On the eve of the Canadian Grand Prix, Ferrari and McLaren-Honda have decided to use some of the tokens allocated to the development of their power units in order to ensure greater performance and reliability, which are crucial to closing the gap on Mercedes. This was announced by the FIA on Tuesday 2nd June 2015 in a statement by Technical Director Charlie Whiting, who informed all the teams of the decision taken by the Maranello and Woking teams. The Anglo-Japanese team, like Ferrari, has opted to benefit from the upgrades on Sunday in Montreal. The Maranello team will use three tokens, while Honda will use two of the ten allocated for the season. The Maranello team's decision comes as a surprise, with team principal Maurizio Arrivabene stating after the Monaco Grand Prix that no tokens would be spent in Montreal. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton has signed a contract extension with Mercedes. The extension until 2018 will earn him almost 170.000.000 euros, or 56.000.000 euros per season from 2016 to 2018. However, with his current contract, Hamilton is only third in the earnings table with €25.000.000, despite a 20% increase for winning the 2014 world title. Ahead of Hamilton are Fernando Alonso, who would earn €35.000.000 by moving to McLaren-Honda, and Sebastian Vettel, who would earn €28.000.000 from Ferrari. They are followed in the tens of millions by two other world champions: Kimi Raikkonen, who reduced his salary from €22.000.000 to €18.000.000 to stay at Ferrari, and Jenson Button, who accepted €10.000.000 to stay at McLaren. Ahead of the British driver is Nico Rosberg with a salary of €13.500.000. After the top drivers there are a number of drivers with salaries of €4.000.000, led by Felipe Massa. The Williams driver is joined by two Force India drivers, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, and two Lotus drivers, Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. Daniel Ricciardo's situation is worth noting. The Red Bull driver is said to have signed a watertight contract for which he will have to settle for €1.500.000. The other Williams driver, Valtteri Bottas, earns more with a salary of €2.000.000, while his team-mate Daniil Kvyat has a contract worth €750.000. The two young Toro Rosso rookies receive a salary of €250.000, followed by the two Sauber drivers, Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, on €200.000 each. At the bottom of the pile, both in terms of results and earnings, are the Manor Marussia drivers: Will Stevens takes home €150.000, while Spanish debutant Roberto Merhi has to settle for €50.000. Looking ahead to the Canadian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton is trying to forget what happened on the streets of Monaco at the last Formula 1 World Championship race. The world champion insisted at Thursday's press conference, where he faced an endless series of questions from the media in attendance:
"I have full confidence in Mercedes, we've had incredible success together and one race doesn't change the solid foundation we've built. Everything is fine with the team and I'm ready to turn the page and have a good weekend. I don't want to dwell on Monaco, I've moved on and I'm not interested in what happened. There's no point in talking about it, there are still a lot of races to go and a lot of improvements to be made. I've got a great team and a great car; there's a championship to win and that's what I want to concentrate on. It doesn't matter what I thought or how I feel now. I feel strong and fit and that's enough".
There's no point in insisting, the Englishman confirms his position.
"I have a habit of never looking back, always looking forward. And since Sunday I haven't thought about that race, but about how to react strongly this weekend and go faster. I can't do anything to change the past, so there's no reason to keep thinking about it. Last year my qualifying wasn't the best, while in other years I didn't finish the race, so we have to try to do well all weekend and go fast. This is a beautiful track and this is where I won my first Grand Prix. I've always been pretty fast and we hope to have a good weekend, that's my goal".
He then comments on the possibility that Ferrari might do better because they spent three tokens to increase the power of their engine.
"I don't know what Ferrari have done. I have to assume that they are improving. Ferrari were much faster in the first races, so they should be faster now. But for our part, we are doing well".
Max Verstappen was one of the (negative) protagonists of the Monaco Grand Prix. The Toro Rosso driver's crash on St Devote, when he collided with Grosjean's Lotus, caused the Safety Car to be brought out, which ultimately cost Lewis Hamilton victory due to a strategy error by his team. As a result of this mishap, the young Dutch rookie will start in Canada with a five-place grid penalty.
"I didn't brake late, I always braked in the same place. I've learnt that the cars are quite strong and resilient and I'm glad I didn't get hurt. I got back in the car and worked on it: I'm fit and I'm going to keep fighting, especially to score points, and I'm not going to change my driving style".
