Vettel rules the roost

the Canadian Grand Prix to win from Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton on Sunday.

The three-time defending Formula One champion improved his chances at a fourth straight season title Sunday, surviving an early brush with a wall and late trouble in Turn 1 to earn his first victory at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Vettel’s Red Bull left from pole position and led almost the entire way to finish 14.4 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

It was the third win of the year for Vettel, who picked up 25 points in the championship standings to extend what had been a 21-point lead over Lotus’ Kimo Raikkonen. Alonso picked up 18 points to move into second, 36 points behind Vettel; Raikkonen finished ninth for two points and now trails the leader by 44 points.

“You don’t have to be a genius to know that you get more points than anybody else with that result,” Vettel said about the win. “We’re trying to maximise every race. If we have the chance, we have to use it.”

Vettel has earned the pole three years in a row at the 2.71-mile circuit on Ile Notre Dame across the St. Lawrence from downtown Montreal, but he had never won the race. He has finished fourth twice, and two years ago he came in second after a slight skid in the rain allowed Jenson Button to pass him and take the checkered flag.

“We’ve had good races here before, but it didn’t come together to win,” Vettel said on the victory podium. “It made up for that today. Great feeling. Great car by the team and we were really able to pull away from the rest of the field.”

Alonso passed Lewis Hamilton, the 2012 winner, at the start-finish line in the 62th lap and held on for second place. Vettel’s teammate, Mark Webber, was fourth after running the fastest lap of the day, 1:16.182 on the penultimate lap. Monaco winner Nico Rosberg was fifth.

“We just weren’t quite on the pace of Seb and Fernando,” Hamilton said. “It would have been nice to have kept second place, of course, but Fernando was very quick today and it was difficult to keep him behind. I got close to taking the place back but he was just that little bit too fast.”

After practice and qualifying were slowed by rain, the sun came out Sunday for a warm and dry race on the Ile Notre Dame. — AFP.