Star of the race
I had various favourites as the race went on. I thought Williams' Felipe Massa was a hero in the opening laps as he charged up the field after he suffered a power unit problem in qualifying. Romain Grosjean in the Lotus was having a very composed mature showing running fifth until he had a touch of brain fade and hit poor Will Stevens Manor Marussia.
Nico Hulkenberg made an outstanding start with a fantastic move around Pastor Maldonado in the opening couple of turns. Maldonado himself scored his first points of the year which is good, all the more impressive as he finished a race without even a hint of contact. Which sort of makes me want to re-watch the race as that surely can't be right?
Sebastian Vettel suffered a poor qualifying and took a penalty for passing under red flags in the third practice session. He charged his Ferrari from 18th on the grid all the way to fifth. But surely this was to be expected, the Ferrari is quite clearly the second best car and on its day a Mercedes challenger.
Which brings me to my actual star of the race. Canada was Lewis Hamilton's fourth win of the year and a star in none, such was his superiority in his other wins he was almost anonymous. Despite beating his team mate Nico Rosberg to the flag by just a few seconds, there was barely any reason to doubt his victory was assured the moment he took off from pole position and held the lead, unless his team were about to call him in for an unexpected pit stop. After the trials of Monaco this was the perfect riposte to anyone who thought Rosberg was gaining momentum. Not this race, probably not this year.
The Winner
Hamilton had Rosberg under control all race, pretty much like he has all season apart from perhaps Spain. Rosberg kept Lewis in sight but that's all he can do at the moment, hoping for an error that rarely comes or a mechanical failure. There was a lot of radio chatter from Mercedes about saving fuel or the brakes, but this didn't affect the result. It was a simple Mercedes 1-2, the order it should have been in Monaco.
Behind Valtteri Bottas took third after a power surge sent Kimi Raikkonen into a spin dropping him to fourth. Vettel climbed to fifth ahead of the recovering Massa, while Maldonado drove a strong race to seventh. Hulkenberg got himself into a spin while fending off Vettel but kept eighth with Daniil Kvyat the stronger Red Bull in ninth and Grosjean just tenth after his moment of madness.
The Battles
The best fight was the lap and a half Fernando Alonso held off Vettel for, sending the Ferrari over the kerbs at the final chicane. Despite the McLaren drivers woes this year, he can still battle with the best of them when called to arms.
Massa's duel with the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson was a tasty scrap too, a little rubbing of bodywork on wheels got the Williams driver through in turn three after sitting behind for several laps.
Things of note
Daniel Ricciardo feels like banging his head against a wall so he says. Red Bull are having a torrid season, they are absolutely nowhere. Despite Kvyat managing some points, Ricciardo could only struggle to 13th having started in the top 10. Last year he won this Grand Prix and looked like the man who could take a fight to the Mercedes.
He still is that man, but the Renault power unit is useless. Down on power, still atrocious reliability. What have they been doing? They really pushed for these new engine regulations and despite a year and a half of racing experience with the units they've actually gotten worse. I feel for Ricciardo who was the coming man, and Kvyat who thought he'd jumped into the big time. It's rumoured that Renault are threatening to quit in 2017 because of the engine development ban, perhaps instead of whining about rules they agreed to they should focus more on fixing their problems.
Of course what might be worse is having the Honda engine McLaren have saddled themselves with. The actual chassis is rumoured to be at or near the level of a Ferrari, so Honda have a lot to answer for. Yes these units are very advanced technologically, and it is of course only their first year, but to be so woefully under prepared is shabby, and that's being generous. It's unreliable and down on power by nearly 100bhp. It's just not good enough.
On the outside McLaren drivers Alonso and Jenson Button are still putting a brave face on it. Podiums are still the target this year but that's as likely as finding a polar bear in the Sahara. The truth is what Alonso said on the radio. When asked to save fuel he replied 'I don't want. I don't want. Already I have big problems now. Driving with this and looking like amateurs. So I'd like to race and then I concentrate on the fuel'.
'Looking like amateurs' is the interesting part. That's exactly what McLaren look like, even if it wasn't meant like that. It's the first signs of frustration of a driver who is renowned as being a bit of a difficult character when things aren't going well. This frustration might not help, but it's only natural because Honda have made possibly the best driver in Formula 1 no faster than a Sauber, and sometimes even they are quicker.
After numerous problems over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, McLaren retired both cars. With the next two circuits relying on a powerful engine things won't improve any time soon.
In other news there was more talk of how F1 is destroying itself. I've read rumours of the European Commission looking into the sport because of how the funds are divided up. It can't happen soon enough, this sport needs cleansing fast.