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in Friday morning's first practice, over a second quicker than his fastest time in the same session in 2014 and four-tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg. Both Lotus and Force India showed good pace, with Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg third and fourth fastest, but over 1.5 seconds behind Hamilton. Incidents during the session included Hamilton spinning out when his brakes locked up and Carlos Sainz Jr stopping at the end of pit lane as he set out to do a timed lap towards the end of the session. Hamilton was again quickest in the second session, but crashed while running on intermediate tyres in the wet. Ferrari appeared to be closer to Mercedes, with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in second and third respectively, less than 0.4 seconds behind Hamilton. Lotus confirmed their good pace from the first session, with Pastor Maldonado fifth fastest behind Rosberg. The typhoon that hit the circuit upset Ferrari's plans. Despite using the new engine with three development tokens and gathering some interesting data, the storm prevented them from completing their work. A torrential downpour covered the track during the second practice session, making it pointless to go out. Hamilton tried, but the result was a crash into the barriers. Despite leading the standings, Hamilton had a day of mixed fortunes, dominating the charts but also making several mistakes, often related to the brakes, which caused concern for Mercedes, as team boss Toto Wolff admitted. Hamilton almost collided with Grosjean (who had already been hit by Verstappen in Monte Carlo) and had a difficult time over the kerbs. These mistakes, combined with Rosberg's unimpressive times, give hope to Ferrari. But Ferrari must also hope for greater competitiveness. Vettel vows:
"We are closer, the gap to Mercedes has narrowed".
It's up to the track to prove it. Meanwhile, Raikkonen faces his first test of confirmation, perhaps made easier by the lack of competition (Red Bull claim Ricciardo is safe, and to release Bottas would mean paying a multi-million dollar penalty), but he needs to improve his performance, especially in qualifying, where he has been consistently behind both Alonso and Vettel. The third practice session on Saturday morning was interrupted by two red flag periods. Twenty minutes into the session, Felipe Nasr lost control of his car as he swerved from side to side on the first part of the Casino straight, trying to raise his tyre temperatures with his drag reduction system open, and crashed into the barrier on the inside of the track. After the red flag is waved, with only twelve minutes of the session remaining, all the riders take to the track to try out the super-soft compound. However, this did not last long as Jenson Button had to park his car in turn seven, reporting a problem with his power unit. This brought out the red flag again, effectively ending the session. Nico Rosberg was fastest, half a second ahead of Raikkonen, while Hamilton completed just nine laps, ending the session with the slowest time. A few hours later, while Sauber were able to get Felipe Nasr into a new car in time for qualifying after his practice accident, Jenson Button's problems could not be resolved and he missed the session, leaving his participation in the race up to the stewards.
In the first part of the qualifying session (Q1), Mercedes are able to avoid using the faster Supersoft tyres, but still manage to set times under 1'16"0. The fastest driver in the session is Romain Grosjean, who is just a little quicker than the Mercedes drivers, but on the softer compound. With Button out of the running, four drivers remain to be eliminated. The two Manor drivers once again failed to make the cut, starting 18th and 19th, with Roberto Merhi out-qualifying his team-mate Will Stevens for the first time in a qualifying session in which both drivers took part. They are joined on the sidelines by two more prominent drivers as both Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa suffer power unit problems and finish 16th and 17th respectively. Lewis Hamilton is quickest in Q2, just 0.012 seconds ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg. The Mercedes power unit proves its superiority on the high-speed Montreal circuit, as all the remaining Mercedes cars make it through to Q3, with Kimi Raikkonen and the two Red Bull drivers taking the remaining three places. This is the first time in 2015 that Force India have managed to get both cars into Q3 in qualifying, having last done so at the 2014 German Grand Prix. As the top ten take to the track for the final part of qualifying, Nico Rosberg is unable to beat his Q2 time with his first quick lap. Hamilton, on the other hand, improves his time and is more than three tenths of a second quicker than Rosberg. When both drivers failed to improve their times on their second timed laps, Hamilton took the 44th pole of his career. Row two is occupied by the two Finns, Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas, just ahead of the two Lotuses of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. Both Lotus drivers came out of the pits at the same time for their final timed laps and took to the track side by side. The two Red Bulls finished eighth and ninth, splitting the Force India pairing of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Pérez. It wasn't easy, but today was fantastic with pole 44," said Lewis Hamilton in a press conference after securing pole position number 44 in his career.
