Start, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2018

Rate the race: 2018 Canadian Grand Prix

2018 Canadian Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Canadian Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (2%)
  • 9 (0%)
  • 8 (1%)
  • 7 (6%)
  • 6 (15%)
  • 5 (22%)
  • 4 (19%)
  • 3 (15%)
  • 2 (13%)
  • 1 (7%)

Total Voters: 346

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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93 comments on “Rate the race: 2018 Canadian Grand Prix”

  1. That was even duller than Monaco.

    1. That is what you get with a third DRS zone.

      1. 3rd DRS didn’t really change anything…

        1. Hamilton was quoted saying they run more wing than usual to account for the 3rd DRS zone. That might account for the lack of incidents after the first couple of laps.

          But yes, total bust when it comes to actually aiding overtaking!

    2. Pratice and Quali was exciting so gave a 3 for that and 1 for the race for a grand total of 4

      1. Rate the race not weekend

      2. So even if we were to ignore that it’s actually ‘rate the race’, if Quali was “perfect” and so was the race, you’d end up with an out of scale ’20’?

      1. Yeah 4 for me as well, seemed a flat race.

    3. @fer-no65
      I did a quick math (approx) and it turns out, this race could well slot into the 10 worst races ever as rated by the RaceFans community.
      Votes still coming in.
      Expecting @keithcollantine to clarify on the race’s final position on the list.

    4. Sonny Crocket
      11th June 2018, 10:38

      It. Was. Pants.

  2. A rather straightforward race especially for this circuit’s standards. Similar to 2015 and ’16 quality of racing-wise.

  3. Gave a decent 2. Without 1st lap accident would have been 1. Boring as hell. Played as background noise.

    1. @nmsi Normal Canadian GP in my book. The only Canadian gps that stood out were the ones when things gone awry and 2015. Great qualifying though.
      Lewis not winning automatically takes 1 or 2 numbers from the rating.

      1. Yeah it’s one of the most overrated grand prix on the calendar. The only decent one of note the last few years was 2014.

  4. Bring back Button!

    1. :-)

  5. Stephen Mallia
    10th June 2018, 20:47

    10/10 FTW. Yeah boring race finally! – this is what happens when no bs safety car appear and with these tyre strategy

    1. That is what you get with a third DRS zone.

  6. Blastermaster
    10th June 2018, 20:48

    Yeah not so exciting. Expected a bit more…

  7. As expected… 6… Thanks to Lewis for giving a little drama at the end. At least, they were not 3 seconds slower in the second stint as they were in Monaco.

    1. You are easy to please

    2. 6 would mean an above average race.

  8. I couldn’t stay interested enough to pay attention. Ended up sorting the pile of mail that’s been building up and using the race as background noise. Sad.

  9. 5, but only for Hamilton trying somenthing at the end. Stroll has no place in F1.
    No one can pass in Montreal. The problem is big.

    1. Stephen Mallia
      10th June 2018, 20:52

      What will they do axe Canada

      1. Of course not. The problem is the cars, not the track. The problem is giant because on a track where overtaking is possible no one was able to do so.

        1. Well said Ed.
          I kept hearing all weekend that this will be different than Monaco as overtaking was possible. Sunday comes and I see a repeat of Monaco. Other than the Mercs having issues with their engines, why is it that no one was able to challenge…

          Also, can someone tell me what is going on with Vandoorne? At least Alonso keeps pushing near 10th every now and then.

    2. Dude, the guy had a puncture. From his steering motions, it seemed that he had a puncture.

      1. He is awful. Period.

      2. Yes, sure… He had his hands punctured, that’s why they deflated and he couldn’t hold the wheel properly…

    3. @edmarques and it’s been like this for a few years. One stopper does not help.

  10. So dull

  11. GtisBetter (@)
    10th June 2018, 20:51

    Boring race, but well done by Vettel. Great qualy lap and strong race. Great weekend for max and leclerc.

  12. A waste of a Sunday evening

    1. Sunday evening ? .. you’re lucky, in Australia we have to get up at 4am to watch that c*ap. Ok, so I did spend the race horizontal on the couch and didn’t lose a whole nights sleep

  13. Doctors’ new prescription for insomnia: watch one 2018 Monaco GP; if symptoms persist, watch one 2018 Canadian GP.

    My rating (or hating…): 5.0

  14. 4. This was frustrating to watch, it’s so hard to overtake even with 3 drs zones.

