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 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 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% 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 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.
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.
Red Bull’s Webber had to settle for fourth, primarily due to a collision with Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde who ignored blue flags and damaged the front wing of the Australian’s car.
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, while Paul Di Resta superbly made a one-stop strategy work to claim seventh.
Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen came ninth, equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of 24 consecutive races in the points, but is now 44 points behind Vettel.
As for McLaren, winners of this event for the last three years, the race was a disappointment with Sergio Perez and Jenson Button out of the points in 11th and 12th.