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Lewis Hamilton has Vettel in crosshairs at Canadian Grand Prix

MONTREAL - The Canadian Grand Prix has been a happy hunting ground for Lewis Hamilton, and he will look to bag a sixth career win on the island circuit on Sunday to refuel his hopes of another Formula One drivers title. With 14 races remaining on the calendar, it is far from do-or-die for Hamilton, but the pressure is mounting on the Briton and Mercedes with arch rival Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari threatening to widen the gap at the top of the championship standings. Only Michael Schumacher has won the Canadian Grand Prix more times (seven), and Hamilton intends to close the gap further in Montreal as the race marks its 50th anniversary. Hamilton needs to do so, at the scene of his first ever Formula One victory a decade ago, to reel in Vettel after the German led a Ferrari one-two in Monaco and powered 25 points clear. "Montreal has been a great hunting ground for me in the past, and I plan for it to continue," the triple world champion told reporters. With five wins and five poles from previous visits to Quebec, Hamilton would normally be the favorite, but champions Mercedes are no longer the dominant team. "The Ferrari seems to work everywhere. The next 14 races are going to be very, very difficult," he said after struggling to seventh place in Monaco. "They have had arguably the strongest car all year. They look like our car which just worked everywhere last year." The race will also mark the return of twice world champion Fernando Alonso to the Formula One grid after the Spaniard skipped the Monaco Grand Prix last month to chase IndyCar glory at Indianapolis 500. Alonso turned in an impressive performance at the famed Brickyard, qualifying fifth fastest and running at the front but late in the race suffered a familiar fate with his Honda engine giving up. Little has changed at struggling McLaren during Alonso's brief sabbatical with the team still hampered by an uncompetitive Honda engine. There is plenty of reason to party around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this week with the city celebrating its 375th anniversary, Canada its 150th birthday and the Canadian Grand Prix its 50th. Williams driver Lance Stroll will be hoping to contribute to the party atmosphere. For the first time since the days of 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, the Canadian Grand Prix will have some true home interest with teenager Stroll on the starting grid for Williams.

2015 Chinese Grand Prix shines bright sun on the dark days of racing

Yes, we tuned into the Formula One Grand Prix in Shanghai China to see a race. But we all know we really tuned in to see if Ferrari, or any other team, could make it a competitive race with Mercedes-AMG Petronas. Based on qualifying, things didn't get off the best of starts: Lewis Hamilton made it four-out-of-four at the front, leading all three Free Practice sessions and then taking pole position in his Mercedes. Nico Rosberg is making the most of his time in the simulator, getting closer to Hamilton as the months go by. This time he lined up in second, just 0.042 in arrears. Ferrari did its best to temper expectations after Malaysia. Even though Sebastian Vettel qualified in third, almost a second behind Hamilton, the Scuderia's race pace is still considered a danger. Kimi Raikkonen's final hot lap went sour in Turn 3 and dropped the Finn to sixth place on the grid. In between the Ferraris, Williams is another team desperately working to maintain its advantage, and both of its drivers capitalized on Raikkonen's misfortune. Felipe Massa took fourth, Valtteri Bottas was in fifth. Daniel Ricciardo led the Infiniti Red Bull Racing charge in seventh, ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Lotus earning a spirits-lifting eighth. The two Saubers continue to show how good the Ferrari engine is, with Felipe Nasr taking ninth position and teammate Marcus Ericsson in tenth. Yet when the lights went out, so did the racing, for the most part. At the end of the first lap, because of some excellent moves by Raikkonen on both Williams' and a terrible start by Ricciardo that dropped him to seventeenth, the order was Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Raikkonen, Massa, Bottas, Grosjean, Nasr, Ericsson, and Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus rounding out the top ten. At the end of the race, the only positions that had changed were the final two: Ricciardo had a laps-long battle with Ericsson, passing, getting repassed, then passing again to take ninth for good, with Ericsson finishing tenth. Maldonado suffered the worst in a battle with Jenson Button in the McLaren, when Button misjudged the entry into Turn 1 for a pass and clouted the back of the Lotus. Button was able to finish but Maldonado had to retire. Yes, there were some decent moments in between, like Bottas getting by Massa at the start, then Raikkonen getting past Massa in the first few corners and the Finn's move on Bottas also letting Massa through.

AMG-powered Aston Martins still years away

After flirting for several years, Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin have finally tied the knot. Just don't expect to see any offspring to result from the union for at least three or four years.
This according to Auto Express, which spoke with Daimler chief Dr. Dieter Zetsche at the Frankfurt Motor Show last week. AE reports that a new range of AMG-developed turbocharged V8s, transmissions and electrical components will make their way into the successors to the current V8 Vantage and DB9, but that these models are still a few years off.
Purists might balk at the thought of a Mercedes-powered Aston holding true to the brand's heritage. But while David Brown (for whom the DB range is named) may have steered clear of shoehorning in Detroit muscle into his cars, the entirety of the company's current range is powered by engines borrowing technology from Ford, and that arrangement seems to have worked well for Aston until now. And if you're still skeptical, look no further than Pagani and its AMG-sourced engines and you should have all the proof you need that the new relationship between Daimler and Aston could be a success.