MONTREAL -- Sebastian Vettel wasnt losing any sleep over never having won the Canadian Grand Prix, but when he finally did it, he did it in style. The triple world champion for the Red Bull team pulled out to a comfortable lead from pole position and was never threatened as he added the Canadian GP to his list of 29 career Formula One victories on Sunday afternoon. The German, who has a commanding 36-point lead in drivers standings, took the chequered flag 14.4 seconds ahead of Ferrari ace Fernando Alonso, his closer pursuer on the track and in the standings. "It is important to us, but I wasnt desperate to win here," said Vettel. "I think we had strong results in the past. "It wasnt a shame coming in here not having won this race, so I wasnt desperate when I got up this morning, thinking I have to win, I have to win. But I was very pleased because its a very nice race." Vettel raced nicely himself, winning for the third time this season. After rain complicated preparations for all the teams during practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday, there was warm, dry weather at race time. It made for one of the least eventful Canadian GPs ever, without the usual slipping and sliding into walls normally seen on the tightly cornered Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Only two drivers -- Saubers Nico Hulkenberg and Caterhams Giedo van der Garde -- failed to finish in the 22-car field. Vettel held off Lewis Hamiltons Mercedes on the first turn from the start and pulled away. He led virtually the entire race, and had only one mishap on the 52nd of 70 laps when he cut across the grass after going into a chicane too quickly. "I was pushing hard in the beginning to open a gap," he said. "Its Canada and you usually go close to the walls. "Sometimes I was closer than I wanted, but fortunately I didnt crash." As for taking a shortcut, he said: "I could have stayed on the track but it was quite tight. I didnt want to risk a spin, so I decided to cut. I lost four or five seconds on that corner, but it was fine. It seemed the safe option." Well behind Vettel, a fierce battle raged as Alonso recovered from a disappointing qualifying by moving up from sixth place to his fourth top-two finish in seven races this year. He got past Mark Webbers Red Bull and Nico Robergs Mercedes and then zeroed in on Hamilton, the defending champion and a three-time Canadian GP winner. Alonso made a bold passing move on lap 62 that just failed, but then caught the Briton going into the first turn on the following lap. Hamilton tried desperately to catch up, but fell short. "He was very quick and it was difficult to keep him behind, but I tried my best," said Hamilton, the 2008 world champion who said he didnt have enough grip in his tires, especially during the tighter turns, to hold off Alonso. "I got closer, but he was generally too quick for me. "But its still generally a good result, considering these guys are massively quick." Vettel leads drivers standings after seven races with 132 points to 96 for Alonso, who moved past Kimi Raikkonens Lotus (88 points) into second place. Hamilton is fourth with 77. Webber finished fourth in the race ahead of Rosberg, who won two weeks ago at the incident-filled Monaco Grand Prix,. At that race McLarens Sergio Perez nearly bumped Raikkonen off the track, prompting the usually reserved Finn to say someone should punch him in the face. Alonso emphasized how much more civilized the competition was in Montreal. "It was nice to race with such talented drivers, so intelligent drivers," Alonso said. "You fight at 300 km/h and you feel safe. "Youre racing and competing. It can go your way or the other way, but this is real racing. Im happy to see this back after Monaco, where it was a bit different." There was also a surprise sixth place finish from Jean-Eric Vergne, which delighted the modest Toro Rossi squad. It was his and the teams best finish of the season. "The best result for me, of course, but also the highest finishing position since Vettels results for the (Toro Rossi) team in 2008," said Vergne. "It is even more satisfying because it was a normal race in the dry, with no one going out in front of me, so we achieved this position fair and square." Raikkonen had a miserable week. He was dropped two grid positions for ignoring a caution flag during qualifying and then suffered the ignominy of being lapped by Vettel after only 35 laps of the race. But he fought back to finish ninth and tied Michael Schumachers record of 24 consecutive races in the points. Rainy qualifying left quick and slower cars scattered through the starting grid, including rookie Valtteri Bottas in third position for Williams. 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LOUIS -- Valtteri Filppula assisted on three of Tampa Bays four goals, and the Lightning beat the St. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon received a flurry of criticism for his bullpen management and other decisions late in the World Series, but he apparently hasnt lost any cachet with the teams front office as a result.Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer, speaking to reporters Tuesday at the MLB GMs meetings, expressed support for the job Maddon did this season and said Maddons performance adds to a portfolio that will eventually earn him a spot in Cooperstown.Joe is a world champion manager for the first time and hes going to be in the Hall of Fame someday, Hoyer said. I think hes deserving of both.Critics piled on Maddon for using closer Aroldis Chapman for 1 1/3 innings and 20 pitches in World Series Game 6, even though the Cubs had the game in hand at the time and went on to beat Cleveland by a score of 9-3. Maddon was pilloried in Game 7 for lifting starter Kyle Hendricks after 4 1/3 innings and bringing in starter Jon Lester in relief with a runner on first base, even after saying he would summon Lester only with the bases empty.Also, in the ninth inning of a tied Game 7, Javier Baez was called on to bunt with a 3-2 count and one out with the go-ahead run at third and the infield in. He fouled off the pitch and was out. The run didnt score. ?The game was tied because Chapman, called upon to throw 35 pitches in Game 7, allowed a game-tying, two-run homer to Rajai Davis in the eighth inning.The Cubs did recover, however, to beat the Indians 8-7 in 10 innings and capture their first title since 1908.By the time you got to the finish line, both teams were really tired and obviously that has a huge impact on what happened, Hoyer said. We won the World Series, and I know theres a zero percent chance we win 200 games over two years and win the World Series without Joe. I think thats the nature of the postseason. The managers take on an almost oversized persona, because the cameras are on them the entire game and every move they make is going to be dissected.I had my own internal monologue I could rely on. It was an amazing game. Maybe even now, Im sort of glad thats how we won the game. Its sort of an appropriate way to end a 108-year drougght, when you stare into the abyss for 45 minutes or so and end up coming out the other side.ddddddddddddIll probably have more gray hairs now. Ill probably have ulcers and it might have taken some minutes off my life. But it was probably more appropriate.Hoyer, Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and the rest of Chicagos front-office team are in Scottsdale to begin the process of preparing for 2017. The Cubs will have to deal with the potential loss of Chapman, who is a free agent, as well as center fielder Dexter Fowler, who hit the open market after declining a $9 million mutual option for next season. Hoyer said the team plans to engage in talks with agent Casey Close and has interest in retaining Fowler, who logged a .276/.393/.447 slash line as Chicagos primary leadoff hitter this season. The Cubs tendered Fowler a one-year, $17.2 million qualifying offer, but Fowler is expected to reject it and pursue free agency.Chapman, 28, saved 16 games, logged a 1.01 ERA and struck out 46 batters in 26 2/3 innings with the Cubs after coming over from the New York Yankees by trade in late July. He joins Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon as one of three big-name closers on the market this winter.Carl Edwards Jr., who struck out 52 batters in 36 relief innings for the Cubs this season, is one potential internal option to replace Chapman as closer. Hector Rondon recorded 18 saves before the end of July, but his performance fell off markedly after Chapmans arrival.Hoyer said the Cubs main objective this offseason will be to add pitching to catch up to the young position player core led by Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, Baez, Kyle Schwarber and Willson Contreras.Our overarching focus is finding controllable pitching -- starting and relieving, Hoyer said. I think Ive said that a thousand times to our local writers, and thats probably going to be our same answer for the next 18-24 months. Our young position players are ahead of our pitchers both in volume and talent, so thats going to be the focus for a while. ' ' '