Formula One makes its annual sojourn across the Atlantic for the Canadian Grand Prix, as the championship race continues to intensify between Ferrari and Mercedes AMG. Join The Roar for a live blog of the race, starting from 4am AEST.
Sebastian Vettel’s victory in Monaco allowed the German to stretch his lead in the standings out to 25-points, being the equivalent of a race win.
The second placed Lewis Hamilton, who trails the Ferrari driver will look to turn his fortunes around at a circuit at which he’s won an astonishing five races at.
Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has seen the fabled Scuderia win 13 grand prix, of which one was taken by the track’s namesake in 1978.
At 4.3km in length, the circuit is not the longest on the calendar, though one of the most challenging – with it’s hard braking zones and the dreaded ‘Wall of Champions’ at Turn 14.
Horsepower is in vogue here, with the long straights set to see intense drag races between the Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari powered teams, whilst Renault and Honda are to struggle.
The 70-laps to be contested are often an endurance contest for the drivers, with weather always wreaking havoc on the race, as seen in 2011 with the longest grand prix to date.
2014’s hot conditions in contrast saw the dominant Mercedes AMG struggle with their brakes, ultimately seeing Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo capitalise for his maiden win.
The Master of Montreal in Hamilton put his Silver Arrow on pole position for the sixth time here, claiming his 65th career pole and matching the record of the great Ayrton Senna.
Vettel in the end came close, though not enough ultimately to take pole and second was the order for the day.
By no means are the two Finns in Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen are out of the contest yet either from third and fourth. A strategy contest looms, as the drivers will negotiate between the ultrasoft, supersoft and soft tyres for the race.
Red Bull in fifth and sixth are the best of the rest, with Max Verstappen leading Ricciardo. Though they’ll be expecting a heated battle with the midfield.
Fernando Alonso in his return to Formula One qualifies twelfth for McLaren, whilst Canadian rookie Lance Stroll as seventeenth in his Williams.
Montreal has always thrown up a humdinger when Formula One hits town and 2017 should be no different.
Tune into The Roar for live blog coverage on Monday morning from 4am of the Canadian Grand Prix.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
That's a wrap then for this live blog of the Canadian F1 Grand Prix. Thanks for tuning in at this early hour and The Roar will return in a fortnight's time for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Have a good day!
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
-------- DRIVER'S -------- 141 - Sebastian Vettel 129 - Lewis Hamilton 93 -- Valtteri Bottas 73 -- Kimi Räikkönen 67 -- Daniel Ricciardo 45 -- Max Verstappen 44 -- Sergio Perez 27 -- Esteban Ocon 25 -- Carlos Sainz 20 -- Felipe Massa 18 -- Nico Hulkenberg 10 -- Romain Grosjean 5 --- Kevin Magnussen 4 --- Pascal Wehrlein 4 --- Daniil Kvyat 2 --- Lance Stroll 0 --- Jolyon Palmer 0 --- Marcus Ericsson 0 --- Fernando Alonso 0 --- Antonio Giovinazzi 0 --- Stoffel Vandoorne 0 --- Jenson Button
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
----- CONSTRUCTOR'S ----- 222 - Mercedes AMG 214 - Scuderia Ferrari 112 - Red Bull Racing 71 -- Force India Mercedes 29 -- Scuderia Toro Rosso 22 -- Williams Mercedes 18 -- Renault Sport 15 -- Haas Ferrari 4 --- Sauber Ferrari 0 --- McLaren Honda
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
RACE REPORT After equalling his hero Ayrton Senna’s qualifying record on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton took the honours too on Sunday, claiming his sixth win at the Canadian Grand Prix with a commanding victory. The Brit stayed clear of the chaos that embroiled his championship rival Sebastian Vettel’s race, with the German forced into a race of recovery after having to pit at the end of the first lap for a new front-wing. Mercedes AMG claimed their first one-two finish of the season too, with Valtteri Bottas joining his teammate at the front to run a faultless race to the chequered flag. Max Verstappen made a lightening getaway at the start, slotting into second behind Hamilton, though succumbed to an electrical issue early in the race. The start was marred too by a collision involving Carlos Sainz and Felipe Massa, which saw the Safety Car intervene. Later it was found that there was contact between the Toro Rosso and the Haas of Romain Grosjean before, which concertinaed over to the Williams. From there, contrasting strategies were put into play. Force India looked to run long second stints on the supersofts which paid dividends until the end of the race, when Sergio Perez stubbornly held up Esteban Ocon with hope that he’d be able to pass Daniel Ricciardo for the podium. Instead, Vettel in his charge back up from eighteenth made a late second stop for ultrasofts and could pick off both Force Indias, which saw a bold manoeuvre on the penultimate lap of the race – resulting in a fourth-place finish. Vettel’s teammate Kimi Räikkönen struggled throughout the whole race, following a shocking start and then suffering from brake issues to finish seventh and just ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg. Canadian rookie Lance Stroll also put in sterling effort to claim his first points in Formula One, putting on a show of overtakes for his home crowd. Fernando Alonso’s return to the sport following his Indy 500 adventure, yielded the same outcome at the end of the race, with an engine failure eliminating him from points contention – conversely putting Stroll into ninth. A penalty ridden for a vociferous Daniil Kvyat ended in the pit-lane with a retirement, with a botched pit-stop seeing the incorrect tyres being prepared for the Toro Rosso. Hamilton’s third win of the season puts him within 12-points in the championship now of Vettel, who will claim ‘driver of the day’ plaudits for his stunning recovery drive back to fourth.
