Well, well, well. So the race started and finished with Lewis Hamilton in control, Sir Patrick Stewart in fine spirits and with Daniil Kvyat swearing down the team radio. Thanks for your company, that was a real belter. Have fun! Bye!
Sebastian Vettel's championship lead is cut to 12 points...#CanadianGP 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/8m7TrXjxI2
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 11, 2017
Updated
He then proceeds to drink the champers from his boot. A ‘shoey’ they call it down under. And oh my goodness, Sir Patrick Stewart follows suit. Honestly, that just happened. “I am proud of you for doing that,” says Hamilton.
Daniel Ricciardo is smiling too. “Today I only had fun when I saw the chequered flag,” he says. “It was tough, we were defending the whole race. It was getting hot and my concentration was being tested.”
Updated
And then the champagne follows. And Sir Patrick Stewart is back to – awkwardly – interview the drivers on the podium. Hamilton starts with a charm offensive for the Canadian fans. “I am over the moon,” Hamilton then says.
As for Bottas, he says: “Montreal has been a good place for me, as a team we really needed this one-two”.
Updated
Here come those national anthems ... Lewis Hamilton cannot stand still – he is absolutely ecstatic.
Hamilton, Bottas and Ricciardo ready themselves for the podium. Sebastian Vettel’s phenomenal finish was every bit deserving of a spot there too, but he had to settle for fourth in the end. This is Hamilton’s sixth win in Canada, and his 56th race win. Not bad going, eh?
PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 11, 2017
First @MercedesAMGF1 1-2 of 2017
RIC's third straight podium
And that's only half the story...#CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/vUUHxgUgRQ
Updated
“Yes, finally some points, thanks a lot guys,” says Lance Stroll, the Canadian, down the team radio. “It has taken a while,” he says, after finishing ninth in Montreal.
Mercedes tell Hamilton that “was a walk in the park”. It really was too. “Fantastic job guys, great points for the team,” says Hamilton. “Well done to Valtteri as well.”
“This is not fair guys, he cannot do that,” says Ocon of his battle with Perez. “This is not fair at all.” The Force India team debrief will make interesting viewing, listening etc.
Hamilton has the British flag in his hands and he’ll be delighted with that. He led from start to finish and it’s a Mercedes one-two as well, with Valtteri Bottas coming in second:
1 Hamilton
2 Bottas
3 Ricciardo
4 Vettel
5 Perez
6 Ocon
Updated
Lewis Hamilton wins Canadian GP!
Ten years after his maiden win here, he has won for a sixth time in Montreal and dented Vettel’s championship lead in the process.
Updated
Lap 70/70: Alonso’s engine blew up, that’s why his race is over. The final lap in Montreal is underway and Hamilton – barring something disastrous – is coasting to victory ...
Lap 69/70: And there comes Vettel again, who jumps into fourth and past Perez. He was down in 18th not so long ago. Brilliant, brilliant driving by the Ferrari. Is it too late to catch Ricciardo?
Lap 68/70: Fernando Alonso is out of this race. It’s not clear why, but he’s finished here.
Lap 67/70: Vettel really seized upon the Force India squabbling there. Great brave, driving. That could have gone so wrong, but the German, who leads this drivers’ championship, is after every point he can get.
Lap 66/70: Ocon overtakes his team-mate Perez, but as he does so, Vettel speeds forwards and forces the Frenchman off the track. Ocon is the biggest loser there. To clarify, as it stands:
1 Hamilton
2 Bottas
3 Ricciardo
4 Perez
5 Vettel
6 Ocon
Lap 65/70: Vettel has a go at Ocon but it comes to nothing. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg is making headway on seventh-placed Raikkonen.
Lap 64/70: Raikkonen is all very excitable down the team radio but what is clear is that he is still struggling. Could Vettel finish any higher than sixth? He has the Force Indias of Ocon and Perez in front of him.
Lap 63/70: Raikkonen is losing time on Vettel. It sounds as though he has braking problems. His team are frantically trying to address them but it could be too late.
Lap 62/70: “What can I do?” yells Raikkonen. As it stands, Hamilton would make some real headway at the top of the drivers’ championship. Nine points could separate he and Vettel by the close of play.
Lap 61/70: Vettel seizes on a mistake by Raikkonen who makes a mess of things before the chicane and the German flies into sixth.
Updated
Lap 60/70: And Raikkonen is now closing on sixth-placed Ocon. He has shaved four seconds off that gap. “Kimi, you know the score, the front of this group is the podium, let’s push on,” is the message down the team radio.