  15. Considering the grid that was dull. Gave a 6 as at least it was fairly close and you always felt something might happen – but it didn’t.

  16. 3 at best, snoozefest of a race.

    1. +1. I may start watching spelling bees. F1 has become DULL, period.

  17. Kyle (@hammerheadgb)
    10th June 2018, 20:55

    Really disappointed by the lack of ambition in the strategies of those at the rear of the top 6, especially Hamilton, whose race seemed set up for a 2-stop and had little to lose and much to gain by trying it. Why so conservative?

    1. Kyle (@hammerheadgb)
      10th June 2018, 20:57

      I gave a 5, because I like F1 and it takes a lot for a race to rate lower. But definitely the worst race of the season (Aus 6, Spn 6, Mon 7)

  18. Neil (@neilosjames)
    10th June 2018, 20:56

    Extremely boring. Big gaps between the cars, and very few battles – and the ones that did exist were only happening on the timing tower, while the useless director focused on the procession at the front. Apart from Hartley/Stroll and Perez/Sainz, the most exciting thing that happened was someone waving the chequered flag a lap too early.

    Definitely the worst Canadian Grand Prix I’ve ever seen, and I’ve watched every one since 1997.

    Gave it a 2.

  19. John Toad (@)
    10th June 2018, 20:56

    Dull, dull, dull.
    Liberty need to focus on making the racing more exciting rather than re-arranging the deck chairs.

    1. They can only do so much. It’s not going to change – it’s the nature of the sport.
      The rich teams get richer – the poor poorer.
      How can there be competition in this environment?

      1. Pay the teams fairly. eg. the winner gets slightly more money than 2nd, etc. Every team should earn money. As it is Ferrari win every year because they are paid more than everyone just for showing up. It’s not sport. It’s a show.

  20. 2, very dull race. Excellent weekend from Vettel, Ferrari back in front again.

  21. YellowSubmarine
    10th June 2018, 20:59

    Wow. F1 really does need to do something about these races and the tyres and the difficulty of overtaking at so many circuits – even just driving close to the car ahead is impossible.
    This was a boring race. As was Monaco. The only remotely interesting thing was the faint possibility of Hamilton and Ricciardo putting on a show towards the end – but even that didn’t happen.

  22. Top 5 worst races I have ever watched in the last 30 years. Dreadful. Monaco at least had some spice to it with Ricciardo winning with a damaged engine. Sebastián here was just cruising.

  23. 1/10. A lifelong fan of F1, but can’t but think that some of this year’s races have been terrible (Spain, Monaco, Canada). Whilst Azerbaijan was probably the best race ever. But I do not want to see many more races of f1 cars just going round and round, with no prospect of overtaking.

  24. Don’t like to say this, but one of the worst races I’ve ever seen in the last 25 years. Just awful. Cemented by the amateur waving of the flag two laps early. Luckily, no one was going to pass at the end anyway.
    Congrats to Vettel and Max.

  25. Agree with all these crits. Liberty have to change things drastically
    as regards aero and other aspects of F1 car design. Today we saw
    a really important race in the F1 calendar reduced to boring procession
    in exactly the same way as it did in preceding races.

    This is a crisis which must be addressed this season, not next season.

  26. For some reason I didn’t find this one that boring, rather I would call this a thoroughly average and “normal” race.

    But the new aero rules can’t come soon enough.

  27. Well, that was frustratingly boring – you just knew nothing really was going to happen, even while the commentators were still hyping HAM/RIC you could see HAM’s time had gone up again (why didn’t we see why though, thanks tv director).

    Kudos for Verstappen and Hamilton trying to do something in the last stage, Grosjean deserved points for that solid drive, Leclerc was great; I am sure Vettel, Bottas and Ricciardo did great, as did Hulk and Ocon, Gasly etc. with the 1-stop strategy they were given, but it just was a bit of a bore.

    Oh, Stroll is a great starter – pity the rest is a tad lacking at times.

    And poor Hartley. Perez probably was more frustrated than me though, no penalty for Sainz, and his last lap pass got canceled by an uninformed celebrity. And after the start that probably was the most interesting talking point (well, apart from so did Mercedes put dry ice in HAM’s sidepod to cool it or something? Guess he’ll be glad to have a new engine next time around). Man, not often (at all) I’m glad a race gets ended prematurely.

  28. 6/10
    Nothing special here, the last two race were utterly boring to say the least.

