F1 2014 - Mercedes dominant run comes to an end in Canada as Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo breaks the victory streak

[Sticky]

The Canadian Grand Prix this past weekend signaled the end of the Mercedes-AMG victory streak in Formula 1 this season. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing managed to take the victory and in doing so became the first driver not from the Mercedes team to stand atop the podium this year. Mercedes up until that point had an incredible six consecutive victories. It looked like the streak would continue until issues affecting both Mercedes cars allowed Ricciardo to take the lead.

Both Mercedes F1 cars suffered a loss of engine power forcing them to limp on. Lewis Hamilton suffered complete brake failure on lap 47 and this forced him from the race entirely. Rosberg fought on with a compromised car but Ricciardo was able to pass him. A wreck at the end of the race allowed Nico Rosberg to secure second place and keep his podium streak this year alive. It also allows him to open up a lead on Hamilton in the driver standings so Rosberg has a minor cushion to work with now.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing rounded out the podium in third place. His teammate Ricciardo again outperformed him. The next grand prix is in Austria on the 22nd this month. Mercedes will likely return to their dominant form as if not for technical issues the victory streak would likely have continued.

Daniel Ricciardo grabbed the headlines in Montreal on Sunday with a faultless performance that brought him his first F1 victory, Red Bull their first win of the season, and Renault their first triumph of the new turbo-hybrid era. But it was Nico Rosberg’s second place that could prove crucial to the 2014 title race. Unlike team mate Lewis Hamilton, Rosberg was able to work around Mercedes’ technical problems and a superb damage-limitation drive saw him extend his championship lead by 18 points. We take a team-by-team look back at Sunday's formbook after a remarkable race in Canada...

Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo, P1
Sebastian Vettel, P3
But for Mercedes' problems Red Bull may never have won, but the team and Renault richly deserved their first victory of the new era. After fast-starting Vettel lost ground trapped behind Hulkenberg in the middle stint, Ricciardo jumped him during their second stops and then hounded Force India's Perez, finally finding a way past with a bold move on the 65th lap. That enabled him to home in on the troubled Rosberg and to deprive him of the lead with two laps to go. The 24 year-old from Perth thus became only the fourth Australian to win a Grand Prix, hoisting himself to third in the title chase. Vettel also overtook Perez on the penultimate lap to make it two RB10s on the podium in Red Bull's strongest race so far this year.

Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, P2
Lewis Hamilton, Retired lap 47, brakes
Mercedes looked set to triumph for a seventh time this season in Montreal, but both W05 Hybrids ceased to be hybrid around the 37th lap when they lost their MGU-K systems. That lost them around 160 bhp and overloaded the rear brakes, leading to Hamilton's demise shortly after he had passed Rosberg following his second stop on the 47th lap - and then lost the place at the hairpin as his brake issues started to become manifest. Rosberg was able to nurse a 0.7s lead for many laps before Ricciardo found a way past Perez and then quickly swooped to snatch the lead with two laps to go. While Hamilton therefore suffered a disastrous day, Rosberg clinched a seventh podium of the season and increased his title lead by a handy 18 points.

McLaren
Jenson Button, P4
Kevin Magnussen, P9
Button's fourth place owed something to the last-lap clash between Perez and Massa, but the Briton also surged up the order in the latter stages, including picking off Alonso and Hulkenberg in one move at the hairpin one lap from the finish. Magnussen chased Vergne hard right to the end, but lacked the grunt to pass the Toro Rosso.

Force India
Nico Hulkenberg, P5
Sergio Perez, P11, Retired lap 70, accident
Force India knew they had good race pace and elected to run both drivers on single-stop strategies. Perez was running second in the closing stages, containing Ricciardo and Vettel while pushing after Rosberg and coping with fading brakes and an electrical glitch. Ricciardo deprived him of second on the 65th lap, and on the penultimate lap Vettel squeezed ahead. The Mexican then collided heavily with the challenging Massa on the final lap, putting both cars into the wall at high speed on the pit straight. Fortunately neither driver was hurt, and the stewards gave Perez a five-place grid drop for the next round in Austria for changing his racing line under braking. Hulkenberg inherited fifth as a result, and maintained his excellent record of consistent points finishes in all seven 2014 races.