Lap 59 of 70: Fourth and fifth would be alright, wouldn’t it? Force India aren’t settling for second-best as such here.
Lap 58/70: Force India are doing lots of talking over the team radios but Ricciardo still has a relatively healthy half a second lead over Perez. And that’s that for Kvyat, who becomes the fourth casualty of this race. He’s retired from down in the pits.
Lap 57/70: Hamilton laps Lance Stroll and there’s a thumbs up from the Mercedes driver to go with it. This is all very easy. Perez says “just give me a chance”. He has been given three laps by Force India to attack Ricciardo.
Lap 55/70: “It is a waste of time, I want the chance to overtake him [Ricciardo],” Perez says down the phone. ‘Why should I let my team-mate Ocon past?’, in other words.
Updated
Lap 54/70: Kvyat comes down the pits, it looks like he is in trouble. A real mess in the pits, and he may as well retire here. Kvyat asks his team to stop the engine and Kvyat will be fortunate not to finish this as a back marker, if at all.
Lap 53/70: “We are the fastest out on track,” Vettel is told on the team radio, after setting a fastest lap. Ocon and Perez are still chasing the Red Bull of Ricciardo.
LAP 53/70:
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 11, 2017
P3 RIC
P4 PER
P5 OCO#CanadianGP 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/DpOPBDpOLQ
Updated
Lap 52/70: Hamilton leads Bottas by 12secs. Ricciardo trails Bottas by 13secs. Perez is one second behind the Australian and Ocon is less than a second behind his Force India team-mate. The two are probably not close enough for Ocon to bypass Perez without the Spaniard coming to a halt.
Lap 51/70: Ocon continues to shave time off the gap between he and Perez. He has gained almost a second over the past five laps. The two Force Indias are in a prime position at the moment but Ocon probably has a better chance of nipping in ahead of third-placed Ricciardo.
Updated
Lap 50/70: Sebastian Vettel pits and comes out on to the track behind Raikkonen and into seventh. And on Max Verstappen retiring. “It looks like an electrical issue, it was complete shutdown,” Horner says.
Lap 49/70: Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, says: “The tyres seem pretty durable at the moment”. He reckons degradation’s not an issue on track. “I am more worried about Force India at the moment than I am Ferrari,” says Horner.
Lap 48/70: “It is really hard to lean on them,” Ricciardo says of his soft tyres down the Red Bull radio.
Lap 47/70: Hamilton is still out in front and untroubled, with Bottas trailing the Mercedes by 10secs. More good progress by Lance Stroll, who has just nipped in front of 10th-placed Alonso.
Updated
Lap 46/70: Vettel is driving superbly, making some real progress out on the track from sixth. At this rate, he has every chance of grabbing a spot on the podium ...
Updated
Lap 45/70: Vandoorne is asked to hold up Stroll, “if you can”, in order to help Fernando Alonso. Vandoorne is comfortably outdone on pace on the chicane though and the Canadian is up into 12th in front of his home crowd.
Lap 43/70: Raikkonen sets a new fastest lap of 1.15.725 on those brand spanking new ultrasoft tyres.
Updated
Lap 42/70: Alonso and Hulkenberg get a little touchy-feely but the Spaniard is still just ahead of him in eighth. Stroll has another go at Grosjean and this time nips in front of the Frenchman. “Do the other cars have to stop?” asks Vettel over the team radio ...
Lap 41/70: Stroll is stuck behind 13th-placed Grosjean, who had an interesting start in Canada. Meanwhile, Raikkonen pits for the second time, as does back marker Wehrlein.
Lap 40/70: Hmmm ...
BREAKING: There's a Lewis Hamilton scarecrow in the @MercedesAMGF1 garage 😱#CanadianGP 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/xY3VH2K3QB
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 11, 2017
Lap 39/70: “Is Ricciardo still in the race,” asks Steve via email. Indeed, he is up in third at the moment. Perez is on his tail, though. Meanwhile, Mercedes talk to Hamilton about Vettel’s race plan. There’s some toing and froing between them, of course.
Lap 38/70: Ferrari say the issue for Vettel, currently seventh, is that he has a “damaged floor”. That’s not good news.
Lap 37/70: “A cake walk for Lewis Hamilton,” says John McEnerney via Twitter. The problem for Verstappen’s early retirement? A battery problem, a loss of power in the hybrid system, say Red Bull. A real shame that after a brilliant start.
