After Race 7: Canada

Some dreadfully sad news to open this week’s F1 Power Rankings. For the first time since Australia 2001, a marshal was killed while on duty at an F1 event. The 38-year old man (his name has not been released at the time of writing) was hit by the mobile crane that was being used to remove the stricken car of Esteban Gutiérrez after the race had finished in a freak accident. Marshals are truly the unsung heroes throughout the world of motor racing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

The marshals work to remove Gutiérrez's car in the closing stages
Source: AP

1.   Sebastian Vettel (last week: 1^st, no change) (Season high: 1^st, low: 4^th)

A dominant weekend from the triple World Champion saw him finally break his and Red Bull’s Canada duck as Sebastian Vettel finally gained closure for his last lap error that lost him the 2011 race (despite grazing the wall exiting turn four and running wide at turn one). He racked up his 39^th pole position and 29^th victory in Formula One and retains his place atop the F1 Power Rankings as he extended his lead in the championship.

2.   Fernando Alonso (last week: 4^th, up two spots) (Season high: 1^st, low: 13^th)

An excellent race from Fernando Alonso saw him gain four places from his grid position – all of which were impressive overtakes done on the track. Not much more to say except to repeat that Ferrari probably need to find some more qualifying pace. It has proved to be a weak point for the Scuderia in recent years - Alonso has just four pole positions since he joined the team in 2010. Regardless of the Pirelli tyres, it always helps to qualify at the front, as Alonso found out the hard way with his two first lap DNFs last season.

Alonso, Vettel & Hamilton enjoy the podium celebrations
Source: AP

3.   Paul di Resta (last week: 7^th, up four spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 17^th)

From being distraught after being eliminated in Q1 for the second race running to the ecstasy of a brilliant recovery drive to 7^th place, Paul di Resta finds himself breaking into the top three of the Power Rankings. With his technical problems from qualifying solved and his early DRS race issues fixed, di Resta drove a majestic opening stint of 56 (fifty-six!) laps that saw him vault himself into a comfortable top ten position. The race also emphasized how highly he is rated by the team, allowing di Resta to choose the timing of his stop.

4.   Lewis Hamilton (last week: 6^th, up two spots) (Season high: 3^rd, low: 9^th)
An important weekend for Lewis Hamilton as he managed to stop Nico Rosberg’s recent domination of the team battle. Hamilton outqualified Rosberg for the first time in four races and went on to claim his third podium of the season while Rosberg struggled with tyre wear and finished a distant fifth. With his home race next up, Hamilton will want to maintain this momentum but the team will have the ‘Testgate’ tribunal to deal with next Thursday before they can fully switch their attention to Silverstone.

The battle between Hamilton and Alonso was one of the highlights of the race
Source: Daimler AG

5. Jean-Eric Vergne (last week: 8^th, up three spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 19^th)

A fantastic weekend for JEV! With the Toro Rosso seemingly suited to the demands of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, both drivers managed to make Q3 despite the inclement conditions. However, it was Jean-Eric Vergne who managed to convert that into solid points after a brilliant, if somewhat lonely, drive to a career-best 6^th. The key to his race was dispatching Valtteri Bottas as early as possible as the group behind him were then held up by the Williams; and further stifled by incidents such as Adrian Sutil’s spin and the necessary avoidance by other drivers. The fact that Mercedes needed to tell Rosberg to push in the second half of the race because he was not far enough clear of JEV to make a pit-stop (where the time lost is significantly less than usual) says it all about how far the team have come.

 

JEV finished a career-best 6th
Source: Getty Images

6.   Kimi Räikkönen (last week: 3^rd, down three spots) (Season high: 2^nd, low: 12^th)

The only good thing to say about Kimi Räikkönen weekend was that he equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of 24 consecutive points-scoring finishes. Montreal was a small disaster for Räikkönen; the car struggled in the wet on Saturday and he was then plagued with brake problems on Sunday, the team were also over-optimistic with their fuel consumption and the rear jack failed on his pit-stop. He manages to hold onto a top six position in the Power Rankings as none of these problems were his fault.

=7. Mark Webber (last week: 5^th, down two spots) (Season high: 1^st, low: 15^th) &   Nico Rosberg (last week: 2^nd, down five spots) (Season high: 2^nd, low: 12^th)

A disappointing weekend for both drivers as they found themselves comprehensively outperformed by their respective team-mates. While Mark Webber’s progress was briefly held up by the contact with Giedo van der Garde, it evidently did not affect the performance of his car as he still managed to set the fastest lap. What is worrying is the fact he ended up 25 seconds behind Vettel. Monaco winner Rosberg slips back to seventh in the rankings (and I almost placed him eighth) after finishing almost a minute behind Hamilton by the end of the race.

9. Felipe Massa (last week: 14^th, up five spots) (Season high: 3^rd, low: 14^th)

After his Monaco disaster, it looked a bit worrying for Felipe Massa on Saturday after his qualifying crash. However, he bounced back in fine style on Sunday with an overtaking-filled performance from sixteenth to eighth. A higher finish may have been possible but Massa admitted that Ferrari simply were not sure about the dry tyres after a rain-filled weekend. He needs to have a clean weekend in Silverstone.

10. Valtteri Bottas (last week: 18^th, up seven spots) (Season high: 10^th, low: 20^th)

Bottas breaks into the top ten for the first time thanks entirely to his superb qualifying performance. As I have said countless times before, the 2013 Williams has been a desperately poor car and it is on rainy days where the driver can make more of a difference – just as Bottas did, vaulting the unfancied Williams to P3 on the grid – evoking memories of when Nico Hülkenberg took pole position in Brazil 2010. Unfortunately for Bottas, but as expected, that was as good as it got for Williams as he gradually slid back through the field to an eventual fourteenth-placed finish. His initial getaway was poor but credit his performance in the opening corners and laps, it was a mature drive.