"FP3 was difficult and I started qualifying with a lot of questions about the set-up, but it turned out well. Today was a challenge to warm up the tyres, but I enjoyed it. To come back here and get pole number 44 is special for me and the team did a fantastic job. They have regained their humility and helped me to do better than Rosberg".
Nico Rosberg adds:
"In the end it didn't go well because I lacked grip at the rear. The team think they understand why, but I can't say. The first set was decent but not good and I couldn't improve after that. Credit to Lewis for getting pole, but tomorrow is the race and overtaking is possible here. I think we are the quickest, but we have to keep an eye on Kimi because he is also quick. The start is still important".
Kimi Raikkonen expressed his satisfaction with the excellent qualifying.
"We'll see what happens tomorrow, but overall it's been a pretty good weekend. The conditions are good and I don't think I could have done any better. Tomorrow is the race and we are stronger, we need a good start. It's not ideal because they're both in front, but it went quite well".
Asked about the criticism, he shrugs it off, saying:
"You're always criticised no matter what you do, so I don't care. I'm interested in the race and if you qualify well it's better. Today we didn't have any problems, unfortunately Seb did, but otherwise everything went well and we took care of all the details. I'm happy with third place in qualifying, but there's still a lot to do and we'll try to do our best".
The shocking news came from the other Ferrari, that of Sebastian Vettel.
A problem with the electronic control unit cost the German driver dearly, as he retired from Q1 qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
"We couldn't get full power".
Sebastian Vettel explains the problem with the engine control unit that prevented him from progressing to the second part of qualifying.
"It didn't go well from the start, we couldn't get full power. We tried something to make up time, but even if we had made it to Q2, we wouldn't have been able to do more".
Vettel, who was due to start on the eighth row, was penalised five grid positions and three points on his licence for overtaking under red flags in FP3. As a result, the German will start from the back of the grid. Vettel was summoned by the stewards to explain his overtaking of Merhi's Marussia during the red flag, when Jenson Button's McLaren stopped at Turn 7. Despite Vettel's argument that the Marussia appeared to have a problem as it was moving slowly, the stewards decided that a penalty was necessary. A setback that has persisted since the Spanish Grand Prix weekend has frustrated Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, who said:
"We better get moving to eliminate it forever".
Fortunately, at least Kimi Raikkonen finished qualifying in third place. However, he regretted a slide that prevented him from catching Nico Rosberg, the lesser god of Mercedes, who was beaten by Lewis Hamilton and was ready to define the qualifying as terrible over the radio due to the total lack of grip. But it was impossible to match Hamilton's times. In Montreal, he secured pole position 44, a lucky number that is also emblazoned on his car. He proved to be a phenomenon because he didn't even take part in FP3.
"I was confused about the set-up, struggled to get the tyres up to temperature, but everything worked and I had fun".
Still the favourite with the pole position, and with a warning for the rivals beginning to spread. Mercedes didn't use any tokens to work on reliability, allowing them to raise the risk threshold as an engine power. As a result, they may have gained similar advantages to Ferrari and their three development tokens, and extended them to Lotus (watch out, Grosjean and Maldonado are fast and may make one less pit stop) and Force India. On Sunday 7 June 2015, at the start of the Canadian Grand Prix, all the drivers at the front of the grid get away without incident and with no changes in position. On the outside of turn three, Nico Hulkenberg passes Pastor Maldonado for sixth place. Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa, who both start from the back of the grid, make up places early on in the race and are twelfth and thirteenth by the time Vettel comes into the pitlane for his first stop on lap nine. The pit stop did not go well as his car was stationary for around six seconds. Two laps later, Massa, in turn, passes Marcus Ericsson for eleventh place in a wheel-to-wheel manoeuvre through turns one and two. Meanwhile, at the front, Lewis Hamilton had built up enough of a gap to second-placed Rosberg to deny him the chance to use DRS and try to overtake. On lap 14, Massa overtook 2014 race winner Daniel Ricciardo to move up to tenth place. The first pit stops at the front began on lap 18 when Maldonado pitted from seventh. While Massa overtook Daniil Kvyat into seventh place on lap 21, Sebastian Vettel was stuck in 16th behind the McLaren of Fernando Alonso, who was forced to conserve fuel, a problem also affecting his team-mate Jenson Button. By lap 23, however, Vettel had passed Alonso and the two Toro Rosso cars of Verstappen and Sainz to move up to 13th. On lap 28, Kimi Raikkonen was the first of the front runners to pit, coming out in fourth, but spun in the hairpin in a repeat of the 2014 incident. The incident cost him twelve seconds and allowed Valtteri Bottas to stay ahead of him in third place after a pit stop on lap 30. Hamilton pitted on the same lap and Rosberg followed suit two laps later, both without incident.
