A day after taking his fourth pole in Montreal - and 44th overall - Lewis Hamilton, driver of car number 44, took his fourth victory at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and fourth victory of the year. But numeric coincidences aside, what really mattered to the Briton was that he extended his championship lead over Nico Rosberg to 17 points.
Nigel Mansell (GBR) Williams FW14/B, 1st place. Formula One World Championship, South African Grand Prix, Kyalami, 1 March 1992.
Lewis Hamilton (2,143) has now led more laps in F1 than Nigel Mansell (2,089)
Hamilton led all but one of the 70 race laps in Canada, but perhaps his most significant lap at the front of the field - other than the final lap - was the 16th as it was 2,090th led lap in F1 and moved him past Nigel Mansell for fifth place on the all-time laps led list. No other British driver has led as many laps in F1 as Hamilton, who now has 2,143 to his name.
Behind Hamilton, Nico Rosberg secured his third second place of the year and ensured that Mercedes got both cars home on the podium for the seventh successive race. Only one other team has managed that in F1 history - Ferrari in 1952/53.
In the battle of the Finns, Valtteri Bottas emerged victorious over Kimi Raikkonen, and in the process picked up his and Williams’ first podium of the year. It wasn’t all bad for Raikkonen however as he collected the 42nd fastest lap of his career and in the process surpassed Alain Prost for second on the all-time fastest laps list. Only Michael Schumacher (77) has more than the Ferrari driver.
Elsewhere, Pastor Maldonado raced to his first points finish of the season in seventh. It was the first time the Venezuelan had bothered the scorers since last year’s race in Austin. Maldonado’s team mate Romain Grosjean looked likely to finish even higher before contact with Marussia’s Will Stevens, but the Frenchman’s eventual tenth place finish did at least ensure Lotus earned their first double points score of the year.
Finally, for the second time in 2015 McLaren retired both of their cars from a race. Significantly it was the third successive event in which Fernando Alonso has failed to reach the chequered flag - his worst run since his debut season with Minardi in 2001. Back then he also retired from three successive races, the latter of which was… you guessed it: Canada.
