Rate the Race and Driver of The Weekend:
Round 7, Canada, 10th June 2018.
Rate the race Mean Reader Score: 3.50
Yup, Three point five zero. Less than half the score of 2017 (7.34) and much less than 2016 (6.57). In fact this tiny score ranks Canada as the worst race of this season, P7. Why was the score so low? Was it because
- Expectations were so high it couldn’t possibly live up to them or
- It was a really poor race?
Comments below, please (if you can be bothered!). I always feel worried when the commentators start going on about how great a circuit is, eg Monaco being the Jewel In The Crown of the F1 calendar etc, as it’s often the prelude to a disappointing race. The commentators curse of sorts. Well so it transpired in Canada this year. Vettel took pole from Bottas, Vercrappen, (sorry, Vercrashen), Hamilton, Raikkonen and Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Ocon , Sainz and Perez, and set a new fastest (qualifying) lap of 1:10.764. Hartley and Stroll (or was it Stroll and Hartley?) took each other out with the first crash of the day on Lap 1, at T5/6 causing a safety car to be deployed. Next to hurl abuse and call for Sainz to be black flagged was Perez in a collision which turned out to be a racing incident: Hamilton complained of his car having ‘drop-outs of power’: Ricciardo put in a couple of super fast laps before pitting, coming out ahead of Hamilton and basically provided the best (IMO) entertainment of the day, keeping Hamilton behind him (which he later said was like a little win): Alonso (on his 300th F1 race) retired (again) and Vettel won not only the race but moved to the top of the leader board in the WDC standings.
Driver of the Weekend: Sebastian Vettel: 36.97% of reader vote
Unlike last year, when Hamilton won the race and Vettel won the Driver of the Weekend, this year Vettel won both, fairly comfortably, taking his 50th career win and leading every lap of the race, which he controlled from start to finish. He didn’t have the best FP1 and FP2 but made up for it in FP3, qualifying and the race itself. With Mercedes having an engine upgrade next time out, will Vettel be able maintain P1 in WDC standings, or will Hamilton come back with a vengeance?
Vettel has now been leading the driver championship for four races compared to Hamilton’s three. Well done Sebastian!!
@F1TheaJ