At this point, Rosberg was about 1.5 seconds behind his team-mate. Four laps later, Sebastian Vettel made his second and final pit stop of the race. Massa makes his only pit stop on lap 38 to change to the super-soft tyres, dropping from sixth to ninth. Raikkonen pitted again on lap 42 and remained in fourth position ahead of Romain Grosjean's Lotus. On lap 46, Vettel overtook Hülkenberg in the final chicane to move up to eighth. There was no contact between the two drivers, but the Force India spun to avoid the wall on the outside of the final corner. Two laps later, Fernando Alonso becomes the first driver to retire from the race with mechanical problems, his third retirement in a row. On lap 52, Romain Grosjean tried to overtake Will Stevens and cut his left rear tyre. The incident also earned him a five-second time penalty. Pastor Maldonado's other Lotus also loses a position when Vettel passes him for fifth on lap 56. Two laps later, Jenson Button joins his team-mate in the pits after being called by his team. Felipe Massa moves up to sixth, overtaking Maldonado on lap 64. For the remainder of the race, Hamilton held the lead and won for the fourth time in Montreal, finishing 2.2 seconds ahead of Rosberg, with Bottas a further 38 seconds behind in third. In a deep voice, the man in the blue sweater said:
"Seb".
The German suddenly turns in the middle of the crowd and recognises who has called him. It was Sergio Marchionne, the president of Ferrari. Smiles and hugs followed. They were not celebrating a triumph, but a phenomenal performance. Perhaps inspired by the presence of Al Pacino and Michael Douglas, Vettel had achieved something close to epic, overtaking car after car (with a few mistakes, but that is the risk when you put your heart and soul into a spectacular comeback) from eighteenth on the grid to fifth, 4.3 seconds behind Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen, who started third, drove an anonymous race and, in front of the President's eyes, lost the podium, being overtaken by his fellow Finn Bottas, who has been touted by many as his successor, to finish a disappointing fourth. Vettel and Raikkonen are the two contrasting faces of Ferrari in Canada. The brightest face, of course, is that of Hamilton, who strolled from start to finish and can finally play with the number 4, his favourite, as this is his fourth win of the season, his fourth triumph in Montreal, and he pulls Rosberg's 6 close behind his 44, giving Mercedes their fourth one-two finish of the season. There was no contest for the Grand Prix win. Hamilton was perfect, even Rosberg admits, dominating at will and expressing his joy at the end of the race.
"This win is for my race engineer, Peter Bonnington. He had a tough week and helped me a lot this weekend. What do you think? It's a very important win and it's nice to be back on the top step of the podium. I love this track, where I got my first career win in 2007, and I love this city. It was a fantastic weekend. I think I didn't have the best balance because I had quite a lot of understeer, although I was always under control, except for two lock-ups. Nico was fast, but I was always able to get something out of my pocket when I needed to, so I didn't have too many problems defending the lead. It was a good race. I don't know about those who watched it, but for me it was intense and I enjoyed it. Nico said that Kimi had the pace to stay with us at the beginning, then made some mistakes, while Sebastian started too far back to analyse. Next race we'll have a better idea if and how much they've closed the gap".
The screaming crowd is all for him, for the star who combines speed with glamour. Rosberg surrendered right from the start and had to settle for second place, leaving him 17 points behind.
"It was a great race against Lewis. I pushed like crazy to put pressure on him, but he didn't make a single mistake, so credit to him. It was a challenging race because I had to manage brakes, fuel and a lot of other things. I couldn't catch him, but second place is still good. The race pace was there. I think it was the little bit I lost in qualifying. It was the grid position that made the difference; I'll have to try to make up for it next time".
