Vettel hits cruise control in Canada

Starting from pole for the third consecutive year, Vettel was never troubled in his Red Bull, finishing 14 seconds clear of title rival Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari.

The win made up for the fact Vettel had failed to take victory from pole the previous two years, notably in 2011 when he lost out on the final lap to McLaren’s Jenson Button. Alonso is now Vettel’s nearest challenger after beating Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in a thrilling late battle for the runner-up spot, but with the Spaniard 36 points adrift.

The cool, damp conditions that pervaded over practice on Friday and in qualifying on Saturday and had resulted in a few surprises, gave way to brighter, warmer conditions.

Under those climes, and given the pre-race forecast of only a 20 per cent chance of rain, it meant the prospect of anything other than a Vettel victory was always going to be a long shot.

The outcome was effectively decided on lap one as Vettel opened up a two-second lead on Hamilton from which there was no looking back.

There were only two notable moments of consternation for the reigning champion, the first of which arose on lap 11 when he brushed a wall, leaving black scorch marks on the white paint as he pushed to extend a rapidly-increasing advantage over Hamilton at the time.

The second was on lap 52 when he appeared to lose concentration as he ran off the track at turn one, prompting a call of “settle down” from his race engineer.

“It was a great race, I made a good start which was important, and I was able to go with the car,” said Vettel afterwards.

“The supersoft tyres fell apart, but I created gap, managed to keep it throughout the race, and with perfect pit stops it was a great race for the team.

“In winning here in Canada I’ve ticked this one off the list now, and with the sun coming out it was a perfect day.”

Behind Vettel, the battle was all about the minor places, which for 63 laps appeared to be Hamilton’s as he ran a comfortable second.

But in switching to the medium Pirelli compound for the final stint, the rubber proved his undoing as he could not keep Alonso at bay.

The double world champion had several laps earlier passed Mark Webber to move up to third, aided in part by a damaged front wing to the Red Bull.

That was due to Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde, running last at the time, colliding with the Australian at the hairpin as he ignored the marshals’ waved blue flags.

The incident earned the Dutchman a 10-second stop-go penalty for not only ignoring those flags, but also causing a collision.

At that stage Webber was closing in on Hamilton, but instead of racing for second, he eventually had to content himself with fourth.

Being no threat to Alonso, the Spaniard promptly set off in pursuit of Hamilton, sparking a fascinating tussle for several laps.

Eventually, Alonso held sway, but not without a brush of the tyres in the process as they headed into turn one.

Briefly, Hamilton was not done as he had a crack at Alonso later in the lap on the approach to turn 13, but had the door slammed shut.

It was Hamilton’s one opportunity, leaving him in third place for the third time this year in his debut campaign with Mercedes.

As for Alonso, who had started sixth, in finishing second to Vettel, it was as much as he could to limit the damage in the title battle.

Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen has now dropped behind Alonso in the standings after a see-saw race resulted in him finishing ninth.

The Finn has now equalled the record of Michael Schumacher for number of consecutive races in the points at 24, but it will be of no consolation as he is 44 points down.

Behind Webber, Monaco GP winner Nico Rosberg finished a staggering 70 seconds adrift of Vettel, and was the only other driver on the lead lap come the chequered flag.

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne was sixth, while Paul Di Resta made a one-stop strategy work to claim seventh after starting 17th, with Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil 10th behind Massa and Raikkonen. As for McLaren, winners in Canada for the last three years, the race was a disappointment with Sergio Perez and Jenson Button in 11th and 12th.