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Roar Guru
Return of the shoey! And Professor X/Captain Picard partakes!
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Roar Guru
PODIUM INTERVIEWS - Hosted by Sir Patrick Stewart HAMILTON - "I had my first pole here, first win 10-years ago and to repeat it is something special." BOTTAS - "After a tough race in Monaco, the team has done well." "It was tough being behind the Red Bull initially." RICCIARDO - "Today I had fun only when I saw the checquered flag." "I had to do a lot of defending."
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Roar Guru
RESULTS AFTER THE 70-LAP CANADIAN GRAND PRIX 1 L. Hamilton 2 V. Bottas 3 D. Ricciardo 4 S. Vettel 5 S. Perez 6 E. Ocon 7 K. Räikkönen 8 N. Hulkenberg 9 L. Stroll 10 R. Grosjean 11 J. Palmer 12 K. Magnussen 13 M. Ericsson 14 S. Vandoorne 15 P. Wehrlein RET F. Alonso RET D. Kvyat RET M. Verstappen RET F. Massa RET C. Sainz
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Roar Guru
It's a sixth win in Montreal for LEWIS HAMILTON, who takes a commanding victory at the CANADIAN GRAND PRIX. VALTTERI BOTTAS completes the one-two finish for Mercedes AMG, with a solid second. And it's a third consecutive podium in 2017 for DANIEL RICCIARDO.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 70/70: FINAL LAP
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Roar Guru
Lap 69/70: 2 LAPS TO GO Alonso is out of the race. Points go begging once again. Meanwhile Vettel passes Perez for fourth!
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Roar Guru
Lap 67/70: Ricciardo looks safe here with a 3.8 second advantage over P4, as Vettel would need more laps to catch the Red Bull.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 66/70: 5 LAPS TO GO A heart in the mouth moment racing down to Turn 1 between the Force Indias and Vettel! Ocon had to take evasive action and yields the position to Vettel, whilst Perez holds his ground in fourth. High risk stuff there from the championship leader!
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 65/70: Ocon at last having a go at Perez, but no dice even with DRS available. Vettel threatening Ocon too now. Brake issues continue for Kimi, who is getting quite angry over the radio.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 63/70: Force India's lack of team orders here to get Ocon ahead of Perez has allows Vettel to enter this little battle and boy the German is very quick at the moment.
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Roar Guru
Lap 62/70: Kimi has dropped 9.1 seconds to Vettel now in P7 and is out of the hunt now for podium contention you could surmise. Vettel only 1.5 seconds behind Ocon.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 61/70: Mistake from Räikkönen! Kimi misses the final chicane, which allows Vettel to take that position and effectively releases the German to chase down Ocon and Perez.
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Roar Guru
Lap 60/70: Vandoorne jumps out of the way as the Ricciardo, Perez, Ocon trio blaze past. Perez has fallen behind a little now from Ricciardo, falling into Ocon's clutches.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 59/70: Ocon looking much closer to Perez this time around.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 58/70: Both Toro Rossos out of the race now, as Kvyat is back in the pit-lane and into the garage.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 57/70: Force India's situation here is that Ocon is currently faster than Perez, but the Mexican feels that Ricciardo is holding him up and that is why he is stuck in that position. You sort of hope that there are no team orders enforced here by Force India in what's been an amazing race for them thus far.