Vettel and Massa out in Q1. Looks like MGUK issue for Seb. Lets see if Kimi can do better than P3

Hamilton was simply untouchable in quali. Bad luck for Seb and Nico. The race tomorrow will be very interesting with such a competitive mid field. The front end might see a procession though!

The Canadian GP is turning out to be unpredictable so far.
After the FP3 surprises, the next victim was Vettel with an MGU-H failure. Massa gave him good company.
The Merc. PU advantage was clearly visible as every Merc. powered car except for Massa made it to Q3.
Everyone might be looking in their mirrors as Verstappen will start at the back of the field tomorrow.
He will have to take a 10-second stop-and-go penalty during race.

First time since 2013 Chinese GP, Kimi is starting within top 3 pos.

See how excited he is about it..

Qualifying Times:

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What a beautiful shot.

“If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough.” Mario Andretti.

Photo courtesy : http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...ity-third-grid

To compound matters for Vettel, looks like he overtook during Red Flags in FP3 and will be handed a 5 place grid penalty.

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/3213/...ews-for-Vettel

Vettel gets 5-place grid penalty and 3 penalty points for overtaking under red flags.

So the order at the back end of the grid would be Vettel, Verstappen, Button.

Just to highlight how complicated F1 rues have become, Vettel has a 5 place grid penalty and Verstappen has a 15 place grid penalty as of now. Most likely, Button is also set to receive a penalty for ICE change. Verstappen and Button are likely to get further time penalties during the race since they couldn't take the entire grid penalty. However, Vettel is unlikely to get additional time penalty even if he doesn't serve his full 5-places penalty since he didn't receive it as part of power unit penalty, which seems to be the only type that carries over as time penalty!

The starting grid after applying the penalties looks like below.

With Max, Vettel and Massa all starting so low down the order, it is going to be an interesting first few laps.
Massa was said to have had a fixing within the wastegate mechanism of the turbocharger failed & the same will be replaced under parc ferme.

Looking at the best sector times, I was wondering what Alonso is doing so far up in the first sector timing standings.

Vettel/Massa charging up the field should make an exciting race. McLarens will be sitting ducks with the top speed deficit. Have a feeling we will see a nice fight for P1 between the Mercs.

Dont think rain is coming.

Looks like the failure on Button's PU was a serious one indeed.
ICE, TC, MGU-H, MGU-K and the Hydraulic pack had to be renewed on the car.
Since the TC and MGU-H are the 5th for this season, a 15 place grid penalty was imposed. As the car is already at the back of the grid, the penalty has been converted to a drive through within the first 3 laps.

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Lol. Formula Yawn!

Mercs doing fuel saving and brake saving! Ridiculous. No racing whatsoever.

What a drive from vettel! In a race where his team mate went down a place, he made up 13 places from the back of the grid!

Good drive from massa as well!

McLaren...hehe, they should really consider taking a year off or something.

With the car they've got, they'll be better off posing than racing. Even Marussia had one car that finished the damn race!

The mercs are still leading the pack when it comes to race pace. Easily by half a minute ahead of anyone when it comes to race pace.

Pic: Courtesy SKY SPORTS.

I think everyone was waiting forever for the late charge from Nico to challenge Lewis which never came.
Quite a few passing moves & contacts made thanks to Vettel & Massa charging through the field.
Contrasting fortunes for Kimi & Vettel. Kimi was unlucky to get an ERS induced spin and not able to catch it while Vettel had luck on his side especially at the last chicane, where he was involved in two near-miss incidents first with Alonso and then with Hulkenberg.
Vettel's job was made easier by Grosjean by making contact with Manor's Will Stevens and picking up a puncture and getting out of the way. But the biggest news for Lotus is that Maldonado did not crash into anyone and ended up scoring the first points of the season.
All is not well at McLaren it seems, as frustration was betrayed by Alonso on the radio when asked to save fuel.
"I don't want, I don't want," he replied. "Already I have big problems now. Driving with this and looking like amateurs. So I'd like to race and then I concentrate on the fuel."

Race results:

This was the first incident-free Canadian Grand Prix in a yaaawn time. A boring race with both Nico and Lewis driving to preserve their machinery. Vettel's charge through the field deserves an . If he didn't have to make the early unscheduled pit stop, I'm sure he would have been higher up and perhaps even squeezed out a podium finish.

This race compounded two big things for me. Hamilton has Rosberg easily covered for the whole season. Vettel seems to like this years Ferrari more than Raikkonen. I do wonder if Vettel was a bit too early to make his first stop after just 8 laps down. In the end it all worked out but makes me think if Vettel had maybe done 3 more laps he may have overtaken Kimi towards the end of the race.

Massa's overtake on Nasr in the first part of the race was the move of the year so far for me. Good discipline from both drivers.

Ferrari has a package that can easily overtake anyone other than Mercedes and Williams. If you remember Malaysia, Kimi started from P11, got a first lap puncture that dropped him to the back of the grid and eventually made his way through the field to finish in P4. Vettel's drive yesterday was just similar which points to a strong package of the Ferrari.

I think everyone had the tyres but not enough fuel left to go flat out in the end. So I doubt if Vettel would have covered Kimi even with a later first stop.

It was Massa and Ericsson - it was really good wheel to wheel racing.

True, I think fuel was tight for all.

Ferrari also seemed more concerned about who was behind rather than attacking in front. Stopping Kimi for options to try and catch Bottas wasnt a great idea. It was never going to happen. I am not sure if he had blistered his soft tyres because of the spin and recovery but that was a bit confusing for me.