Sebastian Vettel won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, leading almost the entire way to extend his lead in the Formula One points race.
Starting from the pole position, the Red Bull driver finished 14.4 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton was third after holding the lead for three of the 70 laps after Vettel made an early pit stop.
After practice and qualifying were slowed by rain, the sun came out for a warm and dry race on the Ile Notre Dame. That gave Vettel, who skidded in the rain on the final straightaway to give up the lead here two years ago, a clear path to the chequered flag.
Vettel picked up 25 points in the standings to extend his championship lead over Lotus’ Kimo Raikkonen.
Vettel’s biggest difficulty on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve came when he brushed the wall in the 11th lap. But he extended his lead before pitting in Lap 16 and switching from super-soft to the medium tires that he continued with for the rest of the race.
By the end, the Red Bull car had lapped every other in the field except for the top five finishers.
Alonso, who is third in the standings, passed Hamilton, who is fourth, at the start-finish line in the 62nd lap to take third place. Vettel’s teammate, Mark Webber, was fourth and Nico Rosberg was fifth.
“We’ve had good races before, but it didn’t come together to win,” Vettel said on the victory podium. “It made up for that today. Great feeling. Great car by the team, and we were really able to pull away from the rest of the field.”
