Race Report
Having qualified in the middle of the grid, the Ferrari duo had no place to go given the difficulty in overtaking cars that had a greater top speed than the F14 T. However, a frightening accident on the penultimate lap wiped out two cars so that the Ferrari men ended the race in sixth and tenth places. This was the first race of the year not won by a Mercedes, with Red Bull taking the victory courtesy of Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian recording his first ever Grand Prix win. Nico Rosberg was second for Mercedes and still leads the championship, while Sebastian Vettel was third in the second Red Bull.
The race got underway in very hot conditions, with the track temperature at 50 degrees. At the start, Fernando dropped a place to eighth on the outside of Turn 2, running behind Vergne in the Toro Rosso and ahead of Kimi who moved up to ninth.
The Safety Car came out after the two Marussia’s collided on lap 1. The laps run in this neutralised period at least meant that fuel consumption worries would be lessened after the SC came in on lap 7. Fernando and Kimi ran as high as third and fourth when others pitted ahead of them. Fernando came in on lap 16, fitting the Soft Pirellis and rejoining in 10th, having managed to get ahead of Vergne by a couple of car lengths as he came out of the pits. Kimi changed to the Softs on lap 17, but the Finn was now down in 13th behind Kvyat in the Toro Rosso.
The story of the race for both Ferrari men was one of frustration at not being able to pass cars ahead. Fernando’s pace was better in the middle stint, but there was nowhere for him to go, as overtaking was proving very difficult, with cars around him having better top speed. Kimi pitted a final time on lap 39, later spinning at the hairpin but continuing.
Fernando was ninth on lap 44 when he made his final stop and was up to eighth shortly after, but both his and Kimi’s promotion up the order came in the closing stages in what was a crazy end to the Canadian Grand Prix. Five cars were locked in a battle for the lead, with Rosberg chased by Perez, Ricciardo, Vettel and Massa. Perez dropped back and as Massa dived to pass him down the pit straight, the Mexican moved slightly off line, causing both men to crash very heavily. It brought out the Safety Car, which led the field past the chequered flag and promoted the two Ferrari men to their final positions, Fernando having been passed on the penultimate lap by Button in the McLaren.
Fernando Alonso, 6th“Looking at the wild final stages of the race, today we picked up some “lucky” points, but we still can’t be happy with where we finished as our aim was to do better than this. In the beginning, my pace wasn’t good and I wasn’t happy with the balance of my car. Then in the second stint, when the track began to improve, we found a good rhythm and we managed to catch the group in front. But we weren’t quick enough to join the fight. What Red Bull did in the race shows how quickly things can change in Formula 1 and that should be further motivation for us to get to a point where we can fight for the win. This weekend, we have made some steps forward, especially on the aerodynamic front, but the others have also improved and now, all we can do is carry on working to be as well prepared as possible for the forthcoming races.”
Kimi Raikkonen, 10th“We knew this would not be an easy race, because on this track, we were not fast enough down the straights and we had some problems in the slow corners. On top of that, today I never had a clear track ahead of me, for one reason or another I was always stuck behind other cars. In the beginning I had some problems with the brakes and the handling of my car wasn’t consistent. Then after a few laps, the tyres behaved better, but still with highs and lows. For a lot of laps, I was stuck behind Kvyat’s Toro Rosso and this cost me precious time. Even if at the moment, nothing seems to be going right for us, the new development package has given us more potential and now we must just try and find more consistency.”
Marco Mattiacci, Ferrari team principal“Even before we got to Montreal, we knew this would not be an easy race for us, because this is not a track that suits the characteristics of our car. The final result is definitely not satisfactory, far from it, but the improvement in performance seen over the weekend shows that to get the most out of our package, we have to push in those areas where our opponents are making the difference. Today we saw that for many teams, this was a battle fought on the reliability front and our main rivals were able to make the most of the opportunities presented to them by Mercedes. My congratulations go to Ricciardo for the first win of his career. As for the future, I can’t make predictions, but I would ask the team to take a long hard look at what they are doing and work together, putting in maximum effort so that our drivers can fight for more ambitious results.”
Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director“Tyre degradation had a significant effect on today’s race as did, in more general terms, everything linked to parameters affected by temperature, as today it was, as expected, very hot. The start wasn’t easy, because we were starting from far back and here, it’s almost impossible to overtake. The Safety Car coming out on the opening lap reduced the effect of fuel consumption and then in the second stint, on a clean track, the pace improved, but even so, it was difficult to make up places. Fernando’s first stop saw him get ahead of Vergne in the Toro Rosso, while Kimi lost time behind Kvyat, but in the end, he managed to get past. In the final stint, the group ahead closed up and our pace was very good withFernando, but it was almost impossible to overtake. We brought some improvements to the F14 T and even though this track did not produce the results we expected, we will continue to work on the development of the car and on this front our approach will not change for the coming races.”
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