Commenting on the mid-race brake problems, the German driver said:
"We were both on the limit, but I was a bit more because I was behind and couldn't cool them down because I was getting dirty air from the other car. That was the difficulty in attacking: every time I got close, the brakes overheated and I had to slow down. What a shame. But it's nice to see that the gap to Ferrari hasn't changed. This is very important for us".
Hamilton is the superstar. But then, more than Bottas, on his first podium of the season, his and Williams', and more than Raikkonen, there's Vettel. He outperformed everyone and left Marchionne gasping in astonishment.
"I looked at the times, impressive. Ferrari can't be happy with fourth and fifth, they have to be angry if they don't get on the podium, just as they can't be satisfied with just one win of the season, there has to be more".
But you can't help but be pleased with what Vettel has done, confirming that he is an excellent acquisition.
"It's too late now, we can't change what happened. We shouldn't have any regrets: there was a problem yesterday, but today we didn't have to worry about it because we managed to fix it before the race. Tomorrow we have to start understanding what kind of problem it was and make sure it doesn't happen again. I don't know why I was too far back today, obviously I started too far back, but I think it depends a lot on the tracks, they go up and down a bit. I think my pace was good in the end. I felt very comfortable with the car, it seemed to go faster, but I had too many cars to overtake, too many cars in front, so I don't know where the Mercedes were or if they could have been faster. But the most important thing is that I had a good recovery, a strong race and I'm happy with the result. Yes, of course it's not nice for the president who came here to watch, but we knew what we had to do: in my case it was to try to recover as much as possible and in Kimi's case to aim for the podium. I don't know exactly what happened; I heard he spun in a similar way to last year, which would be a shame if it cost him the podium. In general, I think we had the pace to get another podium today, especially here, it's very nice, so it's a shame we missed it, but we're looking forward to Austria to react".
On the battle with Alonso, he adds:
"Fernando defended very well, he didn't give an inch. With hindsight, I should have been smarter. We were close; I touched him with my right front wheel, but fortunately nothing happened. The second time I was more cunning and benefited from a better exit, leaving him the dirty line under braking. This gave me a better turning radius and more speed on the exit".
Commenting on the battle with Hulkenberg, the German Ferrari driver said:
"I was much quicker on this lap and didn't have to put too much pressure on the car to overtake. I was clearly in front. Then I saw him brake in the first part of the chicane and that's when I reacted by skipping the second turn because if I had stayed on the track we would have definitely collided. In retrospect, I shouldn't have tried so hard to defend because I couldn't have kept him behind for the whole race. But as a driver you don't want to give up your position".
Was Ferrari president Marchionne here in Montreal to see you?
"The result wasn't good for the president who came to watch us. I don't know what happened to Kimi, I think he spun and it's a shame we missed the podium. But we are looking forward to going to Austria to react".
Sebastian Vettel is working great, he is in tune with the team and gives us confidence for the future. The team has a winning mentality, is working beyond the limits and the engine development can certainly help us. We have already seen significant progress here and there will be more, especially in Monza. Marchionne has only one thing to say.
"The rules, incomprehensible. They need to be changed. To make F1 a real sport again. It attracts the spectators, the TV viewers and the sponsors".
And then Kimi Raikkonen. The fourth-placed driver is making Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene furious.
"If I told you my feelings, I would have to use strong language, so it's not appropriate. We threw away a podium, that's the truth. Although Seb had a great race, I have to say, it wasn't enough because he would have finished behind the Mercedes anyway and that's not acceptable. I mean, we have to move forward. It is true that podiums can be boring, but it is worse to be on the podium and we have to keep going. I expected at least, apart from the problem we had yesterday, to keep our position on the podium and move forward. Instead we went backwards and that's not good, no excuses. Our race pace, if we analyse it, was good, but there were circumstances that prevented us from getting a better result. Sebastian drove a fantastic race, making up thirteen positions from the grid. The 'evolved' engine gave us a positive response, but the whole weekend didn't go well. As for Kimi, we had planned one pit stop for him. We went to two when he was overtaken by Bottas after spinning in the hairpin. It's an incident we don't fully understand and it could be a case of shared responsibility, as he told us the same thing happened a year ago. In any case, it would be wrong to blame him or the team. Like Seb, he was pushing, but he had some problems that forced him to slow down at certain points in the race. We have to remain humble and try not to let the podium slip away again like this time. We are still the second best team, but we have to look forward and not backwards".
