Sven
Norm Smith Medallist
The seventh GP of the year takes us to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. The Canadian Grand Prix has been held there since 1982, except for 1987 and 2009 when the Canadian GP wasn't run.
Lewis Hamilton previews the track:
The track features a number of high speed straights and low speed corners. The track is best be described as a low down-force, power circuit which should be right in the sweet spot for yet another Mercedes dominated race.
Drivers Championship
Rosberg's controversial pole and subsequent win in Monaco sees him jump back into 1st position over Hamilton in the title race. Alonso's consistency sees him holding on to 3rd in the Championship with Ricciardo steadily closing the gap in 4th.
The two horse race for this year's title could become reminiscent of the Prost/Senna battles of the late 80s, and everyone will be keeping an eye on how the Hamilton/Rosberg relationship develops over the year. The frosty relationship between Prost and Senna took two years to reach its peak (Suzuka 1989) and I'm sure that was due, in part, to the fact that Prost scored more points in 1988 but didn't win the title.
The thing is that no one knows how long the Mercedes domination of Formula One is going to last, so Hamilton and Rosberg could see this year as their best chance to win the title, and as everyone knows, only one driver can win the title.
1 Nico Rosberg 122
2 Lewis Hamilton 118
3 Fernando Alonso 61
4 Daniel Ricciardo 54
5 Nico Hulkenberg 47
6 Sebastian Vettel 45
7 Valtteri Bottas 34
8 Jenson Button 31
9 Kevin Magnussen 21
10 Sergio Perez 20
11 Felipe Massa 18
12 Kimi Räikkönen 17
13 Romain Grosjean 8
14 Jean-Eric Vergne 4
15 Daniil Kvyat 4
16 Jules Bianchi 2
Constructors Championship
With 19 races on the calendar, it's just a question of when Mercedes seal the Constructors title this year. The double points for the last race make it hard to predict but my guess is that Mercedes will wrap up the title by round 14 or 15.
1 Mercedes 240
2 Red Bull Racing-Renault 99
3 Ferrari 78
4 Force India-Mercedes 67
5 McLaren-Mercedes 52
6 Williams-Mercedes 52
7 Lotus-Renault 8
8 STR-Renault 8
9 Marussia-Ferrari 2
The Canadian Grand Prix traditionally suits the more powerful cars and straight line speed is very important, but as Hamilton points out in the track video, performance under breaking is also very important. Teams that have not perfected the new break by wire and energy harvesting system that comes with breaking these days will struggle in Canada. It'll be interesting to see how Räikkönen goes during the weekend, because he seems to be one of the drivers that are currently struggling with the system.
Tyres have been problematic in previous years, but this year's tyre is very conservative and I don't expect tyre issues to feature prominently during the weekend. The tyre choice for Canada is the same as it was for Monaco - soft and supersoft.
Lewis Hamilton previews the track:
The track features a number of high speed straights and low speed corners. The track is best be described as a low down-force, power circuit which should be right in the sweet spot for yet another Mercedes dominated race.
Drivers Championship
Rosberg's controversial pole and subsequent win in Monaco sees him jump back into 1st position over Hamilton in the title race. Alonso's consistency sees him holding on to 3rd in the Championship with Ricciardo steadily closing the gap in 4th.
The two horse race for this year's title could become reminiscent of the Prost/Senna battles of the late 80s, and everyone will be keeping an eye on how the Hamilton/Rosberg relationship develops over the year. The frosty relationship between Prost and Senna took two years to reach its peak (Suzuka 1989) and I'm sure that was due, in part, to the fact that Prost scored more points in 1988 but didn't win the title.
The thing is that no one knows how long the Mercedes domination of Formula One is going to last, so Hamilton and Rosberg could see this year as their best chance to win the title, and as everyone knows, only one driver can win the title.
1 Nico Rosberg 122
2 Lewis Hamilton 118
3 Fernando Alonso 61
4 Daniel Ricciardo 54
5 Nico Hulkenberg 47
6 Sebastian Vettel 45
7 Valtteri Bottas 34
8 Jenson Button 31
9 Kevin Magnussen 21
10 Sergio Perez 20
11 Felipe Massa 18
12 Kimi Räikkönen 17
13 Romain Grosjean 8
14 Jean-Eric Vergne 4
15 Daniil Kvyat 4
16 Jules Bianchi 2
Constructors Championship
With 19 races on the calendar, it's just a question of when Mercedes seal the Constructors title this year. The double points for the last race make it hard to predict but my guess is that Mercedes will wrap up the title by round 14 or 15.
1 Mercedes 240
2 Red Bull Racing-Renault 99
3 Ferrari 78
4 Force India-Mercedes 67
5 McLaren-Mercedes 52
6 Williams-Mercedes 52
7 Lotus-Renault 8
8 STR-Renault 8
9 Marussia-Ferrari 2
The Canadian Grand Prix traditionally suits the more powerful cars and straight line speed is very important, but as Hamilton points out in the track video, performance under breaking is also very important. Teams that have not perfected the new break by wire and energy harvesting system that comes with breaking these days will struggle in Canada. It'll be interesting to see how Räikkönen goes during the weekend, because he seems to be one of the drivers that are currently struggling with the system.
Tyres have been problematic in previous years, but this year's tyre is very conservative and I don't expect tyre issues to feature prominently during the weekend. The tyre choice for Canada is the same as it was for Monaco - soft and supersoft.
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