Hamilton wins in Canada after strategic gamble
Hamilton wins in Canada after strategic gamble
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By James Christie. |  |
Sunday, 13, Jun 2010 06:20
By Adam Leveridge.
Lewis Hamilton led home the second consecutive one-two victory for the McLaren team at the Canadian grand prix, after taking a massive gamble with his tyre strategy.
Fernando Alonso finished up in third place, having been caught and passed by Jenson Button, while Sebastian Vettel was the best of the Red Bulls in fourth place.
Hamilton led the field away on the short blast to the first turn, while Vettel defended from Alonso in the lead Ferrari.
Webber made his way up from seventh to fifth, capitalising on an incident between Tonio Liuzzi in the first of the Force Indias and Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari, who made contact with each other no less than three times as they rounded turn one, eventually spinning to the back of the field.
De la Rosa also went grass cutting at the first corner and joined both Liuzzi and Massa in the pits at the end of lap one for a new front wing, however, Kamui Kobayashi became the first retirement of the day when he struck the wall of champions at the exit of turn 14 as lap one came to a close.
Meanwhile, at the sharp end of the pack, Hamilton proceeded to break away from Vettel in second for the first six laps of the grand prix, however, the Briton's tyres soon began to deteriorate quite quickly from then on, allowing Vetel to close up on his rear-end at a rate of knots.
Vettel hustled Hamilton for the lead into the turn 14 chicane at the end of lap six and then again into turn one on the next lap, however, Hamilton defended well and held position.
The Red Bull driver continued to pressurise Hamilton, but was released into the lead when the McLaren racer pitted for hard tyres, along with Alonso.
Clean stops from Ferrari and McLaren meant Alonso and Hamilton exited their pit boxes side-by-side, but it was Alonso who got the jump as they rounded turn one, taking a provisional seventh place.
On lap 13, with warm hard tyres, Hamilton set about chasing down Alonso - keen to regain the position he lost in the stops - as Schumacher pitted from a provisional third place for new rubber.
A good stop by the Mercedes pit-crew meant Schumacher emerged from the pits alongside Robert Kubica in seventh place.
The seven-time world champion failed to notice Kubica until they neared the turn three chicane, but refused to yield and was forced to cut across the grass when he made contact with the Pole.
The Renault driver suffered damage to his front-wing endplate and Schumacher his tyres, forcing him into the pits for a new set of boots, pushing him down to where he started the race, in P13.
Meanwhile, Webber pitted from the lead on lap 14, promoting Sebastian Buemi into the top-spot until he made his first stop of the day a few laps later.
This meant Alonso and Hamilton resumed the top two places, but a well-timed move from the 25-year old McLaren driver on the approach to the final chicane, meant he regained first place.
On lap 27, with the first round of stops complete, Hamilton lead from Alonso, Button, Vettel, Webber and Kubica, however, it wasn't long before the leaders returned to the pits for more tyres.
Hamilton pitted first, with Alonso bearing down on him, however, the Spaniard, Vettel and Button all responded, by pitting themselves moments later.
Alonso pulled out a fastest lap on his way into the pits, however, a delay behind one of the Lotus cars meant he failed to get the jump on Hamilton after the stops.
Webber led the way, pulling out an advantage of 11 seconds before his tyres began to degrade on lap 39 of 70.
This allowed Hamilton to close down on the Aussie by a second per lap and, on lap 48, Webber had both Hamilton and Alonso all over his tail, after being held up by the Force India pairing who were busy battling with each other a lap down.
Webber finally succumbed to the inevitable and took on the less durable super softs on lap 49, promoting Alonso to second, Button to third and Vettel to fourth.
With 14 laps to go, Button made it a McLaren one-two when he cruised past Alonso when a backmarker held up the Ferrari driver at the exit of turn two.
The Briton took the opportunity and used his 'F-duct' to scythe through into second as the pair took the turn three chicane, although Alonso piled on the pressure thereafter.
Schumacher's dismal weekend continued as the race wound down, as he was passed by Buemi in the Toro Rosso for eighth place and then sparked a stewards investigation after forcing Massa into the wall, as the Brazilian was attempting a pass into turn 14.
The seven-time champion eventually failed to score, when he lost ninth to Liuzzi by running across the grass at turn seven, and tenth to Sutil in the second Force India on the final lap.
However, Hamilton had no such issues and pushed to the victory in Canada, ahead of his team-mate Button, while Alonso rounded out the podium.