2018 Canadian GP : Drivers of the Day

The Canadian Grand Prix was a race of two halves with the premature end of a virtuoso performance resulting in one of the most exciting races of the season with no clear winner until the dying stages. Of the 22 drivers, who made the most of Montreal?

5. George Russell

After Antonio Giovinazzi delivered Tildesley GP’s first career points at Road America, George Russell has become keen to replicate his teammate’s feat. It appears as if the TGP-18 chassis is very good in a straight line as Russell proved very difficult to overtake at the previous race, so the stop-start nature of Montreal should’ve suited the car’s characteristics. Indeed in qualifying, both Russell and Giovinazzi delivered despite continuing to run the hard Firestone tyres, as they outqualified Charles Leclerc and Nolan Bryant. In the race, Russell’s performance was more understated as he drove consistently on a three-stop strategy and challenged Valtteri Bottas for 7th at the end of the race, which he would take post-race after the GRM driver was disqualified for illegal tyre use.

4. Mason Taylor

The ever improving CBA Racing team are now a team to look out for as a double points finish moved them up to 4th in the Teams Championship and the highest of the 18 chassis, but it was Mason Taylor who appeared to have the upper hand over his teammate as a fantastic qualifying lap put him 3rd on the grid and CBA’s strong straight line speed meant that he was difficult to overtake. A two-stop strategy gained him track position over Sebastian Vettel and once Alessandro Farina retired, he became a genuine contender for the race win. His final stop was early compared to his rivals and his final stint was a therefore challenge as he tried to look after his tyres, but found himself back in the lead once all pitstops were completed. He did his best to fend off the faster Fernando Alonso, but minor contact with the Shake ‘n’ Bake into the final chicane dropped him to 4th, and then he lost further positions to Lewis Hamilton and Tomas Gonzalez as his tyres faded. Nevertheless, it was a spirited drive from the Kiwi.

3. Lewis Hamilton

An unexpected podium finish at Road America looks to have revitalised the Mitchell as coupled with upgrades brought by Mugen, the team looked more competitive at Montreal than at any other point during the season. Lewis Hamilton qualified fairly well in 7th and his pace in warm-up suggested that he could challenge for a podium finish. A good start moved him ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and then his teammate for 5th, but his main targets were Kevin Magnussen and Sebastian Vettel. All three drivers were on three-stop strategies, and an earlier second stop moved Hamilton ahead of Magnussen, but the strategy meant that he fell behind the two-stopping Taylor, Alonso, and Vaino Kimminen. He then got stuck behind the CBA driver before pressuring the Kiwi into a mistake with six laps remaining and gained 4th place, which then became 3rd when Kimminen pulled over with gearbox problems.

2. Alessandro Farina

It would seem remiss to ignore Farina’s drive despite him scoring no points for the second race in a row, rendering Gojira AutoSport’s appearance in North America effectively pointless, but the simple fact was that Farina had the race sewn up. From pole position he steadily pulled away from Vettel during the first stint and pitted for his first of three stops a little later than expected and then continued to pull away during the second stint to a gap of around 20 seconds. This allowed Farina to maintain the lead after his second stop ahead of Taylor while Vettel and Magnussen got stuck behind Chuck Bucknum. That should’ve been that, but a slow puncture led to Farina losing control of his car going into the 8-9 chicane and beaching his Gojira in the gravel.

1. Fernando Alonso

This was the first race of the season where Shake ‘n’ Bake have experimented with an alternative approach to the race. They appeared to commit to a race set-up as early as Friday Qualifying where their times were somewhere in the midfield. Even so, Alonso was still able to qualify 12th on the grid whereas his teammate struggled to the back row, but with competitive warm-up times and the quicker soft tyres for the race, Alonso methodically worked his way through the field using a two-stop strategy and timing his speed accurately. His overtake on Catharina Caracciola on lap 29 was important for his race, as was remaining ahead of Vettel after the final round of pitstops. He eventually challenged Mason Taylor for the lead of the race and Taylor aggressive defence did lead to some contact going into the final chicane, but Alonso prevailed for his second win of the season to move into the lead of the championship.

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