2014 Canadian Grand Prix: Ricciardo ends Mercedes' dominance

The seventh round of the Formula OneWorld Championship saw the teams cross the Atlantic for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Montreal always tends to throw an exciting race our way, and it was the weary-eyed Australian fans that will be left celebrating after the race.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo may have qualified in sixth on Saturday in his Red Bull RB10, but it was Advance Australia Fair that rang out through Île Notre-Dame on Sunday.

Ricciardo was able to capitalise the most on Mercedes’ problems throughout the race, and put up some great moves in the closing stages to snatch victory from Nico Rosberg.

Early on in the final stint, Sebastian Vettel, who also finished on the podium for Red Bull in third, was being told that he may have the upper hand in the closing stages due to Ricciardo’s tyre wear, although that turned out not to be the case.

Ricciardo put in a solid drive, and made a bold move on Sergio Perez’ Force India into turn one, just as the rest of the leading pack were starting to get held up and let Rosberg go off slowly into the distance.

He then got past Rosberg into the final chicane with two laps remaining, and a last lap shunt between Felipe Massa and Perez brought out a premature end to the race, with the Australian taking the chequered flag.

Other than Lewis Hamilton’s failure in Melbourne, the Mercedes’ power units had run faultlessly all season, allowing them to romp away to first and second finishes in every race following Melbourne.

However, a failure in their MGU-K systems saw them lose power from their second stints onwards, with a further brake problem forcing Hamilton to retire from the race. Rosberg was able to hold on to finish second, which extends his championship lead to 22 points, much more than it was expected to before the weekend.

With the Red Bull Ring in Austria featuring several heavy-breaking points, Mercedes will be making sure that they don’t have the same problems there. Hamilton and Rosberg were fighting tooth and nail again for the lead, with Hamilton getting the upper hand just before his brake failure.

There was conjecture about whether Rosberg had gained an advantage by cutting the final chicane after locking up, which allowed him to get out of the grasp of Hamilton with DRS. It also saw him record the fastest lap of the race at the time.

Earlier in the race, when Mercedes were first showing problems, Massa and Perez seemed to be in the box seat to challenge for victory.

However, Massa was held up in the midfield pack following his final pit stop, and Perez was struggling in the middle sector. At the end of the race, they were battling for fourth and fifth, before an incident between the two brought a premature end to the race.

Perez was one-stopping, having started from 13th, and the Mexican put in another great drive. Massa looked to be attempting a reversed strategy, one-stopping after starting on Supersoft option tyres, before pitting a second time later in the race.

A big story out of the Monaco GP was Marussia’s first points, with Jules Bianchi’s ninth place finish, and Max Chilton extending his streak of classified finishes.

However, just four turns into the Canadian GP, both Marussias were out of the race, with Chilton sliding out into Bianchi, ending both of their races and his 25-race streak of classified finishes.

The next Grand Prix sees the return of Formula One to Austria, with the revamped Red Bull Ring, formerly known as the A1 Ring, hosting their first race since 2003.