  29. 6/10. One more race, well won by Vettel. The problem is the mediocre engineers who have designed these cars with which it is impossible to overtake the car that goes ahead. Hopefully one day some smart designer will appear who knows how to make formula 1 race cars.

    1. @jorge-lardone, don’t blame these much-too-clever engineers, blame the mentally challenged rule makers who’ve continued to allow bigger and more effective wings and then compounded the error by bringing in gimmicks like comedy tyres and DRS, but most of all blame Ecclestone (and Mosley) for taking all that potential development money from the teams,requiring very tightly restricted design to compensate the teams for their loss of revenue share.

  30. I gave it a 6. Some close-up fights between Mercs and Red Bulls but not a lot came out of it in the end. The only interesting event was Ricciardo overcutting Hamilton and staying ahead at the end of the race.

  31. It was quite the challenge staying awake!

    But hey, we can’t expect miracles every race. Onto France!

  32. Pretty dull race, didn’t deserve more than a 4.

    The Super-softs could do the whole race distance and the Hypers gave up after 15 laps. So running as long as possible on Ultras was the best strategy.

    I don’t think Pirelli is to blame for these dull races. It’s incredibly difficult to build good race tyres for these super-fast cars, because they have tons and tons of downforce. That helps keeping them in the ideal operating temperature, which reduces wear. That’s also why the gap between the compounds is so little. You could literally put rocks instead of pneumatic tyres on these cars and they would still go faster than anything else on the planet. They need to reduce downforce on these cars!

    As @kaiie has already mentioned, the new aero regs need to be brought in as quickly as possible.

  33. Is there a way to see all ratings for 2018? And for that matter, for 2017?

  34. Sometimes you have the fastest drivers driving at the front and the slowest at the back. It’s pretty straightforward that in those cases there will be hardly any overtakes. It just happens sometimes. Don’t dwell on it.

  35. Vettel fan 17 (@)
    10th June 2018, 21:46

    6. Was ok but not as good as I expected

  36. My wife asked our toddler today if she likes racing cars.she said no. I’m the only one who still likes it and sometimes I ask myself why.

  37. Sky’s highlight reel:
    1- Lap 1, half a lap of excitement.
    2- Riccardo passes Hamilton in the pits.
    3- The Hulk makes a DRS pass.
    4- Alonso’s breaking down.
    5- Race end.

    Says it all…

  38. The results made the championship more interesting. For that I gave this race a 7.

  39. 4, and that’s generous. And it’s not just tyres and narrow track. From what Danny said, it looked as if they were in fuel saving mode towards the end (presumably because they expected lengthy safety car periods). So, new rule: every car is required to start with at least X litres of fuel, where X is roughly 120% of a Mercedes full race distance with no slow-downs. This will encourage hard racing, because drivers will want to burn off fuel to reduce weight.

  40. It is a really bad idea watching F1 nowadays laying comfortably on your couch or your bed. Even though you have a beer next to you. When there is absolutely nothing going on you can fall asleep within minutes. That’s what occured to me. Good morning lads, i just woke up!

  41. 7 it was okay, not all canadian gps are good, actually most aren’t.With an Ham factor this will average -1.5 from a normal canadian gp.

  42. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    10th June 2018, 23:18

    Obviously even the organizers wanted to end the race sooner by waving the chequered flag 1 lap earlier. In my opinion, they could have waived it after Lap 1. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a race – some quick driving might be a better name for it.

  43. Kneejerk reactions may be in need.

  44. This was a 5. A lot of people dropping 1s and 2s, but I guess that’s the Monaco GP still affecting people’s moods.

  45. I’ve followed F1 closely since the early 80’s. I think it is the sum total of my experiences, the history, that gives me that feeling of excitement as the field negotiates the formation lap, and the grid forms… the red lights come on and go out… the first 2 laps are nervous… the remainder is a sedative.

    Will Ferrari make a poor pit strategy decision, or will there be a front runner mechanical failure? (sadly, something I often hope for)
    Or better yet, there is the over the top excitement that comes with a lucky pit stop during a virtual/safety car.

    What a thrill… not.

    It’s far to often giving the flavor of an exhibition event.

  46. Gary Stanley
    11th June 2018, 7:57

    Most boring race of the year so far; after arguably the closest qualifying of the year the race was setup to be close.
    However it was a procession from start to finish – the large gaps between the cars and the lack of any overtaking must be very alarming to Liberty Media.

