Hamilton WINS Canadian Grand Prix – thanks to a Vettel penalty

Lewis Hamilton wins the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix, thanks to a penalty handed out to Vettel for unsafely rejoining the race after a tussle with Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel sat on pole for the Canadian Grand Prix thanks to Ferrari’s straight line speed on Montreal’s F1 track, and he crossed the line firts, taking the chequered flag. But he didn’t win.

That’s because, rather controversially, he gathered a five-second penalty for unsafely rejoining the race after being pushed on to the grass in a tussle with Lewis Hamilton, and with Hamilton finishing just 1.3 seconds behind Vettel he was handed the win.

It was all down to an incident on lap 48 when, hustled by Hamilton, Vettel lost control and ended up on the grass, and as he rejoined he pushed Hamilton towards the wall, forcing Hamilton to brake hard.

That left Vettel in front, and despite Vettel’s protest that he couldn’t control the car sufficiently on the grass to rejoin in a controlled manner, the stewards gave him a five-second penalty. Vettel was not amused, protested to all who would listen and even took the ‘1’ board from in front of Hamilton’s car and put it where his car would have been if he hadn’t declined to park up properly.

Behind the controversial 1-2 of Hamilton and Vettel, it was Leclerc in the second Ferrari in third and Bottas in the second Mercedes in fourth.

They were followed home by Verstappen and Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Gasly and Stroll and Kvyat.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz finished just outside the points in 11th, but Norris retired on lap eight, with the Williams cars ending up in 16th and 18th.