Canadian GP: Williams come away with disappointing 7th
By Andrew Hooper
June 9 2014
The results of the 2014 Canadian GP would see the Williams Martini team come away with a disappointing 7th place courtesy of Valtteri Bottas. After qualifying the team was in a position to possibly secure a podium finish but this was not to be. The race would also see team-mate Felipe Massa involved in an accident with Perez that saw the Williams drivers crash heavily while running in the points making the result even harder to deal with.
Canadian GP Race Review
Qualifying for
the seventy lap 2014 Canadian Grand Prix had seen the Williams Martini team
secure fourth and fifth grid positions with Valtteri Bottas leading
team-mate Felipe Massa. The top ten drivers would all start the race on the
super soft option tyre while outside the top ten Hulkenberg, Kvyat,
Maldonado, Ericsson, Gutierrez, Chilton and Bianchi would all start on the
soft prime tyre. With the start of the race it would be Hamilton, starting
from second, who would make the better start but team-mate Rosberg would
take the lead seeing Hamilton passed by Vettel who would slot into second.
For the Williams team Valtteri and Felipe were running in fourth and fifth
but the opening lap would see the Marussia's make contact after Chilton lost
control at Turn three hitting his team-mate Bianchi who then was sent into
the barrier at Turn four. Gutierrez would pit having picked up a puncture on
the debris from the accident.
This would see the Safety car come out and it would not come in until lap
eight due to the time taken to clear the extensive debris from the accident.
Rosberg would make a good restart with Vettel second from Hamilton,
Valtteri, Felipe, Ricciardo, Vergne, Alonso, Raikkonen, and Button tenth. On
lap ten Ericsson would pit to retire while out on the track Hamilton would
pass Vettel at the final chicane for second. He would then start his pursuit
of leader Rosberg while for the Williams team Valtteri and Felipe would
start to fall back from the top three. Rosberg was leading by 1.7 seconds
over Hamilton and Vettel. Felipe had Ricciardo right behind him as they
fought over fifth. The first of the pit stops would start on lap fifteen
with Ricciardo pitting taking on the soft tyre and on the following lap we
would have Valtteri and Button both pit also taking the soft tyre.
Valtteri would
come back out with Ricciardo right behind him with Valtteri thirteenth. The
next lap would see Vettel, Felipe, and Vergne all pit with Sutil and
Magnussen also coming in. Felipe would return in twelfth while the next lap
would see Alonso pitting coming back out in tenth to be in front of Vergne
and Felipe. Valtteri was running in seventh while at the front the order was
Rosberg, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Perez, Hulkenberg, with Vettel sixth. Lap
nineteen and Rosberg would pit taking on the soft tyre rejoining in second
behind Hamilton. Hamilton would pit the next lap seeing Rosberg back in the lead. Perez and Hulkenberg were now running third
and fourth but Vettel was right behind the German.
Lap twenty five and Kobayashi would spin at Turn one and he would stop and
retire from the race. Valtteri was now sixth and Felipe eight with Felipe
having passed Alonso at Turn one for his position. Ricciardo was running in
seventh while team-mate Vettel was fifth. The laps would continue to count
down with Rosberg keeping his lead over Hamilton while on lap thirty five
Perez would make his first stop taking on the soft tyre in what was turning
out to be a one stop strategy. Lap thirty six and Valtteri would pit again
again taking on soft tyres returning in tenth. Vettel would also come in
also taking on soft tyres returning in front of Valtteri. At the front
Rosberg's lead had grown to 1.8 seconds but both Mercedes cars seemed to be slowing
and started to be caught by the drivers behind. They were losing around two
seconds a lap to the following Hulkenberg.
Hulkenberg would
pit on lap forty two returning in eight ahead of Valtteri/ Felipe was now up
in third and Valtteri ninth but Felipe had yet to make a second stop. Felipe
had been told to look after his tyres making it look like the team was
switching him to a one stopper. Lap forty five and Rosberg would pit taking
on soft tyres rejoining in third behind Felipe. Alonso would also pit coming
back out in ninth. The next lap and Hamilton would pit seeing Felipe take
the lead. Hamilton would rejoin in second just ahead of Rosberg. Hamilton
would run wide at the hairpin losing his place to Rosberg. Hamilton would
try to get his place back but would cut the final chicane and would
be forced to give the place back to Rosberg.
