The dust has settled on a tense Monaco Grand Prix, with the Formula One world now descending on Montreal for the Canada Grand Prix. Join The Roar for live pre-race coverage from 3:30am AEST.
Nico Rosberg walked away from Monte Carlo having regained the championship lead that he held over Lewis Hamilton until the Spanish Grand Prix.
In typical Formula One fashion, the victory came in a controversial manner after the outcome of qualifying and the aftermath of Lewis Hamilton’s initial reaction to the results coming under much scrutiny.
One team looking to continue on with results from Monaco would be Marussia. The team finally earned not only their first point but also their second, with Jules Bianchi’s eighth place finish later becoming ninth place after applying time penalties from during the race.
This put them into ninth place on the Constructors’ standings, above Sauber, while Bianchi’s teammate Max Chilton continuing his streak of classified finishes in the principality.
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo earned another podium finish for Red Bull in Monaco, while Sebastian Vettel retired with turbo problems early on in the race and will be looking to bounce back in Montreal this weekend.
Vettel has had the upper hand in the Red Bull battle early on in practice sessions, with Ricciardo close to a second behind the German in free practice on Friday.
Renault has come out and said that their power unit is now finally up to scratch. With only a second separating the top 10 during practice on Friday, the Canadian GP may be one of the season’s closest yet.
Ferrari will be looking to move up the grid from Monaco, where Fernando Alonso finished fourth, while Kimi Raikkonen failed to finish in the points due to a puncture suffered during a safety-car period while in third.
The Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve is one of the quicker circuits on the calendar, mostly filled up with straights linked up by quick chicanes. It generally throws up some exciting moments over the 70 laps of the Grand Prix.
This also means that the brakes will be one of the most hard-worked parts of the car during the race, with 17 per cent of the lap spent on the brakes over seven braking zones.
DRS zones are featured twice on the circuit – on the pit straight and the straight preceding it – which generally allows for some good battles to start and finish the lap.
Many remember the lengthened 2011 race, where Jenson Button pounced on a rare Sebastian Vettel mistake on the final lap to take victory after taking to the pitlane six times throughout the race.
Pirelli will be bringing the same tyres as they did in Monaco, the Supersoft (Red) and Soft (Yellow) compound tyres.
Sebastian Vettel utilised a two-stop strategy on his way to victory last year, although this was using the Supersoft and Medium compounds.
This year’s tyre compound has been made slightly harder, and it could be expected to see similar strategies played out in Canada this morning.
There is a 56 per cent chance of a safety car period based on previous races, and as we saw in 2011, rain can always make things that little bit more exciting.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Cheers buddy, definitely had a lot of fun doing this one! Just as memorable as Nurburgring 2009 to me
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Thanks for another awesome blog! This will be a race that we'll all surely remember.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Sorry, math errors this early in the morning for me: Ricciardo now on 79 points, not 86.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
That concludes this morning's coverage of the Canadian GP. A great race, with Daniel Ricciardo getting his maiden victory in Formula 1, with a very exciting finish. We will see you next on June 22 for F1's return to Austria. Thanks for following us here on the Roar, hope you enjoyed the race.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Paddy Lowe has spoken to Sky Sports in the paddock regarding their problems today There was a failure of the hybrid system. MGU-K failed, meaning that the Mercedes were effectively, apparently, running 160HP under its potential. Lewis separately had a brake failure that may have occurred during his last pit stop.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
OK, constructors standings Mercedes 258 Red Bull 146 Ferrari 87 Force India 77 McLaren 66 Williams 58 Toro Rosso 12 Lotus 8 Marussia 2
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Before I update the Constructors' standings, both Massa and Perez have been taken to the Medical Centre. Both teams are saying that they are effectively fine, but it's believed the 'G meter' was set off, meaning that they have been effectively forced to be checked out.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
So, here are the updated Drivers' Championship standings: Rosberg 140 Hamilton 118 Ricciardo 86 Alonso 69 Vettel 60 Hulkenberg 57 Button 43 Bottas 40 Magnussen 23 Perez 20 Raikkonen 18 Massa 18 Grosjean 8 Vergne 8 Kvyat 4 Bianchi 2
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Rosberg seems to be most ruing his second pitstop, where he lost out time to Hamilton. Vettel says that they were able to capitalise, and that even though it was tough to pass, it's an overall great day with Ricciardo's first win, Renault's first win of the season, and both RBR's on the podium.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
1995 Winner Jean Alesi, another driver to win their maiden GP at Montreal, interviews the drivers. Alesi gets straight to the point, "Great race." "The race really came to life in the last 15-20 laps. I was really struggling to get past Perez... An amazing feeling right now, I'm really grateful this."
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Ricciardo showered immediately by Rosberg and Vettel with champagne, as Vettel celebrates with Ricciardo. They seem to get along a lot better than Seb did with Webber by the looks of it. Although, it is early days.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
AUTOSPORT: Radio replays reveal that Ricciardo asked how Perez and Massa were before he felt he could celebrate. On that note, great to see that both drivers are OK after their shunt.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Ricciardo's face is of course, all smiles in the green room, and he looks like he can't quite believe what has just happened. One of Rosberg's first words was "Hamilton DNF" as he walked in. Vettel comments to Daniel and Nico that there was some great passing in that race, and it's quite hard not to agree with him.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Lap 70 Mercedes run of victories is over, but Rosberg was still able to get onto the podium, and extend his championship lead. The story is though, that Daniel Ricciardo earns his maiden victory in Montreal, with a great drive from 6th on the grid.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Lap 70 Ricciardo, Rosberg and Vettel are the top 3 in Montreal. Button, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Bottas, Vergne, Magnussen and Raikkonen end off the points positions. Perez, Massa and Sutil close out the 'classified finishes'
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Lap 69 Vettel gets past Perez for third, but Massa makes a bold move into turn 1 on Perez as well, and cleans up the back of Massa, and ruins what was a great race from both drivers. The safety car comes out, which means we will finish the race under the Safety Car, and Australia's Daniel Ricciardo will get his first victory. Advance Australia Fair will ring out in Montreal!
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Lap 68 RIC ROS PER VET MAS HUL ALO BUT BOT VER RIcciardo gets past Rosberg into the final chicane! Daniel may just get his first victory, but there is still 2 laps remaining
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Lap 67 ROS RIC PER VET MAS HUL ALO BUT BOT VER "I don't have rear brakes. What else can I do?" Perez told to get up to Ricciardo and get DRS, but Perez replies saying he is doing all he can. He is now 2 seconds behind, while Ricciardo is within a second of Rosberg. Gutierrez retires from the race.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Lap 66 ROS RIC PER VET MAS HUL ALO BUT BOT VER Ricciardo ducks past Perez up the inside of the first corner, and he is not off in the distance. Perez now backing up Vettel and Massa. Ricciardo is 1.2 seconds behind Rosberg with just 4 laps to go!
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Lap 64 ROS PER RIC VET MAS HUL ALO BOT BUT VER Massa twitches coming out of the hairpin, and gets alongside Vettel, despite forgetting to switch on his DRS, but Vettel holds off.