F1 Canadian GP: Hamilton fends off Rosberg as Vettel battles to fifth

After two consecutive defeats in Spain and Monaco, Lewis Hamilton returned to the top step of the podium with a lights-to-flag victory in Canada on Sunday. The result extends Hamilton’s lead in the F1 drivers' championship - that he has held since the start of the season - to 17 points over Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.

Rosberg finished just 2.2 seconds behind his Mercedes teammate after briefly looking like being able to challenge Hamilton, closing to within a second of the defending F1 champion towards the latter stages of the race. However, his chase of Hamilton led to brake issues - which are not uncommon due to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's nature - that he had to nurse in order to ensure that he at least got second place. Hamilton securing pole position seemed to be the deciding factor in determining the winner.

WILLIAMS AND FERRARI FIGHT FOR 'BEST OF THE REST'

Valtteri Bottas, meanwhile, secured his and Williams’ first podium since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with a lonely drive from fourth on the grid.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen had held on to third place until he spun accelerating out of the Hairpin. He rejoined the race and bolted a fresh set of supersoft tyres later to take fourth place.

Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa showed some feisty moves - following their power unit related issues in qualifying - to finish in fifth and sixth places respectively. The former was particularly impressive and would have been on the tail of his teammate by end of the race, had it not been for a slow pit stop.

Pastor Maldonado secured his first points result of the season by taking seventh place at the chequered flag for Lotus. The Venezuelan - although still prone to mistakes - has been hit by bad luck this season and had only seen chequered flag twice all year long.

HULKENBERG AND FORCE INDIA IN THE POINTS

Nico Hulkenberg finished in the points for only the second time this season in eighth place, despite running over the final chicane and being forced into a spin. Hulkenberg felt that he had to take avoiding action when Vettel was trying to find a way past the Force India but no action was taken by the Stewards.

The Stewards, however, showed no sympathy towards Romain Grosjean who made contact with Will Stevens while lapping the Manor driver. Both the drivers had to make an additional visit to the pits while five seconds were added to Grosjean’s pit stop time. The Frenchman, nevertheless, managed to collect the final championship point in 10th, behind the sole points scoring Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

DOUBLE DNF FOR MCLAREN

McLaren-Honda’s nightmare season showed no signs of improvement with both their drivers retiring from the race as a precautionary measure. The result is made to look even worse by the fact that Honda had used two of their available engine tokens on reliability in the build up to the Canadian Grand Prix. If there is light at the end of the tunnel for the much hyped partnership between these two F1 icons, then it's only visible to some key personnel at the moment.

F1 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX - Results (Top 10)

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 70 laps
2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) +02.2s
3. Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Mercedes) +40.6s
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) +45.6s
5. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) +49.9s
6. Felipe Massa (Williams-Mercedes) +56.3s
7. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus-Mercedes) +1m 06.6s
8. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India-Mercedes) +1 lap
9. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull-Renault) +1 lap
10. Romain Grosjean (Lotus-Mercedes) +1 lap