Lap forty seven and the order was Felipe from Rosberg, Hamilton, Perez,
Ricciardo, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Valtteri, Alonso, and Vergne in tenth. But
smoke would start to come from the rear of Hamilton's car seeing him drop to
eight and then he would pit to retire. Lap forty nine and Felipe would pit
from the lead coming back in seventh just behind team-mate Valtteri. Kvyat
would stop his car at the hairpin to retire. Rosberg was being caught
rapidly by second placed Perez with fifty laps completed. But Ricciardo was
right behind the Force India. Felipe was right behind Valtteri with
Hulkenberg in front of the Williams pair running in fifth. Lap fifty eight
and Valtteri would try to pass Hulkenberg at the hairpin but would run wide
losing his place to Felipe. Felipe would then use his newer tyres and his
DRS going into the final corner to pass Hulkenberg for fifth.
Felipe was now
chasing the Red Bull cars of Ricciardo and Vettel who were third and fourth.
Felipe would set a new fastest lap on lap fifty eight while Valtteri would
be passed by Alonso on lap sixty going into Turn one. Felipe was catching
Vettel at the rate of 1.5 seconds per lap and by lap sixty two Felipe was
within DRS range of Vettel. At the front Ricciardo was able to pass Perez
for second going into Turn one and would start to close in onto Rosberg. Lap
sixty eight and Ricciardo was now in DRS range of Rosberg and would use this
to pass Rosberg at the final corner. Team-mate Vettel had been able to pass
Perez for third going into the final chicane while for Williams Felipe was
in fifth and Valtteri ninth. Felipe would close right up to Perez and was
looking to pass but it would all go wrong as they come into Turn one.
Felipe would hit the rear of Perez's car seeing both drivers leave the
track. Perez would hit the tyre barriers but for Felipe his car would start
to spin and would eventually going into the tyre barrier crashing heavily
with the front of the car severely damaged with both front wheels hanging
off the car. Vettel was lucky not to be involved in the accident with
spinning cars going past him. This would see the Safety Car come back out
and we would see Ricciardo take victory while running behind it. Rosberg
would make it to the finish with Vettel third. Button was fourth followed by
Hulkenberg, Alonso, Valtteri, Vergne, Magnussen, and Raikkonen tenth. Both
Perez and Felipe would be taken to hospital for checks with both being
cleared returning to the circuit.
For the Williams Martini team
the results of the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix were somewhat of a
disappointment with Valtteri only securing a seventh placed finish. For
Felipe his race was looking like it would bring home a fourth place up until
the moment that his car and that of Perez made contact and then it all came
to nothing with a damaged car and zero points. At least one can be thankful
that Felipe was not injured in the heavy impact of the accident. Felipe
certainly had the pace in the closing laps to possibly even have made it
past Vettel for third. After the race Perez would be given a five grid place
penalty at the next race in Austria for his part in the accident.
Williams Rob Smedley explained what he had said to the stewards as he felt
Force India should have told Perez to back off.
“I showed them all the evidence,” Smedley said. “I showed them the data from
that lap and from the lap before. Felipe – at high speed because he's well
in to the tow – brakes about five metres earlier than the lap before. We
showed them evidence from the side shot where if you take Felipe and
Sebastian [Vettel] through the braking phase the distance between them is
exactly the same and you see that Perez is backing towards Felipe.
“We showed them the overhead shot where Perez … first of all he brakes very,
very early, which you can see from the side view. Second of all, when he
brakes the car … either he jinks it to the left or because of the brake
problems it jinks to the left, I don't know.
“And we showed them evidence from the radio transcript – which I think was
around lap 67 – talking about 'we have no rear brakes'. 'I've got no rear
brakes' I think was his comment, and they said 'Well if you can carry on,
carry on, and if you can't, pit', which says to me it's a fairly f*****g
terminal problem to be honest. Why you leave a car out when you've got that
sort of problem is beyond me.”
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