Lewis Hamilton wins Canadian GP to lower championship deficit

Mercedes-Benz driver - Lewis Hamilton has won the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix and has thus managed to cut short his world driver championship point deficit from 25 to 12 points. Meanwhile, his team mate, Valtteri Bottas, secured the second spot on the podium, bringing home Mercedes' first 1-2 finish of the season. Red Bulls' Daniel Ricciardo took the third position on the podium, marking his hat-trick of finishing third after similar results in Spain and Monaco.

The race started with Hamilton on pole position, which was his 65th career pole. He was followed by championship rival Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. The British driver led the race throughout without any issues and managed to build a significant gap ahead of the pack of drivers behind him. He made a pit stop on lap 32 and came out with fresh new supersoft tyres, without losing a position. Hamilton also clocked the race's fastest lap time.

Meanwhile, things didn't go well for the Ferrari camp. Despite starting from second position on the pole, Sebastian Vettel didn't manage to get a perfect start. Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who started from fifth on the grid, went round Vettel's Ferrari into turn 1, damaging the Ferrari's front wing due to a contact. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas too managed to get on the inside of Vettel, taking the third spot. The damaged front wing resulted in the German driver going into the pits. He came out in 18th position.

Another incident took place on turn 2 of the first lap, when Roman Grosjean's Haas tangled with the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz. This contact spun the Toro Rosso, which then collided with Felipe Massa's Williams, thus ending the race of both cars. Grosjean suffered damage to his car's nose and thus limped back into the pits for a replacement.

After making an aggressive move on Vettel in turn 1, Verstappen held on to the second spot for some time. However, the Red Bull suffered an electrical failure on lap 11, which promoted Bottas to the second position. He was followed by Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Kimi Raikkonen and Esteban Ocon. Raikkonen was the first to pit on lap 17, followed by Ricciardo on the following lap and Perez on lap 19. When Bottas too went into the pits on lap 23, Esteban Ocon managed to take his Force India into the second position and stayed there, until his first pit stop on lap 32. He came out of the pits in sixth position, but soon got promoted to fifth when Raikkonen made another pit stop.

The two Force India's of Perez and Ocon ran fairly close to each other on fourth and fifth positions. Owing to Ocon's fresher tyres, the team wanted Perez to give away his position to his younger team mate so that he can attack Ricciardo and try to get a podium finish. However, the Mexican wasn't pleased with the team orders, despite being promised that the position will be given back if Ocon doesn't manage to get past Ricciardo.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel had managed to climb up the ladder from the 18th position and was running on 6th position, just behind the two Force Indias and ahead of his team mate - Kimi Raikkonen, who was suffering from brake issues. Thanks to the Ferrari's power advantage over the pink panthers and the battle between the two team mates, Vettel managed to get past and took the fourth spot on the finishing line. Perez and Ocon were fifth and sixth to cross the finish line.

The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen finished in 7th place, followed by Renault's Nico Hulkenberg. Williams' Lance Stroll earned his first points in F1 career ahead of his home crowd after finishing 9th, ahead of Romain Grosjean's Haas.

The next race on the calendar is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 25th June 2017. Current world drivers' championship rankings are:

1. Sebastian Vettel - 141

2. Lewis Hamilton - 129

3. Valtteri Bottas - 93