‘Perfect day’ as Vettel ends Canadian hoodoo

Sebastian Vettel finally laid to rest his Canadian Grand Prix hoodoo with a victory he believes makes amends for his mistake of two years ago.

From his third consecutive pole position at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Vettel last night made the advantage stick with a comfortable win to keep him on target for a fourth successive Formula One world title.

In 2011, Vettel should have won what was an epic race, the longest in the sport’s history given a two-hour delay for rain.

But on the closing lap Vettel made an error that opened the door for Jenson Button to take a memorable chequered flag given he had paid six visits to the pits, including one for a drive-through penalty.

Last year Vettel had to settle for fourth behind Lewis Hamilton, so his joy on the podium was palpable in getting the monkey off his back and claiming his 29th career victory.

“Finally I can tick this one off the list, so I am very proud of that,” said Vettel.

“We’ve had good races here before, but it didn’t come together to win, particularly two years ago when I was very close, only to lose it on the last lap. It was my mistake, but I made up for that today.

“And the sun also came out, so it couldn’t have gone any better – a perfect day.”

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 – a brush with a wall on lap 11 and an off at turn one on lap 52, the latter prompting a call of “settle down” from his race engineer.

For once, Vettel heeded it and come the conclusion he was 14 seconds clear of Fernando Alonso, who enjoyed a thrilling tussle with Hamilton he eventually won on lap 63.

“It was a great race with a great car,” said Vettel.

“I had a very good start which was very important, and then I was able to really go with the car.

“I was able to build a bit of a gap, which we kept throughout, and from there I was able to control the race, control the gaps.”

Alonso appreciated that in starting sixth and finishing second it was a case of damage limitation as he now trails Vettel by 36 points.

“Yesterday we obviously didn’t have a good qualifying, I wasn’t able to put the lap together, and the conditions didn’t help,” said Alonso.

“But in dry conditions, the car on Friday was good, so we had some hope (of victory).

“But when you are fighting with top drivers, and I had a very good fight with Mark (Webber), Nico (Rosberg), and then Lewis at the end, it’s not easy, even if you have a little more pace, because they are super talented.

“In the end this second place is like a victory for us because we scored some points at the end of a difficult weekend.”

For Hamilton, the final stint on the medium compound tyres proved his undoing, resulting in him finishing third for the third time this year in his debut campaign with Mercedes.

“I hope we can get a bit quicker in the next race,” said Hamilton, with reference to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on June 30.

“The car’s getting better, the guys are doing a fantastic job, so we just need to keep pushing to close the gap to these guys (Vettel and Alonso).”

Red Bull’s Webber had to settle for fourth, primarily due to a collision with Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde.

Behind Webber, Monaco GP winner 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 a career-high sixth, whilst Paul Di Resta made a one-stop strategy work to claim seventh.