Canadian GP: First 1-2 of the season for Mercedes!

Formula 1 is the highlight of my Saturday, no matter where I am.

I tend to plan my life according to the F1 calendar so every now and then I have to make some arrangements not to miss the F1 action. Last Friday I drove to Ikaalinen with my twin sister to attend the gig of famous Finnish pop star Antti Tuisku so I missed both FP1 and FP2. On Saturday we drove to Hämeenlinna and spent the evening at a spa hotel. Missing qualifying was no option for me so I sat at the balcony of my hotel room and watched the qualifying on my cell phone. A glass of sparkling wine, setting sun and Formula 1 action made my evening just perfect! Due to the special circumstances, however, I didn´t write a blog post on the qualifying, which turned out quite surprising. Hamilton had magically found his missing pace and his driving was absolutely convincing. The Briton amazed his rivals by setting a staggering opening lap in Q3 and taking the provisional pole. Sebastian was hungry to match the pace of his title rival, but the German Ferrari ace was four thousandths of a second down on Hamilton after the first runs. But there was even more to come from Hamilton, who improved his lap time by over two tenths on his last run. Hamilton absolutely nailed the first sector especially, leaving all his rivals utterly toothless. By taking his 65th career pole Hamilton equalled the pole record of his legendary idol Ayrton Senna. To honour this legendary record, the Senna family had donated a race-worn helmet of Senna to Hamilton. Sebastian had no choice but to settle for P2. Bottas qualified third for Mercedes and Kimi was fourth at the wheel of his SF70-H. The Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Ricciardo locked down the third row.

I was at home in time to watch the race on TV. What a colourful start the race had! Verstappen in P5 had an absolutely magical start and the flying Dutchman took a brave line going into Turn 1. By doing so, the Red Bull pilot hit Sebastian´s Ferrari causing an end plate damage to the German. Hamilton held on to his lead, but Verstappen had jumped second due to his phenomenal start! However, there was more drama on the opening lap. Grosjean in his Haas hit Sainz´s Toro Rosso, which caused the Spaniard to go sideways on the track. Sainz crashed into unfortunate Massa, and they were all out of the race. There was so much debris on the track that safety car was deployed. Behind Hamilton and Verstappen, Bottas was third and Sebastian fourth. Ricciardo was fifth; Kimi had lost two positions and dropped down to sixth.

Safety car came in a few laps later, and the race was back on. Unfortunately Sebastian´s front wing had taken such severe damage, that the German had to pit for a new front wing. This unexpected turn made him drop down to the back of the pack. But the German had no intention to give up! On lap 11 it was Verstappen´s turn to face drama. All of a sudden the Dutchman was hit with a technical failure -his RB13 was out of power! What a frustrating moment for Max, who was driving such an impressive race! Due to Max´s DNF virtual safety car was deployed.

First pit stops saw different tyre strategies. Kimi pitted for a fresh set of red-marked super soft Pirellis, whereas Red Bull´s Ricciardo opted for a fresh set of soft tyres. Bottas, who pitted a few laps later, had a similar tyre strategy to Ricciardo. It was interesting to see, that on the contrary to his teammate, Hamilton opted for a fresh set of super soft Pirellis. By the halfway point of the race Sebastian had already made his way up to seventh.

Against all odds Ferrari opted for a two-stop strategy. Kimi pitted on lap 42 -this time for another set of ultra soft tyres. The Iceman lost positions to Force India´s Ocon and teammate Sebastian. Although Sebastian, too had no choice but to pit for the second time on lap 50. The team told him on the radio, that he would catch Ricciardo and the Force Indias on his fresh ultra soft tyres eight laps before the chequered flag. Both Sebastian and Kimi were utterly flying on their fresh set of tyres. 

With less than ten laps to go, Kimi suddenly faced a brake issue, which had significant effect on his pace. Kimi went off track, and teammate Sebastian had it easy to make it ahead of his teammate. The team gave Kimi instructions on the team radio to fix the problem, which he finally managed to do (after cursing in Finnish). The pink Force Indias seemed to be stuck behind Ricciardo´s Red Bull, and Sebastian had already managed to close the gap to the trio. Ocon seemed to be the faster one of the pink cars and he was asking on the team radio for a chance to get past his teammate Perez. However, Perez had no intention to let his teammate through, even though the team promised, that Perez would get his position back if Ocon turned out unable to overtake Ricciardo by the end of the race.

Sebastian was absolutely determined to make it as high as possible after the unfortunate start to the race. He made a bold and risky-looking overtaking move on Ocon on lap 66 -jumping fifth! Sebastian´s next target was Perez. A few laps later the German made a self-confident move on the Mexican, and Sebastian was now fourth in the race. I absolutely loved the way Sebastian fought like a lion throughout the race! He definitely showed everyone, what a true racer is like. The seventh race of the season was the first time that Sebastian didn´t make it on the podium this year, so I didn´t feel too disappointed. Sebastian had driven a fantastic race with true passion!

Unbelievable but true, this was only the first 1-2 for Mercedes this year! Hamilton took a dominant victory ahead of teammate Bottas. Ricciardo was just barely out of Sebastian´s reach, and the Australian completed the podium. Once again the pink cars scored excellent points, although there will be plenty of talk about the team orders inside the team this week! Kimi finished in P7 after his brake issues. I have to say that I was happy for home hero Lance Stroll, who finally managed to drive a strong race; the Canadian scored his first points by finishing 9th.

Thanks to his victory, Hamilton cut Sebastian´s championship lead into just 12 points. Mercedes made it ahead of Ferrari in the constructors´ championship standings by eight points. The battle for the world championship couldn´t be any more exciting!