Na een wat saaie race heeft Hamilton voor de 4e keer dit seizoen de race op zijn naam geschreven.
Hamilton vertrok van pole, met naast hem Rosberg. En na de start was de spanning wel weg aan de kop van de race. Hamilton pakte de leiding en Rosberg was niet in staat om echt een bedreiging te vormen voor hem.
Raikkonen reed lange tijd op de derde plaats, maar door een spin na zijn eerste stop verloor hij deze positie aan Bottas, die daarna het eerste podium voor Williams binnensleepte.
Verstappen was een van de smaakmakers van deze race. Door een straf voor de crash uit de vorige race en door het wisselen van de motor moest hij niet alleen als een-na-laatste starten maar hij had ook nog 10 seconden tijdstraf te verwerken door dit alles. Kansen op punten waren er niet, maar desondanks maakte hij veel tijd goed. Hij eindigde deze race als 15e.
Lotus deed het redelijk. Maldonado reed zijn eerste race uit dit seizoen en scoorde met zijn 7e plaats meteen punten.
Voor Grosjean had er meer ingezeten dan zijn 10e plaats. Na het inhalen van achterblijver Stevens stuurde hij te snel terug naar de racelijn. Hierbij raakte hij de neus van Stevens en reed hij een achterband lek. Gelukkig voor Grosjean gebeurde dit vlak voor de ingang van de pits en bleef de schade nog enigszins beperkt.
Voor de aanrijding kreeg Grosjean een tijdstraf van 5 seconden, maar zijn voorsprong op nummer 11 Perez was groot genoeg.
Lotus F1
Pastor Maldonado secured his first points of 2015 at the Canadian Grand Prix with a seventh placed finish and team-mate Romain Grosjean secured tenth to send Lotus F1 Team fifth in the constructors’ standings.
Pastor’s impressive 53 lap stint on a fresh set of soft tyres stretched the tyre life expectation and it was a large factor in breaking his duck.
Yet the seventh place could potentially have been Romain’s. The Frenchman made a strong start to the Grand Prix, holding onto fifth resolutely in the opening corners.
He then briefly ran as high as fourth before his first pit stop returned him to the track on the edge of the top ten.
It was a differing strategy to team-mate Pastor who took the early pit option, on lap 17, after initially losing a place to Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg on the first lap.
“We had to pit quite early to gain the place against Nico Hulkenberg which made the later part of the race quite tricky,” he said.
Pastor returned knowing he was in for a challenge, but both drivers were able to work their way up the order as the E23 Hybrid showed its potential on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
At the halfway mark, Pastor was involved in a battle with Ferrari’s Sebastien Vettel before the German pitted.
The Ferrari man’s stop elevated the Venezuelan into seventh as Romain ran ahead in fifth. It looked to be plain sailing for the two drivers but while Pastor would go on to manage his tyres expertly, Romain was soon to hit trouble.
A well worked overtake on the final corner by Romain ended with the Frenchman inadvertently making contact with the Manor of Will Stevens.
It can be difficult with traffic here and I was held up a few times even when there were blue flags,” said Romain. “I thought I was past the Manor, but it was soon clear that I wasn’t. It was my fault entirely and I apologise for it. You never stop learning as a driver.”
While unfortunate, the incident’s location meant the two were able to make it to the pit lane and continue in the race.
While it was some solace Romain still had the challenge of a recovery drive into the points, which soon took on an added difficulty with a five second penalty added.
Even with the size of the task ahead Romain was able to make swift progress late into the race, moving ahead of Sergio Perez for tenth.
He quickly set about building a margin big enough to negate the five second penalty’s ultimate effect, and Pastor converted his tyre management into a well-deserved points score.
“Finally, here we are in the points,” said Pastor. “I think now we’ve started scoring there’s potential for this to be a great season for us as we have really good potential. It was a good race. I’m pleased for the team that we got both cars in the points; let’s continue like this."
Deputy Team Principal Federico Gastaldi was pleased to see Pastor break his duck and is keen to see both drivers score points consistently.
“For Pastor this should be a turning point for his season. Both cars scoring points is always our target and we want more of the same for the rest of the year.”
Nick Chester was also content with the result, but believed there was potential for more ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
"That was pretty good,” he said. Pastor drove strongly and consistently with a long second stint keeping well in the points. Romain should have finished further up were it not for the rub with the Manor but the weekend overall has been positive.”
“We ran well in qualifying and if anything lost a little bit of pace in the race, which is something we’ll be studying ahead of our visit to Austria. All things considered, we have a great platform for the races ahead. "
De volgende race is op 21 juni in Oostenrijk
