Police use pepper spray and fight with protesters during an arrest on St. Catharines Street near the Montreal Grand Prix festival area Sunday, June 10, 2012, in Montreal. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Peter McCabe)
June 10, 2012 - 3:49 PM
MONTREAL - Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix for the third time on Sunday and made his McLaren Mercedes the seventh car in as many Formula One races to win this season.
Hamilton roared past defending F1 champion Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari late in the 70-lap race to take the checkered flag with a 2.5-second gap over Romain Grosjean's Lotus.
Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, won in Canada in 2007 and 2010, but was bumped out early last year when his teammate Jenson Button claimed the win.
Sergio Perez was third for Sauber, with Vettel fourth, Alonso fifth, Nico Rosberg sixth in a Petronas Mercedes, Mark Webber of Red Bull seventh, Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus in eighth, Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber ninth and Felipe Massa of Ferrari 10th.
Earlier this year, Button (Australia), Alonso (Malaysia), Rosberg (China), Vettel (Bahrain), Pastor Maldonado (Spain) and Webber (Monaco) won races — a first since F1 began in 1950. Hamilton extended that record to seven different winners.
Vettel, starting from pole position for a second year in a row, held the lead until he pitted for super-soft tires after 16 laps, putting Hamilton in front until he went in a lap later. The Englishman took over the lead and passed Alonso on lap 20, with Vettel back in third spot.
Hamilton's pitted again after lap 49 with fading tires, returning in third place behind Alonso and Vettel.
On fresh tires, Hamilton cranked up the speed and passed Vettel on lap 62 and Alonso one lap later to regain the lead.
The often incident-filled race got off to its cleanest start in memory and all 24 cars stayed on the track until lap 25, when Narain Karthikeyan's HRT spun out and stopped on the first turn. A lap later, Pedro de la Rosa's HRT was pushed into the garage with smoke billowing from its engine.
Seven-time world and Canadian Grand Prix champion Michael Schumacher got the DRS device on his Petronas Mercedes stuck on lap 45 and went off the track and out of the race.
Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado was bumped from 17th to 22nd on the starting grid following a penalty for having to change his gearbox after a crash during practice on Saturday.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012