It seemed like it was never going to happen in the 2014 racing season but Mercedes finally lost a race as Daniel Ricciardo won his first-ever Formula One race as he fended off Nico Rosberg in his crippled Mercedes for the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix victory and four-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel finished third. In a bit of foreboding, the tone for the race was set on the very first lap when Marussia teammates Alex Chilton and Jules Bianchi took each other out of the race in a crash. Only 16 laps later, Rosberg nearly crashed after experiencing braking issues and nine laps later, had to cut a corner when more braking issues emerged. By the time Lap 47 arrived, Rosberg’s teammate Lewis Hamilton was experiencing the same braking issues and had to retire from the race.
With just over 20 laps to go, Rosberg had to drive the remainder of the race at a slower pace, allowing Ricciardo to make up the large gap that Rosberg had built up in the previous 50 laps. Ricciardo, as well as Sergio Perez of Force India, Vettel and Felipe Massa of Williams had all made up time on Rosberg and were headed for a five-way battle for the finish when Massa rear-ended Perez on the final lap after Perez had also been experiencing braking issues. That led to an anticlimactic finish under caution.
Only 10 cars were on the lead lap by the end of the race – but that is a vast improvement over the Monaco Grand Prix where only four cars were left on the lead lap – but only 14 cars were able to finish the race.
In the season point standings, Rosberg maintains the season lead over Hamilton with 140 points to Hamilton’s 118 followed by Ricciardo in third with 79 points.
The 2014 Formula One racing season continues with the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Austria on June 22, 2014.
2014 Canadian Grand Prix Results
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault Winner 6 25
2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +4.2 secs 1 18
3 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault +5.2 secs 3 15
4 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +11.7 secs 9 12
5 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +12.8 secs 11 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +14.8 secs 7 8
7 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +23.5 secs 4 6
8 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault +28.0 secs 8 4
9 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes +29.2 secs 12 2
10 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +53.6 secs 10 1
11 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes +1 Lap 13
12 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes +1 Lap 5
13 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari +1 Lap 16
14 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +6 Lap 22
Ret 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +11 Lap 14
Ret 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault +23 Laps 15
Ret 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +24 Laps 2
Ret 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault +47 Laps 21
Ret 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault +49 Laps 17
Ret 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault +63 Laps 20
Ret 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari + secs 18
Ret 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari + secs 19