Annoying near-victory for Ferrari at the Canadian GP

After it had looked for some time now that the Formula 1 season would once again degenerate into a boring one-team show by Mercedes, Ferrari struck back emphatically this weekend and re-announced itself as a serious contender for the title.

In a very eventful qualifying session, in which Kevin Magnussen crashed spectacularly into the wall in Q2 and scraped his car, which led to the cancellation of Q2 and to the early exit for Max Verstappen, who had not yet started his lap and therefore had to start the race from 11th place on the grid, Vettel on Ferrari somewhat surprisingly took pole position. For all Ferraristi and especially all neutral Formula 1 fans who want an exciting World Championship, this was a real ray of hope. Was the dominance of the Silver Arrows now broken? After Leclerc had also advanced to 3rd place on the grid, it was now clear that Ferrari was once again on a par with the Mercedes, now at least in Canada. But the Renaults in 4th and 7th place on the grid had also earned a respectable result. Valtteri Bottas was unexpectedly absent from the grid in 6th place.

The race began as expected, Vettel managed to leave Hamilton behind at the start and drove away from the Briton by more than 2 seconds. In turn, Hamilton also did not give up any space and chased Vettel from 2nd place. As it was known from the previous Formula 1, the leading teams (Ferrari and Mercedes) settled the race among themselves. This is a pity in that the Renaults' great driver performance, Max Verstappen's race to catch up from 11th on the grid to 5th at the end, and the excellent result of Lance Armstrong, who advanced from 18th on the grid to 9th at the end, are all lost in the process.

The tire change seems to be to blame for Ferrari's failure to turn a clear lead into a win, because after the tire change to white, Hamilton was able to catch up noticeably on the leader Vettel until he got within striking distance and had the opportunity to make an overtaking maneuver. Vettel fought back with all his might. But in one corner it happened, Vettel went slightly off the track onto the grass and was briefly thrown back onto the track, which prevented Hamilton from overtaking Vettel. Whether Hamilton would have managed to overtake Vettel at all is questionable. But for this unintentional maneuver, Vettel was given a 5-second time penalty by the stewards. Vettel managed to keep Hamilton behind him and cross the finish line with a lead of 1.342 seconds, but the 5-second penalty meant he ended up in 2nd place, 3.658 seconds behind. Vettel was seething at what he saw as an unjust decision by the race stewards, the victory celebration turned downright icy, and as a demonstration he swapped the 1st and 2nd place signs. You can't blame him, of course Ferrari lodged a complaint.