2012 Canadian Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Ferrari gamble fails as Hamilton takes victory

Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix after having started from second on the grid as a two-stop strategy paid good dividends compared to an ultimately failing one-stop strategy for Fernando Alonso. Having led the race after the second pit stops, Alonso decided to stay on the same tyres and that allowed Hamilton as well as three other drivers to go past him on newer tyres towards the latter laps of the race. Alonso eventually finished fifth.

Renault’s Romain Grosjean was another one-stopper but his fresher tyres enabled him to overtake Alonso for second place and so did the Sauber of Sergio Perez who finished third. Sebastian Vettel also stayed out on his second set of tyres but after Hamilton passed him, he came in for his second stop and fresher tyres enabled him to pass Alonso into fourth place, dropping the Ferrari into fifth.

Nico Rosberg finished sixth for Mercedes ahead of Mark Webber in seventh, Kimi Raikkonen in eight, Kamui Kobayashi in ninth and Felipe Massa in tenth. Michael Schumacher had yet another disastrous race as a failed DRS wing forced him to retire after lap forty five. The Force Indias finished just outside the points as the race didn’t quite come to fruition for them.

2012 Canadian Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Vettel takes pole ahead of Hamilton & Alonso

Red Bull pah-hah-ed at the sceptics after their race winning car was deemed “illegal” for having holes in the floor by grabbing pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in each of the qualifying sessions to absolutely dominate Saturday’s proceedings. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was fastest in each of the practice sessions but fell short when required and will start from second on the grid. Ferrari continued their resurgence as Fernando Alonso will start from third place on the grid.

Mark Webber will start from fourth ahead of Nico Rosberg in fifth and Felipe Massa in sixth. Renault’s Romain Grosjean was the best of the Lotuses in seventh place and Paul di Resta eighth. Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button complete the top ten for Sunday’s race.

2011 Canadian Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Vettel takes Pole, yet again

Sebastian Vettel has done it again! He clinched pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal with a scintillatingly fast lap at the start of the third and final qualifying session. Ferrari occupy the next two positions as Fernando Alonso took P2 ahead of Felipe Massa in P3.

Mark Webber starts in P4 with Lewis Hamilton P5, Nico Rosberg P6, Jenson Button P7 and Michael Schumacher in P8 ahead of the two Renaults of Nick Heidfeld in P9 and Vitaly Petrov rounding off the top ten.

Ferrari had topped the timesheets in Q1 and Q2 as the less than usual dependence on low downforce at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and also the reliance on Pirelli’s soft and super soft tyres suited their car better than others. But when it mattered, Vettel pulled out a quick lap which neither of the scarlet cars could overhaul and they had to make do with the second and third places on the grid.

McLaren will be disappointed at their performance with them now being the third fastest team, ahead of Mercedes and Renault. Hamilton has a good record in Montreal but fifth fastest was the best he could manage with Button sandwiched between the two Mercedes’.

2010 Canadian Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Hamilton nurses home a McLaren 1-2

Lewis Hamilton nursed his McLaren with badly grained tyres to victory at the Canadian Grand Prix and led home a McLaren 1-2 with Jenson Button finishing 2nd. Ferrari had a mini-resurgence of sorts with Fernando Alonso finishing 3rd. The Red Bulls had a rather sedate race, with Vettel finishing 4th and Mark Webber 5th. Nico Rosberg finished 6th with Robert Kubica behind him in 7th and Sebastian Buemi in 8th. Force India had both their cars in the points as Vitantonio Liuzzi led home teammate Adrian Sutil for the 9th and 10th places.

The tyre degradation issue that the teams feared all weekend did play a part in the race, with the front-runners electing for a two-stop strategy and the mid-tablers going for a three-stopper. Some teams even had to go for a four-stop strategy as they tyre graining was just too much to handle. The race delivered several overtaking manoeuvres and interesting incidents up and down the order but surprisingly, there was no Safety Car period to juice it up!

Before the race started, Mark Webber dropped down from P2 to P7 because of a gearbox change and that pushed up Sebastian Vettel to the front row, where he might have harboured hopes of a good clean start and get past pole-sitter Hamilton. But that was not to happen as almost all the front runners had a clean getaway, except Vitantonio Liuzzi and Felipe Massa, who had a tangling together and had to pit immediately for front wings and tyres. Michael Schumacher had a good start as he jumped upto 8th place from 13th on the grid. Other first lap incidents included a jump-start from Vitaly Petrov, which saw him take a drive-through penalty.

2010 Canadian Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Hamilton breaks Red Bull’s stranglehold on Pole

F1 returned to the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit outside Montreal and Lewis Hamilton dominated the Saturday Qualifying sessions as he scored the fastest times in each sessions en route to wrapping up Pole position for the race. It was his third consecutive pole position at the Canadian Grand Prix – he had won from pole in 2007 and crashed into the back of Kimi Raikkonen in 2008.

