Lewis Hamilton wins big at Canadian Grand Prix

Coming in first at Gilles Villeneuve, the Mercedes star significantly narrowed the gap on the points table, as rival Sebastian Vettel finished fourth.

Before the race, Hamilton was 25 points behind the Ferrari driver at the top of the standings. However, with his sixth career win in Canada, the British star is now just 12 points behind Vettel. While Hamilton controlled the race throughout, the German star struggled throughout the race after a poor start.

Hamilton narrowed the gap with Vettel to just 12 points after seven races. Photo: Reuters.

Hamilton was even more excited about the important victory, which happened on his favorite track. "My first win and my first pole position were both in Montreal. After 10 years, I achieved the same result again. It was an extremely memorable experience," he said.

After claiming the top two positions, Hamilton and Vettel were expected to have a fierce race as usual. However, the race quickly changed direction right from the start. Hamilton comfortably held the lead at the start, but Vettel soon fell behind when Max Verstappen miraculously surged past Valtteri Bottas and the two Ferraris to take second place at Turn 1. Vettel's SF70H not only dropped to fourth, but also suffered front wing damage after colliding with the Dutchman's RB13. Meanwhile, Raikkonen dropped to sixth, behind Daniel Ricciardo.

The strong winds in Montreal this time have seriously affected the aerodynamic stability of the cars. A damaged front wing in the strong winds has made Vettel's problems even worse. Then the collision on the start between Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) and Felipe Massa (Williams) led to the safety car being deployed early on lap one.

Vettel had to pit early for repairs after suffering a damaged front wing. With another pit stop later for tyres, the Ferrari driver was significantly slowed down on the track.

The safety car appeared on the track for four laps before withdrawing on lap five. At this point, Ferrari called Vettel into the pits to replace his front wing and switch to super soft tyres. Ferrari explained that the reason for not replacing the wing while the safety car was on the track was because the group of cars were running slowly behind the safety car, and Vettel did not notice the slight damage to his front wing.

When Vettel returned, he had dropped to 18th and was 30 seconds behind Hamilton. Ferrari now had a mountain of obstacles to overcome to get the German back to the top. The Italian team's plan was for Vettel to try to keep the super soft tyres until the end of the race to keep his hopes of returning to the top three.

Meanwhile, Verstappen tried to chase Hamilton's lead in order to overtake his senior. Although the gap gradually widened to nearly three seconds, the British star was still wary of his junior driver. However, by lap 11, Hamilton was suddenly relieved of the burden when Verstappen had to retire due to engine problems on the RB13. At this point, the British star was completely at ease leading until the end of the race, with only his teammate Bottas behind.

Down below, Vettel was constantly battling the midfield cars to find his way back to the front. By lap 15, the German had climbed to 13th. By lap 30, with most of the cars up front having pitted, Vettel had jumped to seventh, just behind teammate Raikkonen. Ahead of the Ferrari duo were the Force India drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, and Ricciardo and Bottas.

On lap 49, Ferrari had to call Vettel back to the pits and switch to ultra-soft tyres, even though there were still more than 20 laps to go. When he returned to the track, the SF70H was still behind his teammate Raikkonen, who had also pitted for tyres a few laps earlier. With the advantage of the new tyres, Vettel continued to set fast-laps and soon caught up with his teammate.

Vettel returned to sixth place on lap 61, easily passing Raikkonen, who was having trouble with his brakes. The Force India duo were now battling it out in front of Vettel. On lap 66, Vettel beat Ocon. The two Force Indians were so engrossed in their rivalry that the Ferrari driver took advantage of the opportunity to pass. Vettel's risky overtake sent Ocon flying off the edge, dropping him to sixth.

A late effort saw Vettel overtake two Force Indiana rivals, but he finished fourth and was hot on the back of the head on the drivers' leaderboard with Hamilton breathing down his neck.

By the penultimate lap, it was Perez’s turn to be defeated by Vettel. This time the overtake was easy as the SF70H swerved to the inside at the end of the straight. Fourth place was now a struggle, with Vettel holding a gap of over a second to Ricciardo in third. Still, the 12 points helped Vettel minimize his losses in a race that started with a series of nightmares.

Canadian Grand Prix Results

+) Fastest lap:1 minute 14.551 seconds by Lewis Hamilton(Mercedes) set on lap 64.

Drivers' standings after seven stages

Scoreboard of the unitsohrace after seven stages

According to VNE