Canadian Grand Prix LIVE: Sebastian Vettel wins in Montreal to take championship lead off Lewis Hamilton
Sebastian Vettel starts the Canadian Grand Prix on pole position as he looks to claw back the 14-point lead that rival Lewis Hamilton holds in the Drivers’ Championship, but an unpredictable race in Montreal could well see a shock or two arrive on Sunday evening.
With Hamilton down in fourth, Vettel can make up serious ground in the battle to become a five-time world champion, though just 0.232 seconds covers the top four with Valtteri Bottas in second and the fast Red Bull of Max Verstappen in third. With Daniel Ricciardo, two-time winner this season, down in sixth with Kimi Raikkonen fifth, and the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve one of the easiest tracks to overtake on in the calendar, a thrilling race is on the cards.
Hamilton though has pedigree around this track, and should he triumph today he will tie Michael Schumacher with seven Canadian Grand Prix victories.
That's all from our live coverage as Sebatian Vettel wins his first Canadian Grand Prix with Ferrari and ends their 14-year wait for a win in Montreal, taking the championship lead in the process by a single point over Lewis Hamilton.
The F1 circus moves on to Paul Ricard in two weeks' time with the return of the French Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel, keen to honour the 40th anniversary since Gilles Villeneuve's first victory:
Perfect is a good way to describe it. I said yesterday how much this place means to Ferrari, we see it from the moment we touch down here, but to win here like that for me, unbelievable. I'm sure they had a blast and will have a blast tonight.
It's still along way so I'm not too bothered [about the championship lead], but it's a good side effect.
It's the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve, we had Jacques [Villeneuve] drive earlier that was very emotional and to win in a Ferrari like that is a great way to honour the great man.
Lap 67: Hamilton is within touching distance of Ricciardo as Hulkenberg holds up the Red Bull. He's just too far away to make a lunge though and Hamilton is not getting out of the corners as quickly as the Red Bull, and he loses a load of time when Sirotkin gets in his way.
Lap 66: Verstappen hasn't given up on second either as he's cut the gap to just 1.5s. We're set-up for a grandstand finish between Red Bull and Mercedes. Four laps to go...
Lap 65: Hamilton has the gap under 0.7s and is giving it all its got with the seven-race-old Merc engine. They're having to negotiate traffic as well as fight each other, with the two Renaults and Ocon in their way.
Lap 61: While Bottas' challenge has faded, Hamilton's has not and he's still catching Ricciardo in what could prove to be the best battle left out there. Verstappen meanwhile is 4.3s behind Bottas.
Lap 55: The gap continues to come down and Bottas takes another second out of Vettel! The gap comes down to three seconds...but Bottas is off! He runs wide at turn one and loses 1.8s as a result. Disaster for him and that could be a crucial mistake.
Lap 53: Bottas has taken a second out of Vettel in two laps, and the Mercedes is starting to show some much needed pace. Gasly meanwhile is told he has a slight concern with the brakes - which will not be music to his ears given the crash he suffered after brake failure in Monaco.
Lap 51: Hamilton's into DRS range as Ricciardo is unable to keep pace with Verstappen, who interestingly is only 6.5s off Bottas who in turn us catching Vettel. If this race is going to have any noteworthy action, it's going to come towards the end, so stick with it!
Lap 49: This is looking a bit more promising for Hamilton. He's dropped Raikkonen, who's five seconds behind now, and he's only 1.5s behind Ricciardo. Grosjean meanwhile has a hairy moment as he tries to pit and finds a Force India in his path, with Ocon overtaking him just before diving in.
