Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes provided the thrills and spills at the Canadian Grand Prix, but there was only one winner as Sebastian Vettel dominated from start to finish, cruising home in style.
Red Bull gave Vettel a perfect car to drive along the long straights and quick corners of Montreal and the German had the easiest of outings, with no car coming close to catching the world champion, as Vettel and his team picked up their first ever win in Montreal.
"I wouldn't call it a hex," Vettel said of Red Bull's previous lack of success in the Canadian GP. "We had great races here in the past -- it just wasn't enough for the win. Today (Sunday) it was. I am very happy because it's a great race.
"Two years ago I was very close. I lost it in the last lap, it was my mistake, so made up for it. Great feeling, as I said.
"Great car by the team and I think we were able to really pull away from the rest of the field, which was most important to then control the race. I could really enjoy every single lap."
Hamilton seemed to be heading for second place in his Mercedes, only for Alonso, desperate for points to keep pace with runaway leader Vettel, to put in a blistering final few laps to overtake the former McLaren man and seal second place.
The final few laps saw a thrilling fight, with Alonso first overtaking Hamilton, before the Englishman did his best to get back his second place, only to fall marginally short.
"With Lewis we were really very close on the pace and there was some moments going out of turn eight to see who had the detection point and then in turn 10 the same thing, at the last chicane, so there was some action there," Alonso said.
"But it was nice to have these battles, particularly this race with so talented drivers, so intelligent drivers, that, you know, you fight wheel-to-wheel at 315km/h and you feel safe.
"You feel you are racing and you are competing. It can go your way or it can go the other way, but this is real racing. So, very happy to see this back after Monaco. It's a little bit different."
Hamilton was disappointed not to hold onto second place, but admitted Alonso was just much quicker.
"He (Alonso) was massively quick and it was very difficult to keep him behind," Hamilton said. "I tried my best. I got close once he got past me, but he was just generally too quick for me. But you know, it's still a good result for me considering that these guys are massively quick."
Vettel's teammate Mark Webber finished fourth, while Monaco GP winner Nico Rosberg only managed fifth with title contender Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus disappointing in ninth.
Vettel now leads the drivers' championships standings by 36 points with 132 points, with Alonso in second on 96 points and closely followed by Raikkonen on 88. Hamilton is fourth with 77 points with Webber fifth on 69.
