2007 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix

[Jack_Bauer]

That's what I've seen too and what the Dutch TV is saying too...

When the monocoque was being lifted away on the crane it looked completely intact.

[Wouter Melissen]

Takusan FTW!

[jorismo]

Takusan: +1 for me

[Sauc3]

Broken leg for Kubica.

[Suka]

That's what I've seen too and what the Dutch TV is saying too...

At least i'm not alone. Even if my spelling was a little off...

[Ferrer]

Certainly not a boring race.

[magracer]

Certainly not a boring race.

Only if all could be like this (minus the accident of course!)

[cmcpokey]

one of the more entertaining i have seen in a long time. 4 safety cars, one major wreck, Sato passing Alonso, two black flags, the lucky dog rule coming out, and more wrecks than anyone can imagine... absolutely fascinating

[fisetdavid26]

one of the more entertaining i have seen in a long time. 4 safety cars, one major wreck, Sato passing Alonso, two black flags, the lucky dog rule coming out, and more wrecks than anyone can imagine... absolutely fascinating

Sato passing Alonso was truly gold. Great laugh. On a sad note, I was horrified when I saw Kubica's accident, terrible. Thankfully he *only* has a broken leg, could have been much more worst than that. The race was an odd one, lot of spins (Alonso 4 times in the Senna esses) and there was way too much dust on the circuit. First race in a long time I haven't thought about switching channel.

[Jack_Bauer]

Lewis Hamilton has claimed his first career victory (surely the first of many) in an incredible, incident packed Canadian Grand Prix. There were great drives, great moves, some poor drives, numerous safety cars and one truly horrific crash in a breathless afternoon at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The most important thing to be said is that preliminary reports from the hospital are that BMW's Robert Kubica has miraculously survived an appalling accident with what looks like just a broken leg. It was a truly awful few minutes as a spectator immediately after the incident, as it looked as though he was seriously injured or perhaps worse. Hopefully he makes a full and speedy recovery and will be back in a race car sometime in the future.

The dramatic incidents began in the first corner as Fernando Alonso made what would be the first of many off-track excursions in his McLaren. He was under pressure from Heidfeld who made a quite brilliant start and ended up locking his brakes. Whether he damaged the rear of his car remains to be seen, but he struggled terribly all day long and also received a stop-go penalty along the way to finishing a lowly 7th.

Sutil and Speed both made mistakes in turns 8 and 9 putting them out of the race early on, and during the safety car period confusion reigned. Alonso and Rosberg came in to pit too early and were penalised, and then Massa and Fisichella both left the pitlane with the red-light showing. They were both eventually black-flagged from the race for their indiscretions, although the circumstances regarding why the red light was showing will be discussed long into the night in the Ferrari and Renault teams, as there appeared to be no real danger.

Then came the real talking point of the race. Kubica appeared to come into contact with the rear of a Toyota on the full-throttle run down to turn 10 and left the circuit in a dramatic and scary fashion. After a heavy impact with the wall the car was thrown back across the track, disintegrating as it went, before coming to rest in the run-off area at the hairpin after another hefty impact with the wall. It was good fortune that he didn't collect anyone else as the car flipped across the track. The medical teams were on the scene incredibly quickly to tend to Kubica, which was excellent to see.

This of course led to a very lengthy safety car period, which caused mayhem in the pitlane whilst most spectators were far more interested in finding out the condition of Kubica. For Hamilton and Heidfeld out front it was a case of trying to keep their cool and stay focused. Both did so superbly well and drove faultless races. Heidfeld was particularly impressive to me as he must have been more worried than most about the condition of his young teammate with whom he has become good friends. Hamilton and Heidfeld were never involved in any serious incident with anyone, which is testament to just how well they kept their heads when all around them were losing theirs.

After further safety car periods after both Liuzzi and Trulli and fallen off the track with stupid, unforced errors it somehow came to pass that Williams' Alex Wurz took the third podium place. This is all the more remarkable given that he had part of his rear wing missing for most of the race after contact with Scott Speed. He also had had a stinker of a race weekend up to that point. The same could be said for Heikki Kovalainen who took fourth place despite having seemingly spent more time walking back to the pits than actually driving his car in the practice and qualifying sessions.

