LEWIS HAMILTON proved it was lucky number seven to win the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Brit gave a faultless display — despite two slow pitstops from his McLaren team — to become the seventh winner from seven races this season.
Hamilton’s victory was the 18th of his career, and it was fully deserved, after being plagued by problems this year.
He now tops the drivers’ championship thanks to this win, which makes it a hat-trick of victories here in Canada.
Hamilton beat Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, who was in second while Sergio Perez was in third place.
Reigning champ Sebastian Vettel was in fourth while Jenson Button was down in 16th place.
Vettel, who is so deadly when he starts on pole, made a clean start to pull away from Hamilton, who was one place behind him on the grid.
Before the race, Hamilton had said he was concerned that Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso would get off the line quicker than him, yet the Brit was able to hold onto his position over the first two turns.
Behind him, the rest of the grid managed to negotiate turns one and two safely, and Paul Di Resta was able to leapfrog Lotus’ Grosjean into seventh.
While it was a solid opening for the British duo, their compatriot Button was having a difficult time.
Button, 32, had admitted he was fortunate to make the final stint of Saturday’s qualifying session, and to make matters worse, he was forced to start this race on used tyres.
He began down in 10th place, a position he held until Ferrari’s Felipe Massa spun off, which allowed him to move up to ninth, behind seven-time winner here, Michael Schumacher.
Out in front, Vettel set about extending his lead over Hamilton to over two seconds, but the two-time champion was quickly reeled in.
Hamilton posted quicker laps on laps nine, 10 and 11 to close in on Vettel, who then dipped into the pits at the end of lap 17.
Hamilton was forced to pit a lap later, yet it was another pitstop that was far from faultless for McLaren, as the car stalled when he went to pull away.
The stop cost him around a second but it was still quick enough for him to exit the pitlane ahead of Vettel.
There was another reshuffle at the end of lap 19 when Alonso benefitted from a quick pitstop from his team.
But Hamilton soon regained his advantage when he overtook the Spaniard thanks to the benefit of his DRS on lap 20.
With no traffic in front, Hamilton was able to pull away from Alonso as his lap times tumbled.
But while Hamilton was enjoying another run around this circuit, it was still hard going for his teammate Button.
The 2009 world champion, who won this race so brilliantly in the rain last year, was way down the field.
When he exited the pitlane following another tyre change at the halfway point, he was running in 17th place.
There was also some bad luck for Schumacher, who this week had bemoaned his poor season.
The seven-time world champion was forced to retire early for the fifth time this season when the trick DRS system on his Mercedes broke in the open position.
His mechanics tried to force the flap closed, but they could not alter the wing and the German quit the race on the 45 lap.
While Schumacher was heading back to the Mercedes motorhome, McLaren were suffering yet another poor pitstop.
Hamilton saw a huge chunk of his advantage wiped out, as there was a slow tyre change on the rear right wheel of his car.
But that error seemed to inspire Hamilton, who blitzed his way through the field on his fresh tyres, making for a thrilling end to this race.
He quickly caught Vettel, whose car was running on old tyres, and Hamilton picked off the German on lap 63 thanks to his DRS advantage.
Hamilton then set his sights on Alonso, as the two former teammates played out a great battle for first place.
But with his fresher tyres, and the use of DRS, Hamilton breezed past Alonso to take the lead with five laps to go.
The Spaniard was then beaten by Grosjean, Perez and then Vettel, as his tyres faded before he finished in fifth.
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