 

Bottas tries to fend off the chasing pack in the early part of the race
Source: Williams/LAT

11. Adrian Sutil (last week: 10^th, down one spot) (Season high: 5^th, low: 20^th)

Sutil had a spin, was driven into by Pastor Maldonado which damaged his rear wing, inadvertently squirmed his way into the pit-lane for his first pit-stop and was given a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags; yet, he still managed to score a point. This weekend will go down as a huge case of “what could have been” had Adrian not made the early error when attempting to pass Bottas. He was also hugely outshone by PDR despite starting nine places ahead of him. Force India will look to continue this form into their home race at Silverstone, fresh off the back of a double points-finish in their 100^th race.

12. Jules Bianchi (last week: 13^th, up one spot) (Season high: 6^th, low: 13^th)

After his Monaco wobble, it was business as usual for Jules Bianchi. He was once again victorious in the Caterham/Marussia battle after a clean and solid performance and he was not too far behind Maldonado at the checkered flag.

13. Charles Pic (last week: 15^th, up two spots) (Season high: 7^th, low: 19^th)

As with his arch-rival Bianchi, Charles Pic brought his car home in one piece and comfortably shaded his team-mate. Credit Pic for outqualifying his fellow backmarkers in the wet quali session but Caterham were out-strategized by Marussia on Sunday.

14. Daniel Ricciardo (last week: 8^th, down six spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 18^th)

A hugely disappointing end to Daniel Ricciardo’s weekend after it promised so much after practice, qualifying, and even the opening laps of the race. As mentioned earlier, the STR looked on form this weekend as both cars made Q3. Ricciardo made a good start and ran as high as eighth in the first dozen laps before the handling dramatically fell away from the car. The problem became so bad that the Aussie slipped to 15^th and two laps down as JEV took all the glory. He’ll look to bounce back in Silverstone, scene his debut in 2011.

15. Sergio Pérez (last week: 11^th, down four spots) (Season high: 8^th, low: 17^th)

Oh dear. A complete disaster for McLaren this weekend as a run of 64 points-scoring finishes came to an end with a dismal team performance. It was a much more sedate performance from Sergio Pérez after his Monte Carlo fireworks but he still managed to out-qualify and out-race Jenson Button.

16. Jenson Button (last week: 12^th, down four spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 16^th)

Button has been glued to his team-mate’s proverbial gearbox in these rankings for the past three races now. Pérez seems to be able to extract that little bit more from the mediocre McLaren at the moment and JB will look for better things in his home race. The low point of a bad weekend was the horrific qualifying session which saw Button haplessly miss out on a final Q2 flying lap as the team failed to react to the green light and then Button himself over-compensated when trying to create a gap for himself.

17. Max Chilton (last week: 20^th, up three spots) (Season high: 17^th, low: 22^nd)

Another solid and clean weekend from Max Chilton – which is exactly what he needed to do after his huge Monaco crash with Maldonado. Not much else to say really; although Max will be desperate to beat his team-mate in Silverstone next time out.

18. Romain Grosjean (last week: 22^nd, up four spots) (Season high: 6^th, low: 22^nd)

Carrying a ten-place grid penalty after crashing into Ricciardo in Monaco, Romain Grosjean was lucky that there weren’t thirty cars on the grid after only managing 19^th in qualifying. Running the same strategy as di Resta, he pitted earlier for the super-soft tyres but it proved to be an error as he needed to pit for a second time, dropping him out of the points. A welcome clean drive from Grosjean – the first half of his race was superb, it must be said, but the late tyre issues turned it into a rather anonymous weekend.

19. Nico Hülkenberg (last week: 16^th, down three spots) (Season high: 9^th, low: 19^th)

It’s desperate times for The Hulk. While his former employers again strutted their stuff at the right end of the field, Hülkenberg floundered in the midfield. A good start was almost immediately wasted as an error at the last corner on the opening lap saw him lose those positions. A gradual decline ensued before he cut across van der Garde too early when lapping him, causing fatal damage to his car. Although the latter was penalized for the incident, it was poor judgement from the German.

20. Esteban Gutiérrez (last week: 19^th, down one spot) (Season high: 15^th, low: 22^nd)

Sauber’s misery was compounded as Esteban Gutiérrez haplessly found the barriers in the closing laps. Until that point, it was a hugely underwhelming performance from the young Mexican and this truly was a weekend to forget.

21. Pastor Maldonado (last week: 21^st, no change) (Season high: 17^th, low: 22^nd)

Another driver with a weekend to forget, Maldonado was completely out-shadowed by Bottas throughout and he also managed to pick up a drive-thru penalty for outbraking himself and colliding into the back of Adrian Sutil. Although I personally think the penalty was a tad harsh, it was an extremely poor error to make and damage was caused to Sutil’s car.

22. Giedo van der Garde (last week: 17^th, down five spots) (Season high: 17^th, low: 22^nd)

From a season-high to a season-low for VDG. Having qualified last, he made an excellent start and found himself 17^th in the early stages. Thereafter, it was a tale of woe as he closed the door on Webber as he was being lapped, found himself making contact with Hülkenberg while being lapped and penalized twice for his transgressions. He accepted full responsibility for the Webber incident although I think he was somewhat harshly punished for the latter race-ending contact with The Hulk.

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