Lap 35/70: So at the halfway stage, Lewis Hamilton is in cruise control. He is 9.8secs in front Bottas. Ocon, meanwhile, is struggling to get close to Raikkonen.
Updated
Lap 34/70: Hamilton sets a new fastest first sector, and his Mercedes is still slightly quicker than that of Bottas.
Lap 33/70: On goes the supersoft tyre, and with Ocon also pitting Hamilton comes out in front – no problem. Ocon, though, comes out behind Raikkonen but just in front of Vettel, whose seventh. Kvyat, meanwhile, is swearing down the Toro Rosso team radio. He is not a happy bunny.
Lap 32/70: Bottas almost gets a chance to pounce, with Ocon appearing to lose some grip on turn 1. The Force India just about redeems himself but Bottas will take encouragement from that. Meanwhile, race leader Lewis Hamilton comes in to pit ...
Lap 31/70: Bottas trails Ocon by 0.630secs. Wehrlein is the back marker, just behind Stroll who has fallen to 16th.
Lap 30/70: Magnussen does well to keep Kvyat at bay but he can only hold him off for so long, with Daniil Kvyat eventually soaring into tenth.
Lap 29/70: Ocon is still keeping Bottas at bay, and this is dream scenario for Hamilton. “What is Ocon doing?” asks his Force India team-mate, Perez. He seems a little bemused as to how he’s so far in front. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg overtakes Magnussen to hop into ninth.
Lap 26/70: ... and now Hulkenberg zooms past Stroll, with the Williams deciding to pit after that. In second, Esteban Ocon, is yet to pit. Alonso moans to his team, “you are not giving me the right information”.
Lap 25/70: Hulkenberg and Stroll are having a tasty battle for tenth. Stroll is still winning it at the moment, though.
Lap 24/70: “We are thinking soft tyre for next in. Ricciardo is on it now,” Mercedes tell Hamilton. Out on track, Lewis is currently on the ultrasofts. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? He has just set another fastest lap of 1.16.269.
Lap 23/70: With all this going on, Hamilton is going about his business quietly, still out in front. Bottas pits, but its lightning quick and he’s back out on track.
Lap 22/70: Vettel now storms past Magnussen to climb into eighth. His next target? Seventh-placed Fernando Alonso.
Lap 21/70: Hamilton, Bottas and Ocon, the front three, are all yet to pit. And Vettel surges past Stroll up into ninth, he has turned his race on its head. It’s a corker here ...
Lap 20/70: Vettel bypasses Hulkenberg and the Ferrari now has his eyes on overtaking Stroll. Perez, meanwhile, pits and now Ricciardo pips him back into fifth place.
Updated
Lap 19/70: Ricciardo pits, so Alonso surges up into fifth for now.
Lap 17/70: Hulkenberg, in tenth, bypasses Stroll but then the Canadian fights back and tries to get past Magnussen. They are not giving up their places easily, though, and each car resumes its spot. Raikkonen pits, and comes back out on the supersofts.
Lap 15/70: Perez and Ocon, the Force Indias, are up into fourth and sixth respectively. This could prove quite the day for the underdog, with Verstappen out and Vettel struggling down in 13th.
Lap 14/70: A drive through penalty for Kvyat, for “failing to regain position” before the safety car was out on track. He had made some slightly surprising headway. Easy to see why now.
Lap 13/70: 17/20 drivers remain in Montreal. Hamilton leads from Bottas out in front.
Lap 12/70: Bottas is up into second then, with Verstappen finished in Montreal. It appears his car just conks out on him just as he accelerates away from the corner. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg, Ericssen and Palmer all pit. More Ferrari debris on the track too.
Lap 11/70: Heartbreak for Max Verstappen: his race is over. He is livid as he makes his way out of the cockpit. The virtual safety car is in order ...
Updated
Lap 10/70: Hamilton sets another fastest lap, and he is four seconds clear of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Updated
Lap 9/70: Christian Horner: “hopefully we can hang on and give it our best shot”. Hamilton leads, with Verstappen in second, Bottas third and Ricciardo up into fourth.
Lap 8/70: To clarify, Massa is also out. Meanwhile, Vettel says “I think I have lost some front wing again, something came off, something came off”. It does not sound too good. Red Bull chief Christian Horner, says Verstappen “had a mega-start”. Indeed.
Updated
Lap 7/70: Carlos Sainz trudges back to the pits with his race over after that frenetic start, which resulted in him crashing out. Listening to the team radio, Grosjean seems adamant that that clash was Sainz’s fault. Hmmm ...
