Canadian Grand Prix Review

June 17, 2008

I attended the Canadian Grand Prix this year, and it was an excellent weekend. The weather was wonderful (except for the occasional thunderstorm, and an absolute downpour after the race), and, as usual, Montreal is just a great place for a Grand Prix. The city is a fabulous place to visit, and it is so easy to get to the race (via the metro).

There were real problems with the track breaking up this year, especially at the hairpin (which is where I sit), and this needs to be finally fixed for the next race.

It was great to see Robert Kubica win his first Grand Prix, and he drove brilliantly. Heidfeld also had a great race to finish second. So not only was it BMW’s first win as a team, it was also their first and second place finish.

David Coulthard kept it together for his first podium finish for Red Bull. This was a finish that he badly needed, as he has done nothing this year.

Hamilton had a great weekend until the moment he had a complete brain fade and slammed into Kimi. After last year, all teams should have been aware of the possible red lights at the end of the pit, yet Lewis went flying into Kimi as he was stopped (next to Kubica) for the pit lane red light. This took both Lewis and Kimi out of the race. Robert was extremely lucky that Lewis hit Kimi and not him. Felipe drove a great race to finish fifth, after a bad qualifying session.

Timo Glock finished fourth, after driving a great race, although at one point he blocked his team mate, which allowed Massa to pass Trulli, which forced him to finish sixth, instead of fifth.

Barrichello stayed in the race to finish seventh, although at times he was a moving chicane.

Vettel finished eigth, after a big crash in qualifying. Heikki did nothing in this race and finished ninth. It is hard to understand the difference in speed between Lewis and Heikki all weekend.

Nico finished tenth, although he had hit Lewis in the pits after Lewis had hit Kimi. Button finished eleventh, Webber twelth, and Bourdais thirteenth.

We now move on to the last French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, with both Lewis and Nico facing a 10 spot penalty for the pit incident.

70 laps; 305.270km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  1h36:24.447
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    16.495
 3.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    23.352
 4.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +    42.627
 5.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +    43.934
 6.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +    47.775
 7.  Barrichello   Honda                 (B)  +    53.597
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    54.120
 9.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    54.433
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    54.749
11.  Button        Honda                 (B)  +  1:07.540
12.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1:11.299
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:17.387

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)    54
Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)    49
Alonso        Renault               (B)    47
Piquet        Renault               (B)    42
Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)    20
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)    20
Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)    14

World Championship standings, round 7:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Kubica        42        1.  Ferrari                73
 2.  Hamilton      38        2.  BMW Sauber             70
 3.  Massa         38        3.  McLaren-Mercedes       53
 4.  Raikkonen     35        4.  Red Bull-Renault       21
 5.  Heidfeld      28        5.  Toyota                 17
 6.  Kovalainen    15        6.  Williams-Toyota        15
 7.  Webber        15        7.  Renault                 9
 8.  Trulli        12        8.  Honda                   8
 9.  Alonso         9        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      7
10.  Rosberg        8
11.  Nakajima       7
12.  Coulthard      6
13.  Vettel         5
14.  Barrichello    5
15.  Glock          5
16.  Button         3
17.  Bourdais       2

Posted in Canadian Grand Prix