    1. This spectacle is going to do nothing good for F1s image in North America.

  47. 2. Worst Canadian GP in memory.

    The classic circuits just aren’t working with these cars.

  48. 4, on the basis of great qualifying.

  49. 3. Zzzzz……

  50. I remember thinking 5 minutes in while watching SC.. “Oh yeah this place is always a fun race, let’s see what happens.”.

    I don’t remember anything happening after that. Highlights for me was Vettel riding cerbs with 4 laps to go. And Hamiltons new girly friend waving the flag 1 lap to early.

    That is a grand total of memorable moments.

  51. Went a 6 and hoped for more, Usually when the front do not too much the mid field take over, but not last night. All good, looking forward to the next one

  52. In the words of Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons…….Worst…Race…Ever…

    Easily worse than Monaco…..

  53. 5/10. Montreal is a great circuit. Quite how the current spec of F1 cars can produce a race so very, very dull on this circuit is beyond me. It was really disappointing.

    I don’t recall any real overtakes in the top 6 places. Furthermore, the top six cars were over a minute ahead of the rest of the field. If anyone got within a second of the car in front they were suddenly stuck there unable to do anything.

    I know we have had some excellent races this year so it’s perhaps harsh to be so damning over one race. But the offering on display here with too much reliance on DRS, rubbish tyres, huge ugly front wings and dominance by just 3 teams really demonstrates most of what’s not up to standard with the latest version of F1 in nutshell.

  54. Three straight boring races after three straight insane races.

  55. The weather was perfect for spectators — slight cloud cover to not make the sun unbearable and no humidity… of course that’s a recipe for a boring race on almost any circuit.
    The last time the Canadian race had perfect weather and was not boring, there had been heavy storms overnight Saturday to Sunday which cleaned all the rubber off the track. Maybe F1 should consider using street cleaner on the circuits or Bernie’s old idea of sprinkling tracks to have drying (changing) conditions.

  56. When top 3 teams are 1:13 ahead of the next best team you know something isn’t quite right :-/

  57. I gave it 4, honestly for me this year we had 2 good races (baku and china), a decent one (bahrain), 2 mediocre ones (australia and monaco) and 2 terrible ones (spain and canada), ofc I never fall asleep and always follow the races cause I’m interested in even the smallest battle, will verstappen catch bottas, will ricciardo catch hamilton, vandoorne got supersofts on, will it do anything on a mclaren? No, he didn’t even catch the previous car.

    And yes, it says a lot about current regulations, including the engines having to last for 7 races that a track where you usually can overtake, you have long straights, 3 drs zones, makes such an uneventful race, there was like no chance to overtake with these cars.

    The top 6 were 1 min ahead of the most direct followers and they never changed position since the start with the exception of ricciardo overtaking raikkonen at start and jumping hamilton in the pits.

  58. The good thing of this race was that it gave hope to the Championship – 3 teams and 5 drivers seem to be able to win races, and could still have a chance to win the Championship.

  59. I only gave the race a 4.5.

    It was a disappointing race, Canada is one of my favourite races and one I look forward to, when somewhere like Monaco delivers a dull race it is something I expect but even though I thought this was slightly better than Monaco it was more disappointing because my expectations were higher.

    I only saw the highlights which were broadcast late at night and I was tired anyway, so that affected my enjoyment of the race so I increased my rating a little to compensate for that, but even if I had watched the race live and in full and was fully awake I doubt I would found it much more entertaining.

    Although you could look at the result, with Vettel taking a comfortable win to retake the lead in the championship, and think that Mercedes are in trouble, it would not have been that much of a stretch to think that Hamilton could have taken the victory if he had performed better.

    Bottas was not that far off Vettel in qualifying and with how successful Hamilton has been at this circuit over the years you would normally expect him to be ahead of his teammate by a big enough margin so that he would have also have been quicker than Vettel and so claim pole.

    Considering how difficult it seems to be to follow and overtake with the current cars at some circuits, and with the lack of action at the weekend Montreal seems to be one of those circuits, whoever led after lap one had a great chance of winning as long as they didn’t make any mistakes or have any car problems.

    I think that nothing has really changed in the 2018 title fight yet, in that performance between the teams will vary from one race to the next, this should hopefully make for a close championship battle and will mean all the contenders and their teams cannot afford to underperform or to make any mistakes.

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