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, P6
Kimi Raikkonen, P10
Ferrari had another lacklustre race in which Alonso admitted he lucked into sixth place, and Raikkonen struggled with handling and brakes and finished 10th after a spin in Turn 10 on the 41st lap.

Williams
Valtteri Bottas, P7
Felipe Massa, P12, Retired lap 70, accident
This was the biggest what-might-have-been race for Williams this year. Massa became the first non-Mercedes driver to lead a lap in 2014 when he took over at the front after the silver cars pitted for the second time. He dropped back with his own second pit call but was then rapid in his final stint, running on fresher rubber than any of the cars ahead. After passing team mate Bottas and Hulkenberg in quick succession on the 57th lap, he reeled in the lead pack of Rosberg, Perez, Ricciardo and Vettel. Trapped behind them, he was challenging Perez for fourth going into the last lap when the Mexican was adjudged to have moved over on him, putting both heavily into the wall. With a touch more luck, it's not impossible that Massa might have challenged for the win.

Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne, P8
Daniil Kvyat, Retired lap 47, drive failure
Vergne had a great weekend, possibly his best in F1 racing, and richly deserved eighth place. Kvyat didn't quite match his pace this time, but was running behind him, in points contention after an early spin, when his STR9 suffered drive failure.

Sauber
Adrian Sutil, P13
Esteban Gutierrez, P14, Retired lap 64, power loss
Sutil drove the wheels off his C33 for 13th place. After starting from the pit lane following his failure to qualify, Gutierrez pitted on the first lap, struggled with the handling initially, became a bit happier with it in his second stint, but then retired with loss of power.

Lotus
Romain Grosjean, Retired lap 59, rear wing
Pastor Maldonado, Retired lap 21, power loss
This wasn't a happy race for Lotus. Maldonado ran as high as eighth during the pit stops, but retired with power loss, while Grosjean's car suffered a broken rear wing and was also withdrawn.

Caterham
Kamui Kobayashi, Retired lap 24, suspension damage
Marcus Ericsson, Retired lap 7, power loss
Another unhappy Grand Prix for Caterham in which neither car finished. Kobayashi spun in Turn 2 and retired a few corners later with damaged left-rear suspension, while Ericsson was told to stop with suspected turbocharger trouble.

Marussia
Max Chilton, Retired lap 1, accident
Jules Bianchi, Retired lap 1, accident
Marussia's chargers hit one another in Turn 3 on the opening lap and both retired. Each driver blamed the other, but the stewards gave Chilton a three-place grid penalty for Austria.

[bobS]

What a great race! Best one of the season so far IMO

[Xyruss]

Still bummed about hamilton.. he's my fave. Idk what it is with his luck in Montreal I went to the gp in '08 and watched him have a mishap in the pit lane that resulted in a DNF for him that year.

[Group.america]

Best race in years... then again us Aussies are biased

[DavidV]

The Mercedes cars without ERS are 0.7 sec slower than the whole field with ERS.
That in itself is very impressive.
With a functional ERS none can come close.
They are more than 1 second/lap quicker than the whole field.

Hamilton and Rosberg had a fierce battle for 1st place right up until lap 42, when from both the cars the ERS failed simultaneously.
That in itself was very weird.
Lewis his right rear brake disk then failed (rear brakes are dimensioned to cooperate with the e-brake), forcing him to retire.
Rosberg then had to drive and brake very carefully to not damage the rear brakes, while totally lacking ERS.
He saw his 21 second lead disappear in those next 20 laps, but still managed to stay second at the checkered flag.
That really showes the strength of the Mercedes car compared to the rest of the field.

[bobS]

It is crazy how strong those mercedes cars are. I wish the rest of the field was closer so we could have more races like this but it also shows the mercedes aren't bulletproof. Very very weird that both cars had similar issues at the exact same time!