The very Eventful Canadian Grand Prix

June 10, 2007

Finally, Lewis Hamilton won the first Grand Prix of his career at a very very eventful Canadian Grand Prix at Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit. Nick Heidfeld took the much deserved second spot for BMW-Sauber followed by an highly elated Alex Wurz for Williams F1.

And an eventful GP it was. 4 sessions under safety car. One huge crash involving Robert Kubica, as per latest update, he has just a sprain in his right ankle and a light concussion. Numerous other crashes involving Adrian Sutil, Scott Speed, Chritsjian Albers and Vitantonio Liuzzi. And not to forget Jarno Trulli who managed to park his car in the walls behind the safety cars.

It was one of those days where Lewis could never put a foot wrong. On the other hand, Fernando Alonso was on the other end of the spectrum. After making a huge mistake on the opening lap and losing 1 position to Nick Heidfeld, Alonso kept on making mistakes and even got 10 seconds stop-go penalty for entering the pits while safety car was on track. Another driver to get the same penalty was Nico Rosberg.

Ferrari, after talking a lot about how they will manage to get back on par with McLaren in Montreal had one of the better-forget-about-the-race-weekend kind of race. With Kimi Raikkonen managing a very lack-luster fifth position and Felipe Massa given the Black Flag for jumping Red Light while exiting the pits along with Giancarlo Fisichella for Renault.

Honda, as usual, had another horrendous race weekend with Jenson Button race ended even before it started. His car died when the lights went out to start the Canadian GP, while Reubens Barrichello came at 12th position, that is the last of the running cars. Super Aguri on the other hand one of the most amazing races with Takuma Sato showing his great driving skills and overtaking Ralf Schumacher and Fernando Alonso to finsh at sixth position. Not only that, at one point in the race he even overtook Kimi Raikkonen. While Anthony Davidson finished in 11th place, one position above the sole running Honda. Honda now really have to sit back and think what went horribly wrong with their ‘Earth Car’.

Renault also had a mixed fortune with Heikki Kovalainen finishing on fourth place and thus scoring some very valuable points for the team, whereas Giancarlo Fisichella was disqualified, like Felipe Massa, for jumping the Red Light while exiting the pit lane. And a Williams finally made it’s presence at the podium after such a long time. Alex Wurza got his first podium finish after nearly 10 years in the sports while NIco Rosberg finished 10th after his Stop-Go Penalty, like Alonso, for entering pits when Safety Car was deployed.

Mark Webber tried his best but finished only 9th, while team mate David Coulthard retired with ongoing car problems. None of the Spyker or Toro Rosso managed to finished. So a race that started with 22 cars on the grid ended with just 12 cars running.

So at the end of 6th race of the season, Lewis Hamilton is leading the drivers championship with 8 points ahead of this team mate & reigning world champion Fernando Alonso followed bu Felipe Massa who is 7 points furthur down on Alonso. In Constructors Championship, McLaren is good 28 points ahead of Ferrari followed by BMW furthur 22 points behind.