But lets end on a positive note. After the disaster of Monaco, Williams came back strongly to almost be within touching distance of Ferrari. With updates coming and the next two tracks in particular favouring a car with slippery aero, Bottas and Massa might well feature on the podium again sooner rather than later.
The title chase
There's a title chase? Oh I suppose there is in name, but Lewis potentially could and maybe should have won six of the seven races, and there's even a decent argument for all seven. Hamilton leads Rosberg by 17 points with Vettel 43 behind the leader. Vettel is an obvious outside bet, but if Ferrari start improving more you never know. Rosberg though? Despite his run of two victories I really feel he's fallen into the Mark Webber role of 2011. Webber had his title shot in 2010 and then just couldn't match Vettel a year later. Read Rosberg in 2014 and 2015. I'll let you know when a title chase develops.
Result
1. Hamilton - Mercedes
2. Rosberg - Mercedes
3. Bottas - Williams
4. Raikkonen - Ferrari
5. Vettel - Ferrari
6. Massa - Williams
7. Maldonado - Lotus
8. Hulkenberg - Force India
9. Kvyat - Red Bull
10. Grosjean - Lotus
11. Perez - Force India
12. Sainz - Toro Rosso
13. Ricciardo - Red Bull
14. Ericsson - Sauber
15. Verstappen - Toro Rosso
16. Nasr - Sauber
17. Stevens - Marussia
R. Mehri - Marussia
R. Button - McLaren
R. Alonso - McLaren
all photos taken from autosport.com
It's that time of the year, the time to make lists and to wrap 2014 up in a nice little bow. There's nothing better to do that with than a list of the best drivers in Formula 1 this year. I've got three parts to whittle it down to the best of the year. We'll begin with knocking out the first seven of the 24 drivers who competed in this years championship starting with a Caterham driver. And then another...
24. Will Stevens (Caterham)
Replaced Marcus Ericsson at the struggling Caterham outfit for the finale
in Abu Dhabi. He's had limited success in Formula Renault 3.5 but didn't
disgrace himself, qualifying half a second behind Kamui Kobayashi and making it
to the finish in the race.
23. Andre Lotterer (Caterham)
I was tempted to put him higher up than Ericsson, but he was another one
race wonder for Caterham in Belgium. His vast experience in single seaters
and World Endurance Championship for Audi meant he impressed straight away
despite not having driven a Formula 1 car for over 10 years when he tested
for Jaguar. Out-qualified Ericsson, but retired after only one lap when
his power unit packed up. Made you wish he'd had more of a chance.
22. Marcus Ericsson (Caterham)
A budget got him the drive, a budget has kept him in Formula 1 instead of
drivers further up this list. Ericsson has talent, he's won titles in junior
Formulae and scored three GP2 wins over four seasons in the category, but for
whatever reason he did not shine this season. There were only a couple of
races where he looked to have genuinely outpaced his team mate Kobayashi and
that looked like it was because the Japanese's car was hobbled.
21. Max Chilton (Marussia)
Two seasons in the sport and it's sad that Chilton's F1 career looks to have
come to an end as he comes across as a nice guy. But nice guy status doesn't
make you successful and although he looked to have made progress compared to
his results last year, ultimately he was blown away by his team mate Jules
Bianchi again. Unless he can use his money for a drive elsewhere, it's probably
the last we'll see of Chilton.
20. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus)
Maybe, just maybe going off the track while you're looking at something on the
steering wheel can be excused once. But a second time? Really? This was not
Maldonado's finest season, there were far too many crashes this year.
Previously these may have been overlooked because he can be extremely fast, but
the Lotus mechanics saw little of that speed, but plenty of broken carbon
fibre. The Lotus wasn't a worthy car either, but apart from shining in the
USA to pick up two points there was little to be happy about.
19. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)
Another driver to come to the end of their second F1 season with not much to
show for it other than being out of a job. Sauber were poor this year, neither
car managed to score a point, but their drivers looked to be lacking too. After
improving towards the end of 2013 and bagging some points, I thought Gutierrez
might blossom this time around. Not to be, comprehensively out qualified by
Sutil and just the highlight of 12th in Australia. Looked set for points in
Monaco after a decent drive but threw them away, crashing at La Rascasse 19 laps
from the end.
18. Adrian Sutil (Sauber)
Sauber have replaced both drivers for next year despite Sutil having a
contract. Although it is debatable whether the team have improved their lot on
this seasons performance I'm not sure Sutil can have too much to argue about.
His first year away from Force India and it couldn't have gone worse. In 2013
Gutierrez was no match for Hulkenberg. In 2014 he matched Sutil for race pace
quite often. Sutil often looked in despair with the car and it seemed he just didn't
have the heart to drag it around. A sad finish to what must be the end of his
F1 career.
Q2 is available here
all photos taken from autosport.com
