McLaren won a tyre gamble on Sunday as they got their second one-two finish in a row from Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, in an action-packed Canadian Formula One Grand Prix.
Hamilton claimed the championship lead ahead of the title holder Button with his 14th career victory, from the pole position, on the site where he won his first race back in 2007.
Hamilton overtook an ailing Red Bull of Mark Webber in the 49th lap and never looked back for victory in 1 hour 33 minutes 53.456 seconds for 70 laps, while Button snatched second place with a great passing move on Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso in the 55th.
Victory was sweet for McLaren who had caused raised eyebrows on Saturday by choosing soft tyres in qualifying (and so for the first stage of the race as well) instead of the hard rubbers which weren’t as more durable in the end as expected.
“The team got it right and the drivers did a fantastic job. We have the two best drivers right now,” said McLaren’s elated team boss Mark Whitmarsh.
Hamilton said: “It has been a tremendous weekend. Things have just gone so well. It was one of the toughest races so far.”
Two weeks after a collision of their drivers in Turkey, Red Bull was again on the losing side and missed the podium for the first time in the season, with Sebastian Vettel fourth and Webber fifth.
Their own tyre gamble did not lead to victory, Webber had to start from seventh instead of second place due to a late gearbox change and Vettel experienced gearbox problems in the race, according to team boss Christian Horner.
Hamilton, who won the Turkey race from Button, leads the standings with 109 points from eight of 19 races as the championship has swung in McLaren’s favour. Button has 106 and Webber dropped from first to third with 103 points. Alonso and Vettel follow on 94 and 90 points, respectively.
“We took a different strategic decision ... But the advantage (of the hard tyres) wasn’t big enough,” said Horner, who was at least pleased to have won some “valuable points.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, said that Red Bull has an overall advantage but that “We are a better job on the race weekend.” Hamilton won the start from Vettel while a little further back Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Force India and the Ferrari of Felipe Massa touched a few times and spun through the first turns, but both could continue.
A few other cars touched as well but the safety car did not have to come out.
Webber battled Button and managed to pass him in the fifth lap as the McLaren soft tyres started to grain very soon, forcing Button into the pits in the sixth lap and Hamilton in the seventh.
Alonso joined Hamilton for a tyre change and the two almost collided exiting their pit boxes, but escaped without damage. In 2008, Hamilton drove into Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane and had to retire.
Alonso won that battle but Hamilton finally squeezed past the Spaniard in the 15th and was back in the lead as the Red Bulls had by then also changes tyres, with Vettel on soft ones and Webber on a another set of hard rubbers.
The race settled into a quieter phase, but only for around 10 laps as most drivers came in for a second stop long before the halfway mark of the 70-lap race.
Webber stayed out much longer but a big lead was cut by Hamilton, Alonso and Button, and Hamilton got past the struggling Aussie heading into the 49th lap en route to victory.
“It was a very difficult race because of the tyres. You never knew if you are looking after them enough or are not pushing enough,” said Button.
Nico Rosber was sixth in a Mercedes, Robert Kubica seventh in a Renault, Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi finished eighth, Liuzzi ninth and his teammate Adrian Sutil 10th to complete the points.
Record champ Michael Schumacher had a race to forget, culminating in a dangerous manoeuvre with Kubica and being passed by Liuzzi and Sutil in the final lap to finish 11th.
The next race is the European GP on June 27 in Valencia.
