• Canadian Grand Prix

Hamilton leads home McLaren 1-2

Lewis Hamilton takes the chequered flag © Sutton Images

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• Feature:
• Post-race driver rundown
  
• Quotes:
• Driver reaction after the Canadian Grand Prix
  

• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Jenson Button
• |
• Lewis Hamilton
• |
• Sebastian Vettel
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Ferrari
• |
• McLaren
• |
• Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton led a McLaren 1-2 at the Canadian Grand Prix to go to the top of the championship after his team nailed its strategy in a race dictated by tyre degradation.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished third despite leading at one stage, and only conceded second place to Jenson Button when he got held up by a backmarker. The Ferrari was on the same strategy as the McLarens - starting on soft tyres and stopping twice for hards - and despite terrible graining at the start, it paid off.

Red Bull opted for a completely different approach that resulted in Sebastian Vettel finishing fourth ahead of Mark Webber in fifth. At the start Webber pushed through the field from seventh on the grid and after eight laps lined up second behind Vettel in the lead as the McLarens and Alonso pitted.

However, Red Bull's strategy only had short-term gains. Vettel took on softs for his second stint and quickly merged on to the same strategy as Hamiltion, Button and Alonso, while Webber gambled on another stint on hard tyres, which saw him take an 11-second lead at one point but eventually suffer chronic tyre wear. His lap times started plummeting and he was passed by Hamilton for the lead even before he had the chance to make a final stop for softs. He dropped to fifth where he remained for the rest of the race.

There was chaos outside the top five, with Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes eventually picking up sixth place despite a terrible start. Robert Kubica finished seventh after tyre wear forced him onto a three-stop strategy. He very nearly collided with Michael Schumacher when the Mercedes emerged from his second pit stop and they clattered over the kerbs at turn three and four, resulting damage that appeared to compromise both their races. Schumacher went on to finish 11th.

Kubica battled on but was reprimanded by the stewards for a move he pulled on Adrian Sutil midway through the race. After the Force India had passed him for position, Kubica re-passed under braking for the final chicane but then dived into the pits, cutting across Sutil's bows.

Schumacher was also under investigation for a defensive move he pulled on Felipe Massa as he tried desperately to stay in the points on ruined rear tyres. As Massa attempted to pass Schumacher the Mercedes changed lines twice entering the final chicane, and knocked the Ferrari's front wing off. Massa had to pit for repairs and finished 15th, while Schumacher - who was absolved of any blame - dropped another two places as he tried unsuccessfully to hold off the Force Indias of Tonio Liuzzi and Sutil.

Liuzzi and Sutil went on to secure ninth and tenth behind Sebastien Buemi, who picked up his best result of the year for Toro Rosso in eighth place. Outside the points Jaime Alguersuari finished 12th ahead of the two Williams of Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello.

Heikki Kovalainen finished 16th for Lotus ahead of the Renault of Vitaly Petrov. Petrov made four pits stops in total, one of which was a drive-through penalty for jumping the start. Needless to say, he never looked in contention for points.

Karun Chandhok and Lucas di Grassi rounded off the finishers after five cars retired. Remarkably only Kamui Kobayashi's race was ended by contact with the barriers, but the expected safety car never emerged.

Laurence Edmondson is an assistant editor on ESPNF1

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