Have you talked about team orders?
"No, not at all. We haven't talked about it. We made it clear before the season started that both riders were free to race. We said that if we could win a couple of times this year, we would be happy. We have to remember where we come from. We never talked about the title. (On updates) Yes, we got what we wanted. We have to admit that they (Mercedes) are just stronger than us at the moment. It's not realistic to say that we've closed the gap on Mercedes, but we're on the right track".
On Kimi Raikkonen's race strategy, the Italian manager said:
"For Kimi we had planned a single pit stop. We switched to two stops when he was overtaken by Bottas after spinning in the corner. It's something we haven't fully understood yet and it could be due to shared responsibility, because he told us the same thing happened a year ago. In any case, it would be wrong to blame him or the team. Like Seb, he was pushing, but he had some problems that forced him to slow down at certain points in the race".
Sergio Marchionne is more reserved. But when asked directly (would Raikkonen confirm it?), he replies sharply.
"It's too early to talk about the future".
It's better to enjoy Sebastian Vettel's performance.
"We had podium pace, but we started too far back. It felt like I was driving at the speed of the Mercedes; we'll make up for it in Austria".
He can, Raikkonen must, having made a mistake in the same place last year.
"It's not the result we wanted. Something strange happened in that corner on that lap; I couldn't control the front. We never had this problem in practice, but for some reason there was too much acceleration. The same thing happened last year; it was an unfortunate episode and obviously it ruined my result. It wasn't what the team wanted, but that's how it happened... I'm pretty sure we solved the problem last year. It's a very strange thing, because of course we try to test and simulate everything, and so far this year we haven't had problems like this in other races, and here... I don't know the answer to that. I think it went more or less as we expected, but in the end on this type of track you have to manage the fuel well and that limited our speed a bit. The tyres lasted as expected, it went quite well, we did the maximum from that point of view. In the end, we had to save a bit of fuel and that cost us a lot of time".
On Mercedes, he adds:
"I think we went as we expected; obviously they are the favourites on this type of track. We have work to do, we have to keep working and improving. This is not exactly the result we expected this morning".
Commenting on the problem during the race, the Finn said:
"We probably should have been smarter and avoided the problem. On our map it was something that was at risk. The pedal moves a bit and you get a huge difference in torque and I can't control it anymore. It happened last year, but it was a bit different here, but it ended the same way. It's a stupid thing, but it happens... So we have to learn from it and obviously it hurt us in the race. We wanted more, but that's the way it is".
Valtteri Bottas was clearly grateful to Raikkonen: his compatriot's mistake, when he spun on cold tyres after the pit stop and finished third, paved the way for the Williams team to clinch their first podium of the season.
"I am really happy for myself and for the team. I'm really proud to be part of it; we did a great job all weekend. Kimi's mistake cost us a position, so we changed our strategy in a very dynamic way to keep it. The team did a great job, but I also had a pretty good race. It's hard to say if I would have finished third anyway without Kimi's spin, but it certainly helped us and fortunately we weren't so far behind that we couldn't take advantage of it. We managed to put pressure on them from the start of the race. We also changed our strategy during the race. I'm really happy to have been able to compete with Ferrari; I'm sure this will be a great motivation for the whole team. The champagne tasted really good today; we needed this result. I hope from now on we can do what we did last year. We know that we're back as a top team and that we can fight for the podium. In Austria, with the package we have brought here, we hope to repeat these results".
Of course, Sebastian Vettel had to fight to achieve this miracle, even risking a penalty for overtaking Nico Hulkenberg, who had to veer off the track to avoid contact. However, the stewards deemed the manoeuvre to be correct, paving the way for the amazing comeback. Felipe Massa finished sixth in the other Williams, also making a great comeback after starting from the eighth row. Seventh was Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus-Mercedes, followed by Hulkenberg's Force India. Ninth was Kvyat's Red Bull ahead of Grosjean's Lotus. And McLaren? Another disaster with a double retirement. So zero points for Alonso after seven races. To find something similar, Fernando has to go back to his Minardi days and his F1 debut. But let's get back to the phenomenon of the day, this Lewis Hamilton, who dominated from the first to the last lap, setting record times and giving Rosberg, the only one who could threaten him, a run for his money in the same car.