Dan Ricciardo's Renault best leaves teammate 'upset'

Daniel Ricciardo's best result since moving to Renault has been overshadowed by a controversial team directive at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo finished the race in sixth place to secure his best result so far this season as Lewis Hamilton claimed another win in highly contentious circumstances.

However, the Aussie's sixth place finish left his Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg "upset" after the team ordered him to stay behind Ricciardo at the end of the race.

Hulkenberg made his sole pitstop eight laps after Ricciardo, and seemed to have more pace in hand at the end of the race - closing in on his team-mate after Ricciardo had been passed by Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

But the two Renault drivers remained in formation from then on to the chequered flag, with Ricciardo crossing the line just four tenths ahead of Hulkenberg to secure sixth place.

Hulkenberg could be seen in animated discussions with Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul after the race, with the source of the German's frustrations becoming clear afterwards.

"He's a bit upset. And I understand why he's upset," Abiteboul said.

"Daniel was on slightly older tyres than Nico, also because he had a go at a couple of fast cars, clearly his tyres were not in such a good shape," Abiteboul explained.

"Probably Nico would have had the pace to overtake him, but frankly we said 'we need that result'.

"I don't like to have to do that, it's not the style of the team, that's something that we don't intend to do on many occasions.

"I wanted to make sure that the team's back in the game, and the drivers will also be back in the game, their own game, from next week onwards - but for this weekend it was important to get back as close as possible to the team that's still fourth, which is McLaren."

The 14 points Renault picked up in Canada doubled its points tally for 2019, elevating it from eighth to fifth in the constructors' standings.

Renault had endured a difficult start to the season, but is now just two points behind its fourth-placed customer team McLaren - which failed to score in Montreal.

Defending champ scores controversial win

Hamilton’s win for Mercedes came in controversial fashion after Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel crossed the finish line first but was given a five-second penalty.

Vettel, who started from pole, took the chequered flag ahead of Hamilton on Sunday but there was no celebration in the Ferrari garage as the furious German was demoted to second after being slapped with the penalty for a dangerous re-entry after running off the track.

Under pressure from Hamilton, Vettel threw away the race on lap 48 when he went too hard into the turn-three chicane and ran on to the grass, returning to the circuit just ahead of the Briton who was forced to brake sharply or face being pushed into the wall.

The race continued with the incident under investigation and a few laps later when Vettel was told of the decision the four-time world champion exploded, venting his anger over the team radio.

"I had nowhere to go. Seriously, I had nowhere to go," fumed Vettel.

"They are stealing the race from us.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," continued Vettel.

"Seriously, you need to be an absolute blind man to let him pass and not control your car -- where am I supposed to go?

"This is a wrong world, this is not fair."

At the same time, Mercedes were telling Hamilton to just "stay in Vettel's gearbox" and take a gifted victory.

"Not the way I wanted to win," said Hamilton, after collecting his fifth win of the season and equalling Michael Schumacher's Canadian record of seven victories on the island circuit.

With the exception of Mercedes, few in the huge crowd seemed happy with the outcome, loudly booing Hamilton during the winners' ceremony which seemed to catch the Briton off-guard.

The decision to penalise Vettel allowed Mercedes to extend their season-long domination, making it seven wins in seven races, including five in one-two formation.

With agencies