A straightforward Race in Canada, 2013

I have to admit, it wasn’t the most exciting race of the year. In all honesty, even with all this tyre controversy that keeps popping up, it’s not been as exciting overall as some previous years. Even Sebastian Vettel’s title winning season in 2011 was more exciting at times than what I’m seeing. It’s a shame, as after the mixed conditions of practise and qualifying, I was expecting a bit more this time around. Although, he can now add Montreal to his collection of wins for the first time.

Vettel Strikes Back

As I mentioned before, this was a performance befitting Vettel’s 2011 season. He controlled the race perfectly from the outset. There was only a couple of laps he wasn’t in front and that is impressive, considering the complaints Red bull have been lobbying all season so far about tyres. To add to the dominance, Mark Webber, Vettel’s teammate took the fastest lap with a damaged front wing.

It has to be said, Vettel would have had it if he hadn’t been told to calm down. We know that the German likes his stats and at the end he was going purple but was told over the radio to let it go. This time, he listened to the team.

Back to ‘Real Racing’

So, there were much fewer complaints overall about the tyres this race. There were fewer pit stops and much less in the way of close racing. We still had some, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso’s battle being one example, but there was a lot more procession to this race than others so far – with the exception of Monaco. Is this the type of racing we want every time? For me, I’d like a bit more mixing up of the field and more battles but the drivers were flat out racing this time and that’s good for them too.

Force India Continue Good Form

My stand out team of the season so far has to be Force India. They have done a great job so far, achieving some good results – even on top of some poor decisions and qualifying results. I was surprised at the decision to bring back Adrian Sutil but he has done remarkably well – where was this Sutil last time? – And Paul Di Resta is going from strength to strength. I wouldn’t put it past a top team to pick this driver very soon. At 26 years old, he still has plenty more to show and I can see a world champion in him (Honest, I’m not biased about him being a Scot…much!).

At the same time, Toro Rosso are also doing well! Hopefully in another year or two, these teams will close the gap even further to the big four and be competing for the race wins!

The Mercedes Hearing

We have a date for this hearing – 20^th June. We can hope to have a result before the following weekend for the British grand Prix but I’m not sure we will. Since this is the first hearing with this body, they will want to get everything right first time and that takes time. It would be nice to get a verdict and put this behind us as soon as possible, regardless of where you stand on the situation.

Sombre News

I think it’s really important to mention this. A crash or accident at any time is worrying, and in a sport where there are so many dangers, you always hope that drivers and support staff are alright. Safety has come a long way over the last 20 or so years but this weekend we had an accident that few people could have predicted.

A marshal was run over by a crane lifting Gutierrez’s car. Reports have said that the man stopped to pick up his radio and the crane driver couldn’t see him and ran him over. Support staff did their best and quickly transported the man to hospital where he later died. It’s a tragic accident and it takes a lot of the shine off the whole weekend.

Drivers and teams have paid tributes to the man and I would hope anyone reading this does the same for the man’s friends and family. Without marshal’s at every event, most sporting events couldn’t take place and it is a dangerous job at the best of times that many people seem to forget about. Rest in Peace.

Summary

I haven’t mentioned Ferrari or Mercedes much today. They didn’t stand out much to me, other than Hamilton and Alonso’s battle for second. Ferrari really need to sort their qualifying pace out if they want to challenge Vettel for the championship, and Mercedes still need to work on rear tyre usage. It seems their tyre test didn’t help much.

Jean Eric Vergne had a fantastic qualifying and race result and force India’s Di Rest managed over 55 laps on one set of tyres, with competitive lap times for most of that stint which is very impressive. These two have been my stand out drivers of the race – and probably the season so far.

Onwards, to Silverstone!

Results

1 – S. Vettel (Red Bull)

2 – F. Alonso (Ferrari)

3 – L. Hamilton (Mercedes)

4 – M. Webber (Red Bull)

5 – N. Rosberg (Mercedes)

6 – J. E. Vergne (Toro Rosso)

7 – P. Di Resta (Force India)

8 – F. Massa (Ferrari)

9 – K. Raikkonen (Lotus)

10 – A. Sutil (Force India)

11 – S. Perez (McLaren)

12 – J. Benson (McLaren)

13 – R. Grosjean (Lotus)

14 – V. Bottas (Williams)

15 – D. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)

16 – P. Maldonado (Williams)

17 – J. Bianchi (Marussia)

18 – C. Pic (Caterham)

19 – M. Chilton (Marussia)

20 – E. Gutierrez (Sauber)

21 – N. Hulkenberg (Sauber)

22 – G. van der Garde (Caterham)