Lewis Hamilton wins 2016 Canadian Grand Prix

The 2016 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix is officially in the books, with Lewis Hamilton winning from pole position ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who finished in second place. Valterri Bottas rounded out the podium in third.

The race really came down to a battle in pit stop strategy. Ferrari quickly placed Vettel on a two-stop strategy, while Hamilton took the soft compound on his first stop, planning on a one-stopper. But after Vettel’s second stop and Hamilton’s first stop, the Mercedes held a six-second lead over the Ferrari with 28 laps remaining.

Vettel made a costly error on lap 57, when he went through the final chicane and lost a full second to Hamilton. Vettel had been making progress and decreased the gap to Hamilton to around four seconds, but that was undone with his error with only 13 laps remaining.

Vettel wound up going wide on the final chicane a second time, and ended up six seconds back of Hamilton, who effectively shut the door on Vettel thanks to his tires holding out for much longer than anybody guessed they could. Bottas also ran a one-stop race but he spent much of the back-end by himself after Ricciardo and Rosberg made their late pits.

With Bottas finishing in third, Williams got their first podium of the season. Unfortunately his teammate, Felipe Massa had some engine problems and did not finish the race.

Hamilton has further closed the championship points gap to his teammate, Nico Rosberg. They started the race with a 1-2, but Rosberg quickly fell behind after being pushed in the first corner. In the end, Rosberg was battling young Max Verstappen of Red Bull for fifth place. The pair of them ultimately took fourth and fifth, though Rosberg nearly lost it when he tried to overtake Verstappen on the final lap, spinning out but regaining control to limp home for the fifth-place finish.

It was an exciting start to the race, as Hamilton angled his Mercedes to hold off his teammate. Both he and his teammate got a good start, but Hamilton wound up pushing Rosberg off the track, though no contact was made. Rosberg wound up in 10th place after starting from second.

But it was Vettel who had the best start, taking both Mercedes around the first corner and taking the lead into the end of the first lap.

Vettel went in for a pit stop under a virtual safety car to put on the super soft tires, but the safety car ended quickly and Vettel wound up coming out of the pits in fourth place, with an 11-second gap to Hamilton on lap 14.

The safety car came when Jenson Button’s McLaren engine quit on him and caught fire. He got out of the car safely and it was removed from the track, becoming the first driver out of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Vettel didn’t stay in fourth place for long, though. On fresher tires, he had a couple quick scraps with the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen. Vettel wound up overtaking both of them by lap 19 and was back on the hunt behind Hamilton.

Interestingly, Ricciardo also lost out to Kimi Raikkonnen when he went in for his pit stop. The crucial pit stop from Hamilton finally came, and he did come out ahead of most of the pack ... but in second place. Hamilton came back onto the track behind Vettel, and was timed just over 13 seconds behind the Ferrari driver on lap 28.

Rosberg found himself low in the points, but battling for position. He passed Fernando Alonso, and then was stuck behind the Mercedes-powered Williams of Valtteri Bottas. Eventually, Bottas himself passed Ricciardo, and Rosberg made his way past Ricciardo as well.

But a slow puncture to his rear right had Rosberg pitting on lap 53, and when he came back out he was in seventh place again. He eventually fought up to fifth, behind Verstappen and the podium finishers, but ahead of Raikkonen.