Formula 1 2015 - Calm Canada

Hamilton was in fine form in Montreal (Copyright: Mercedes AMG)

After a disappointing race in Monaco, which resulted in a strategy blunder by his team dropping him from a dominant lead to 3rd place, Lewis Hamilton bounced back in Canada and took his 4th victory in Canada, in a race filled with fuel and brake management, as his team-mate failed to find a way past him and Williams took their first podium of the season.

Hamilton lead the field away, Raikkonen having a cheeky look up the inside of Rosberg (Copyright: Mercedes AMG)

It was a race that promised so much, yet yielded so little. Ferrari had come to Montreal with an upgraded engine, and had hoped to reel in Mercedes. Unfortunately, Sebastian Vettels car suffered a loss of power during qualifying, and with the various post qualy penalties applied, he started in 18th place, having not even made it out of Q1. Kimi Raikkonen qualified 3rd but didn't have the pace of the Mercedes, or indeed his team mate, who was charging through the field, a long with the Williams of Felipe Massa, who also suffered engine issues in qualifying.

Massa and Ericsson locked horns early on

The race settled down fairly quickly, but early entertainment was provided by Felipe Massa, who went wheel to wheel with Marcus Ericsson through turns 1 and 2, the Sauber and Williams putting on a great show for the fans. Massa and Vettel were together charging through the field, and with the battle up front quite dull at this stage, this was where the action was to be found.

Vettels charge from 18th was great viewing

Vettel was also having an entertaining duel, this one with the McLaren of Fernando Alonso. With such a slow car around the Montreal circuit, Alonso was having to fight hard to keep anyone behind him, and he pushed to the limit, Vettel bumping over the kerbs into the wall of champions chicane. He eventually got past Alonso, but after a tough battle.

Kimi Raikkonen looked set for 3rd place,  until his out lap after his first pitstop

Back up front, Hamilton was controlling the race with Rosberg around 4s behind him. A few seconds further back was Raikkonen, who was running a solid race in 3rd with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas behind him. The expected challenge from Ferrari wasn't coming however, and things would take a turn for the worse for Raikkonen a little later on.

Raikkonen got himself into a bit of a spin

On his outlap after his first pitstop, Raikkonen spun at the hairpin before the back straight, which meant when Bottas made his pitstop, he came out ahead of the Ferrari. The spin was put down to an engine issue giving Kimi more power than he wanted out of the corner, but it cost Ferrari a podium. Despite finishing 4th and Vettel 5th after his charge through the field, it wasn't the best of weekends for the Scuderia.

The Mercedes were cruising at the front of the field (Copyright: Mercedes AMG)

Ahead of the spinning Kimi, the two Mercedes were cruising around at the front of the field, Rosberg starting to mount a bit of a challenge, closing within DRS range of Hamilton. Alas, Hamilton was saving fuel, and Rosberg managing his brakes, something which was predominant throughout the race and annoying the fans, and the pair cruised home to take their 15th 1-2 as team-mates at Mercedes.

Valtteri Bottas was back on the podium for Williams (Copyright: Williams Martini Racing)

Williams enjoyed a very successful race. Not only did Massa recover to a fine 6th, but Raikkonens podium gave Bottas a place on the podium, the first for him and the team since the 2014 finale in Abu Dhabi. It was a classy drive from Bottas, after qualifying a solid 4th, within a tenth of Raikkonen, and then stayed in touch with the Ferrari throughout the race. The team now expect there season to really take off, and remember, we head to Austria next week, scene of that 1-2 in qualifying for the team last year.

Lotus got their first double points finish since India 2013 (Copyright: Lotus F1 Team)

Lotus finally got both cars into the points, although what was set to be 7th and 8th quickly turned into 7th and 10th. Romain Grosjean was lapping the Manor of Will Stevens, but as he did so he came across the Englishman and made contact with him, puncturing his tyre and damaging Stevens front wing. Grosjean managed to finish 10th with a 5s time penalty, the 11th placed car of Sergio Perez was more than 5s behind the Lotus, meaning the penalty was pointless in terms of its outcome. Pastor Maldonado though had a great race, finishing 7th and his first points since the 2014 US Grand Prix.

Hulkenburg lead the charge for Force India

After a great qualifying with an underdeveloped car, Force India had a solid race. Nico Hulkenburg finished 8th, despite spinning whilst trying to avoid contact with Vettel at the Wall of Champions chicane, Perez 11th after a dissipating race, despite qualifying 10th. The new B-spec car is expected to make an appearance at the post race test in Austria, with a race introduction planned for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, one race later.

Red Bull had a nightmare race...for all four cars! (Copyright: Infiniti Red Bull Racing)

Toro Rosso and Red Bull had a horrific race. Out of the four Red Bull cars, only Danill Kvyat finished in the points with a 9th place finish, the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo and the STR's of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz all finished well outside the points, more understandable for Verstappen seeing as he started at the back of the grid. The nightmare for Renault continues, and all four Red Bull driver's will be hoping a fix comes very soon. You know its bad when the only Ricciardo is smiling and laughing, is because he doesn't want to cry.

It was a tough race for Ericsson and Sauber (Copyright: Sauber F1 Team)

It was a disappointing weekend for Sauber to. After a crash for Felipe Nasr in FP3, they qualified  13th and 15th and could only finish 14th and 16th in the race, the C34 not having the pace around the Montreal circuit. After a double points finish in Australia, the team have only managed points in drips and drabs for the rest of the season. Upgrades are coming soon though, so stay tuned with Sauber...

Alonso and McLaren had another difficult race (Copyright: McLaren Honda)

It was utter misery for McLaren in Montreal. Jenson Button never even qualified after an ERS failure in FP3, and had to take a drive-through penalty in the opening laps as a consequence of the team needing to change so many parts of the power unit. He eventually retired with an overheating exhaust, as did team-mate Fernando Alonso, after a rant on radio, saying they were looking like "amateurs". The misery for McLaren-Honda continues.

Merhi lead Stevens until his retirement (Copyright: Manor Marussia F1 Team)

Finally, it was the usual weekend for the Manor Marussia team. After securing sponsorship from Airbnb, the team ran a solid race until Roberto Merhi's car retired with a drive shaft issue, Will Stevens of course making contact with Grosjean's Lotus, but still managing to finish in 17th place, and last of the runners. The teams worst weekend of the year really, but hey, not every weekend will be good. All credit to the team though for having better reliability than a lot of the field, including some top teams.

Hamilton takes his 4th win of the year and in Montreal (Copyright: Mercedes AMG)

At the end of the day though, the race belonged to Hamilton. It was his fourth win of the season, and he looks to be nearly unstoppable. However, Rosberg is within touch with those victories in Spain and Monaco, and Nico still has plenty of fight left in him. The next race is Austria and who won there last year? Oh yes, a certain Nico Rosberg. Until next time folks. Ciao.

Mehri allows Vettel through (Copyright: Manor Marussia F1 Team)