he was briefly hauled on to the top step by the race winner.
Vettel later spoke on the podium but refused to be drawn too much on the incident, saying it was down to the fans to judge.
“For the rest, I think I said enough,” he explained when asked for his feelings on what happened. “You should ask the people what they think. We had a great show. Ask the people…”
When the crowd began booing at the podium and Hamilton, Vettel responded: “The people shouldn’t boo at Lewis. He saw what was going on… but people shouldn’t boo at Lewis. If anything they should boo at these funny decisions.”
Hamilton said: “All I can say, I didn’t make the decision so I don’t know what they are booing at.”
Sebastian Vettel’s anger at being told he had a five-second time penalty that cost him victory in the Canadian Grand Prix was laid bare by the team radio exchanges after he ran wide and rejoined ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Following the incident on lap 48, FIA stewards gave him the penalty for the manner in which he rejoined the circuit at Turn 4.
Here’s what was said over the Ferrari radio channel:
Engineer: “We’ve got a five-second time penalty for unsafe re-entry, head down, head down. Hamilton three seconds behind…”
Vettel: “I had nowhere to go. Seriously, I had nowhere to go. I did see him.”
Engineer: “Copy.”
Vettel: “I had to go through the grass, and you come back, he has amazing grip, where the hell am I supposed to go? I have grass on my wheels. It’s his fault if he decides to go that way. If he goes to the inside he’d have gone past me.”
Engineer: “OK, stay focused, copy that, stay focused. Ten laps to go.”
Vettel: “I am focused. But they are stealing the race from us.”
Engineer: “Copy that.”
After the race, there was more exchange over the radio…
Vettel: “You need to be an absolute blind man to think you can go through the grass and then control the car. I was lucky I didn’t hit the wall. Where the hell am I supposed to go? This is a wrong world I tell you. This is not fair.”
Team boss Mattia Binotto tried to calm Vettel down but the German was having none of it…
Vettel: “I am not staying calm. This is not fair. It is not fair. I’m angry… and I have the right to be angry. I don’t care what people say.”
Source: Motorsport.com
The 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button commented that the Sebastian Vettel penalty was “sad” and “disappointing” for F1 TV viewers. Motorsport.com has the details.
World champion-turned-TV pundit Jenson Button says the outcome of the Canadian Grand Prix, where on-the-road winner Sebastian Vettel was penalised – which handed victory to Lewis Hamilton – was a shame for Formula 1’s TV viewers and left “a sour taste”.
Button, winner of the Canadian GP in 2011 after Vettel made a last-lap error, was part of the Sky Sports F1 presenting team in Montreal. Immediately after the podium ceremony, he was asked to give his take on what had unfolded with the f ve-secondpenalty given to Vettel by stewards for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner.
“It’s sad – it’s disappointing when there’s a proper fight on out on track between two great, multiple world champions, and then the stewards are able to come in and take that away from us viewers,” Button told Sky. “It’s a shame. For me, it’s a racing incident.
“Yes, Seb made a mistake, but you’ve got to realise he’s doing over 100mph here, you can’t just stop the car and stay off the circuit. He’s had a snap, come back, and it doesn’t deserve a penalty for me, personally. I don’t think. But it’s a regulation, and they’re decided to take it.”
Button said the episode left “a sour taste” after a nail-biting race between the Ferrari and Mercedes team leaders.
“On a circuit like this, it’s so narrow, like a street circuit, these cars are massive,” he added. “You end up over that part of the circuit, you don’t chose to be there. Seb doesn’t want to crash into Lewis either. It’s a toughie, and it’s sad to see Lewis on the podium, he obviously wants to win, but not like that. He drove a stonker of a race, and pushed him into a mistake. But he couldn’t capitalise his position on the circuit, in the way that I think racing should be. Which is a shame.
“It’s a bit of a sour taste in the mouth actually, after such a great race.”
The Ferrari Formula 1 team says it has notified the FIA that it intends to appeal the penalty that cost Sebastian Vettel Canadian Grand Prix victory.
Vettel was given a five-second time penalty because the stewards judged he had rejoined the track in an unsafe manner and forced Lewis Hamilton to take evasive action after going off the road at the first chicane while leading with 22 laps to go.
Hamilton remained close enough to Vettel for the rest of the race to ensure that he picked up victory when the penalty was applied.
Ferrari is arguing that Vettel did not rejoin the track in an unsafe manner or push Hamilton off the track.
It has 96 hours to decide whether to proceed with its appeal, which will then take the matter to a hearing of the FIA’s International Court of Appeal. However, the court could then rule that the appeal is inadmissable.
In the F1 sporting regulations, in-race time penalties such as the one imposed on Vettel are among the punishments that cannot be subject to an appeal.
Source: Motorsport.com