The 2017 Canadian Grand Prix is in the books and it was an easy victory for Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes went 1-2 in a result reminiscent of last year. Hamilton went virtually unchallenged as a charging Max Verstappen clipped Hamilton’s main competitor – Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel – at the start of the race, damaging Vettel’s front wing and ultimately requiring Vettel to pit early and essentially take him out of any chance to win the race.
That left Hamilton and his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, to parade around the Montreal circuit for 70 laps with little to no challenges – much like the Mercedes 1-2 snoozefests of 2016 – with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finishing a distant third. The only drama was provided by Vettel in his rampage back from 18th place after he had pitted, to eventually finish fourth and the new intra-team battle between Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon which was escalated when the #1 driver [Perez] was in the slower car and instead of ceding placement to his teammate, Ocon, decided he would block him instead. That tactic prevented Vettel from catching Ricciardo for the final podium position but did allow Vettel to pass both of them and capture fourth.
With all this action, ASN has decided to award Vettel with top points for the race for his remarkable surge of 14 spaces after the Verstappen-caused damage to his car, second-place points to Ocon, who would have had a legitimate shot at the podium had it not been for his own teammate blocking him as well as team not clearly ordering Perez to move aside and the final point to Hamilton, who merely had to steer his car around the track for 70 laps.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award was a no-brainer – figuratively and literally – as it goes to Carlos Sainz, Jr. for causing a three-car wreck on the first lap that took out himself and Williams’ Felipe Massa and caused damage to Romain Grosjean’s Haas. Sainz, Jr. was subsequently handed a three-grid spot penalty for the next race at Baku.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award goes to Grosjean for his rather sensible reaction to the silliness of Sainz – “What the f-k is wrong with that guy!?”
The Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Moment Award goes to Canadian Grand Prix race stewards for not correctly assessing a full penalty on Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat at the beginning of the race and then correcting their mistake by enforcing the penalty’s remainder on Kvyat, who responded afterward by calling the whole thing a “stupid, f-king circus”. Kvyat eventually left the race in Lap 55 after more problems with his car.
2017 ASN Formula One Driver Rankings [after Canadian Grand Prix]
1] Sebastian Vettel – 18 points
2] Lewis Hamilton – seven
3] Valtteri Bottas – five
4] Esteban Ocon – four
5] Sergio Perez/Kimi Raikkonen – two
7] Fernando Alonso/Romain Grosjean/Daniel Ricciardo/Stoffel Vandoorne/Max Verstappen – one
2017 Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award [after Canadian Grand Prix]
1] Perez/Sainz, Jr. – two
3] Grosjean/Magnussen/Palmer/Vandoorne – one
2017 Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award [after Canadian Grand Prix]
1] Alonso – two
2] Button/Grosjean/Mercedes pit [Bottas]/Red Bull pit [Verstappen]/Vettel – one
2017 Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Moment Award [after Canadian Grand Prix]
1] Ecclestone – two
2] Australian Grand Prix officials/Bottas/Canadian Grand Prix officials/Mercedes marketing/Lance Stroll – one point