Kimi Raikkonen was the sole Ferrari to take the chequered flag down in a fairly poor 5th place. He came into contact with teammate Massa in turn 2 on the opening lap which damaged his front wing, and he was fighting a losing battle for the rest of the afternoon. At one point he was trailing Takuma Sato and losing a second per lap to him on pace alone! Sato himself put in arguably the greatest performance of his whole career by taking sixth place. This included two superb passing manouevres around the outside of the final chicane in the closing laps, firstly around Schumacher and then around World Champion Alonso. Truly brilliant stuff from the Japanese, and great news for the Super Aguri team. It was yet another kick in the teeth for the Honda team who had one car give up on the start line and the other finishing dead last on the race track with Barrichello.

Mark Webber had a strange weekend. He put in a stunning qualifying performance, but made a couple of silly errors in the race and was off the track a couple of times. Yet somehow he found himself up in second place at one point, but for some inexplicable reason his team didn't bring him in for his second stop during the safety car period. He pitted under full race conditions and ended up out of the points behind Ralf Schumacher's Toyota. Rosberg had a promising start to the race and was splitting the Ferrari's early on, but a stop-go penalty ruined his race. Davidson and Barrichello brought up the rear of the field, both of whom had fairly uneventful races.

So Lewis Hamilton not only has his first career victory, he also has a comfortable lead in the Drivers' Championship after just 6 races of his debut season. Alonso will need to bounce back big-time at Indianapolis, which he confesses is his least favourite track. At the moment Ferrari are in some trouble in the Championship races. They weren't quick here, and have no time to improve the car before next Sunday's race. Massa's disqualification has put a large dint in his title aspirations, and Kimi is losing more and more ground on Hamilton with every race. At this rate it could become a two-horse race for the title between the McLaren teammates.

[dydzi]

that was an odd race, not the one i'd be looking forward to seeing.

kubica's crash

[Kitdy]

that was an odd race, not the one i'd be looking forward to seeing.

I thought it was a very entertaining race (barring the major accident - that gave me the creeps) and as in general a fun race to watch. Great work by Lewis Hamilton, a lot of Brits will be happy today!

[Coventrysucks]

Certainly not a boring race.

It was an eventful event, but not a "race" as such.

50mph procession behind the safety car, interspersed with F1 drivers demonstrating a delightfully high level of incompetence in a role they are paid handsomely to fulfil...

Most of them manage to struggle through the tedious drudgery of steering a car round a wonky circle for an hour and a half; obviously the Montreal circuit is a bit too much for the "best" and most highly paid drivers in the world to negotiate.

They have only been going there every year for two decades, so it is understandable that they don't have much data of what the circuit will be like for tyres, brakes, set up, etc. And it is not as if the drivers can remember where all the corners are from one year to the next.

Disqualifications?

Red light = stop. It isn't an abstract concept - millions of people of much less skill, intelligence and salary are expected to cope with it on public roads around the world.

It doesn't matter why the light was on, or if it should have been on or not - it was on, and it is the driver's responsibility to observe this and act accordingly. Kubica managed it - why should Raikkonen and Fisichella be exempt?

To top it all, amidst a riot of top-flight, professional ineptitude, the British are the ones doing it properly?!

I had to switch over to watch the cricket to remind myself of what a traditionally British sporting effort looks like.

Still; Christians can rest easily tonight knowing that the second-coming is upon us:

Not long now until London will be filled with puny mortals, bowing before the feet of Lewis Hamilton in his obligatory "we've won something!" open-topped bus tour of Britain's first city.

[Jack_Bauer]

It seems the initial reports about Robert Kubica's injuries were wide of the mark. BMW's Mario Theissen has confirmed that Kubica broke no bones in his legs or elsewhere, and will be released from hospital tomorrow after spending a night under observation for concussion.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns19263.html

[fisetdavid26]

It seems the initial reports about Robert Kubica's injuries were wide of the mark. BMW's Mario Theissen has confirmed that Kubica broke no bones in his legs or elsewhere, and will be released from hospital tomorrow after spending a night under observation for concussion.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns19263.html

That is awesome news then.