McLaren Mercedes triumphed a second consecutive 1-2 victory pulling away from a field of overmatched competitors in Montreal as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button dominated Grand Prix de Canada.Fernando Alonso finished 3rd followed by Red Bull teammates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, who in the aftermath of the Turkish clash, finished back in 4rt and 5th place show their first signs of weaknesses.
Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica, Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher and Adrian Sutil competed the top 10.
Hamilton started from the pole, in a controversial way after the 10.000 euros penalty for retiring due to "fuel issues" in the qualification session, led early before falling back as various pit strategies played out with drivers stopping for soft or hard tires.
Hamilton's victorious move came when he blew by Webber for the lead on lap 50 of 70 as Webber faded on older tires. Webber, who had led by as much as 11 seconds, pitted for tires after surrendering the top spot while Hamilton went unchallenged the rest of the way.
Hamilton whose maiden victory in F1 took place in 2007 at the same Circuit Gilles Villeneuve commented:
"It's been a tremendous weekend. It's been fantastic. Things have just gone so well throughout the weekend. The team did an exceptional job and the race, I think, was one of the toughest races so far, but that's what you want. Jenson did a great job, and another 1-2 for us. I'm very happy for the team...0
It was an incredibly challenging afternoon, especially in the last 20 laps, when I was trying to look after my tyres while also keeping Jenson and Fernando [Alonso] behind me. It wasn't easy, I can tell you that! This track is unique - you can never be too confident, because you really have to look after your tyres, and it's so hard to know how long you can make them last. Fernando put a lot of pressure on me. We had a really good battle, but, although he was pressing me hard, I was able to pull out a small gap and then maintain it. It was such a sensational feeling to cross the line. In terms of pure pace, I still think the Red Bull car is still a little bit faster than ours. But, as a whole, I think our package is now stronger. So, going forward, we need to build on the progress we've made recently, and we're going to do just that; we'll now knuckle down and make a really big effort to increase that gap. We've got good momentum now, so I hope we can continue our winning run through to Valencia in two weeks' time. The feeling and atmosphere within the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team is better than ever. The contribution that Jenson has brought is the best I've ever witnessed from a team-mate. He did another great job today to come from fourth to second - he's doing his part and I'm doing mine. The team is happier than ever. This has been a truly fantastic day."
Button took 2nd from Alonso on lap 56 and initially made up ground on Hamilton before the Brit began stretching out his advantage to eventually cross the finish line 2.2 seconds ahead.
The defending World Champion commented:
"The tires are so important and you're never sure if you're looking after tires enough or if you're pushing enough. A great race, a really enjoyable race. Another 1-2 for the team."
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh was certainly pleased with the outcome.
"I think the drivers drove brilliantly - both of them."
Hamilton and Button are now leading the driver championship standings with a 3 points gap.
Alonso is 4rth, 15 points out of the lead, after a solid outing in Montreal that was a considerable improvement over his eighth-place run two weeks ago in Turkey.
"It's great to be back on the podium and especially to be able to fight for the top places once again. Today, we could have won but we did not manage it because, on a few occasions, we paid a heavy price for the traffic. These things can happen to anyone in a race and this time it was our turn. If we want to reach our objective, we must try and always finish on the podium and this result is a great motivation for a team that today did a great job, in terms of strategy and handling the pit stops. It was difficult to manage the tyres: the softs at the start suffered from degradation very quickly, but even the hard ones had a different problem with graining. Luckily, our car is reasonably kind to the tyres. From what we had seen in Turkey, we had not really expected to have this level of performance. Now we have a lot of updates coming for the next Grand Prix in Valencia: I really hope they will allow us to be competitive on all types of track. I have never finished on the podium in my second home race, after the one in Barcelona and I would love to do that in two weeks time."
