We had to expect a mega-watt grin from Daniel Ricciardo on the podium after his first F1 win. Similarly, Sebastian Vettel was magnanimous in defeat and yet the World Champion still found time to cut to the chase. "The Mercedes-powered cars were just too quick," Vettel said, and he didn't mean the works cars. Well not from about lap 37 anyway. Rather, getting stuck behind the one-stopping Force Indias of Sergio Perez and, particularly, Nico Hulkenberg was the cause of his vexation. "Basically my race was over. I couldn't get past," lamented Vettel, who'd run second in the early stages. But it also helped Ricciardo, who'd been a fairly anonymous sixth early on, to get past him. How so?
MW
Jenson Button's charge through the pack in Canada may have gone under the radar, but it had hallmarks of his famous victory in 2011. The McLaren driver was one of the first to stop in Montreal dropping him to 17th and third from last having started in ninth. Even after the others had stopped, Button had still dropped to P14 and it looked like being another disappointing day for the Woking squad. Even when the 2009 World Champion pitted for a second time on lap 37, he was still outside of the points in 13th.
WE
...It was a point Martin Brundle made at the start of the Canadian GP as Alonso's Ferrari, which had fallen to eighth place on lap one, laboured behind Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso. Quick getaways have proved a real ace up the Spaniard's sleeve in recent seasons - particularly so during 2012, a year which, in lots of respects, may prove the high watermark of his F1 career. Alonso made up a total of 30 places on the opening lap that season; only four times did he tread water, as it were, but given he was on pole position at two of those races then perhaps the urgency - of not having to play catch-up - wasn't quite the same. In fact, if we use the last three seasons as our sample, it was only at last year's Korean GP that Alonso actually lost any ground on the opening lap. Since then, however, that has been the trend more often than not - given the notable exception of China, where Alonso used his start (even with that whack from Felipe Massa's Williams) to propel himself to a podium finish. It's uncanny how often one has led to the other in the recent past and with Ferrari's F14 T appearing as underwhelming as its predecessors, it's a knack he'd probably do well to rediscover.
MW