Lap 6/70: Hamilton sets the fastest lap to date as Vettel pits. The Ferrari has the supersoft tyres on, as well as a new nose. We have some more debris on the track too.
Updated
Lap 5/70: Raikkonen runs wide into turn 7 and he is a lucky boy to still be in this race. He slams into the barrier but bounces back onto the track. As for that missing front wing, that belongs to the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, who now pits ...
Lap 4/70: There’s plenty going on here: we have another damaged front wing, with carbon fibre flung into the air just after the restart. Verstappen, meanwhile, is straight up in the face of Hamilton, but the Mercedes keeps him at arm’s length.
Lap 3/70: The safety car is still dictating proceedings out in front.
Lap 2/70: “Unbelievable, I have no idea what happened,” says Massa, with that incident under investigation. It would seem Grosjean hit Massa, who then flew into Sainz. Fernando Alonso’s thoughts? “What are they doing, they need to calm down,” says the Spaniard.
Lap 1/70: And we already have a safety car out on track. No overtaking for the time being. Kvyat, despite those difficulties, is up to 10th. Sainz’s race is over, Massa bumps into the Haas of Grosjean, who now comes in to pit, with a changed front wring. Wehrlein is also into the pits. A manic start in Montreal ...
Lights out!
Max Verstappen flies up into second place out of turn 1, and Carlos Sainz is straight into the barriers. Felipe Massa looks in trouble too. Hamilton still leads.
Updated
It’s blowing a hurricane in Montreal – a hay fever nightmare. There’s rubbish, dust and all sorts floating about. As the drivers set off on their warm-up lap, with Kvyat eventually joining the others, after his car initially stalled on the grid.
The grid!
1 Hamilton 2 Vettel
3 Bottas 4 Raikkonen
5 Verstappen 6 Ricciardo
7 Massa 8 Perez
9 Ocon 10 Hulkenberg
11 Kvyat 12 Alonso
13 Sainz 14 Grosjean
15 Palmer 16 Vandoorne
17 Stroll 18 Magnussen
19 Ericsson 20 Wehrlein
Now for the national anthem of Canada. The racing is coming up in a few minutes ...
The drivers are gearing up for a minute’s silence on the track. Just before, Fernando Alonso, who starts down in 12th, says he is confident he can make good progress in today’s race.
Sir Patrick Stewart is the centre of attention on the grid, with all the usual pre-race rigamarole going on. He plugs a movie or two, and that’s that. Niki Lauda’s there too. “It is going to be very exciting and I hope that Lewis can do it,” Lauda says.
Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is the setting for today’s race, named after the late Ferrari racing driver. Despite its name and history, as well as Ferrari’s swashbuckling record in Canada – they have won here on 11 occasions – their last win on this track came in 2004. Sebastian Vettel, who starts alongside Lewis Hamilton on the grid, has every chance of changing that. “I expect a close race,” the German says.
Updated
“When I was going into qualifying I had not even thought about equalling Ayrton,” Hamilton says. Mercedes’ boss Toto Wolff says the wind in Montreal is “very gusty, and it makes a huge difference” despite some lighthearted jokes about English weather.
Updated
Preamble
Lewis Hamilton’s in the driving seat for this one. The Mercedes driver produced a stunning lap to earn pole in Montreal, and Ayrton Senna’s helmet in the process. The 30-year old helmet was a gift from the family of the three-time champion after Hamilton equalled his record of 65 poles on Saturday. It is all promising for Hamilton who has won in Canada on five occasions.
Hamilton finished the session 0.330 seconds quicker than Sebastian Vettel, with Mercedes team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, taking third spot on the grid. Vettel, though, still leads the way in the drivers’ championship by 25 points before lights out this evening. Kimi Raikkonen will start from fourth, Max Verstappen from fifth and Daniel Ricciardo from sixth.
The gift of Senna’s helmet, from the late Brazilian’s family had Hamilton speechless. “Wow,” he said. “I’m shaking. Ayrton, I know for many of you was your favourite driver and he was for me. He inspired me to be where I am today so to receive this is the greatest honour.
“It is the most special thing I have, beyond all trophies,” he added. As I kid I thought maybe one day I can get to Formula 1 and emulate Ayrton. To equal him; I just can’t believe it.”
Of his lap time, Hamilton said: “It was a sexy lap, a great lap. I can’t believe it came together so well. The team did a great job to learn from our mistakes in the last race and I really owe it all to them.”
Lights out: 7pm BST
Updated