Mark Webber will start 2nd with Sebastian Vettel 3rd. Ferrari seemed to be back on track with Fernando Alonso taking 4th place whereas Jenson Button could only manage 5th. Vitantonio Liuzzi scored his best quali position in 6th with Felipe Massa 7th, Robert Kubica 8th, Adrian Sutil 9th and Nico Rosberg completing the top ten.

Q1 got off to a sedate start with the top teams content to let the lesser ones take to the track and rubber it up nicely before making their move. Renault, Force India, Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren all held P1 at some time or the other but as the clock wound down, it was the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton at the top of the timesheets, heading the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. Force India were the surprise team as both cars were in the top seven at one time. The ones to drop out at the end of the session were Kamui Kobayashi, Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen, Timo Glock, Lucas di Grassi, Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok.

Q2 saw the times a-tumbling with the fastest times set in the range of the 1:15.5s and it was again the same drivers in the top three positions – Lewis Hamilton heading the charts, with Sebastian Vettel & Fernando Alonso behind him. Jenson Button almost didn’t make the cut but he salvaged that with a last-ditch lap that took him upto 8th fastest but one driver who didn’t get that lucky was seven-time winner Michael Schumacher, who could only manage the 12th fastest time. Joining him in the relegation were Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg, Vitaly Petrov, Sebastian Buemi, Jaime Algersuari & Pedro de la Rosa.

Canadian Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Kubica & BMW’s first Victory

BMW and Robert Kubica took their first ever Formula One victory in a very very unpredictable and topsy-turvy Canadian Grand Prix! In an incident-filled race, BMW scored a 1-2 finish with Nick Heidfeld following his teammate in 2nd position. Red Bull and David Coulthard tasted a rare success with a 3rd place finish. Toyota took the 4th and 6th places with Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli, with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa between them in 5th. Honda’s Rubens Barrichello finished 7th and Sebastian Vettel, who started from the pitlane, took the last point in 8th.

Front-runners Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen were involved in a pit-lane accident and both were out of the race. Adrian Sutil’s stall brought out the safety car and the lead runners pitted, afraid that the pit lane would close anytime. While Raikkonen was at the end of the pit exit waiting for the light to go green, Hamilton ploughed into the back of him and Nico Rosberg hit the back of Hamilton! Kimi’s and Lewis’ cars were damaged beyond repair and both got out, shook hands, and retired into their garages. Rosberg was able to continue after changing the nose wing. After the shakedown, Nick Heidfeld emerged as the race leader and had a 20+ seconds gap over teammate Kubica with a pit stop still to be made. Drivers who were caught out by the marbles on the track included the Renault of Fernando Alonso whilst teammate Nelson Piquet retired with brake problems.

The race threw up a great result for BMW who are just 3 points behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship but more importantly, Robert Kubica is leading the Drivers’ Championship from Hamilton and Massa who’re tied on points with Kimi Raikkonen further behind in 3rd place. This sets up the battle for the title race rather nicely. The next race is in two weeks time – the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.

Image Courtesy ITV F1

Canadian Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Hamilton takes Pole

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton grabbed the pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix – for the second year in a row – at the last possible instant with a blinder of a lap. On a track which was fast breaking up at the newly-relaid turn 10, Ferrari were the fastest in sectors 1 and 2 but were losing out a hell lot of time in the 3rd sector. Kimi Raikkonen did string together a decent lap on his final run but again lost time in the final sector to end up P3. BMW’s Robert Kubica took P2 at the track where he had a horrific crash last year. Renault’s fortunes seem to be on the upswing as Fernando Alonso brought round his car in P4. Nico Rosberg’s Williams is in P5 – making it five different cars in the top five positions. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was P6 with Heikki Kovalainen, Nick Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello behind him. Rounding off the 10th position was the Red Bull of Mark Webber who had a spin n’ wall-bang in Q2 and did not run in Q3.

 

Drivers to drop off in Q3 were Bourdais, Sutil, Button, Fisichella and Vettel whilst Q2 drop-outs were Piquet, Glock, Trulli, Coulthard and Nakajima. Much of the attention was on the deteriorating track surface at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit and the track had to swept off the debris at the end of each qualifying session. That was the place where the Ferraris were losing much time but there were also indications that they were carrying a bit more fuel than Hamilton. If Kimi doesn’t let Hamilton get away too far ahead in the race, a superior strategy could yet see him win the race. Of course, Hamilton isn’t to be discounted. He won his first F1 race over here last year and he would want to do an encore. And in between these two, Robert Kubica could still throw in a surprise result. All’s set for a cracking Canadian Grand Prix tomorrow!!!

Image Courtesy ITV F1