After a day of slightly belated jubilee activities up at the centre I made a stealthy exit to get back here in front of the television for the Canadian GP, in a day which started off with partial coverage of the BTCC from Oulton Park before some tennis truncated the show. But through the power of the internet, I shall cover the remaining events of the series, probably once I have finished here with the updates and the writing and things. There have been so many Canadian races filled with carnage, mayhem and continuous action - and this wasn't one of them. That is not to say it was a dull race by any means, it certainly did pick up towards the end when those pesky tyres played their part once more completely re-arranging the podium with 10 laps to go.
While the folk over in sky world are rounding down proceedings for the next hour or so I have returned to the internet to try and get the report completed before I run out of weekend and veer into Monday morning so on that note I shall get right to the start of it all.
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| credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
Having been at the celebrations earlier on, where the it appears the blog hasn't won the raffle and has proven it knows nothing about the posh bunch of royal folk sitting in their posh building in the south, I wasn't present for the pre-race information. So was walking in blind to any issues or plans going forward into the 70 laps that were ahead of them, however given it was only sky reporting it probably wouldn't have mattered either way. Getting in the house at the Spain/Italy game was concluding and minutes before the start of the formation lap in Montreal.
As the lights did go out the grid left the starting positions almost in perfect grid order, very symmetrical in fact, at a track where contact into turn one is rather common - in 98 we had Wurtz rolling the Benneton before Pedro Diniz ended up on top of Panis on the restart. This time everyone was well behaved, slight touching of wheels between a Caterham and Vergne towards the back but nothing that was going to cause a problem for anyone. Webber and Rosberg ran two wide through the opening sequence inches apart from the exit of turn two all the way down to turn three. Mark had the car to the inside and was able to claim the position away from the Mercedes.
It then fell to Massa to challenge Rosberg, and it was clear the that the Ferarri had the superior pace looking down the inside several times during the opening two laps, before making a pass stick before the final chicane. An incident that the commentary team seemed to think was DRS aided but at such an early srage in the race the system wasn't enabled so the overtake was a result of superior speed coming out of the turn nine hairpin. Vettel remained in the lead, as the German bloke often did in that all dominant season last year, and most of this race last season, ahead of Hamilton and Alonso. A little further back Button wasn't having the same degree of success as his last visit to the Canadian GP running down where he started just ahead of the two Saubers Kobayashi leading Perez in that inter-team battle.
Life was about to go a slightly downhill for Felipe Massa as he span the Ferrari on the exit of turn on, flat-spotting the tyres in an effort to keep the car out of the barrier, before rejoining between the Saubers outside the points positions. In response to the incident Teh Massa brought the car to pit road for an early stop making 1-stop strategy result in a very long second stint. Back down in turn one more problems as HRT driver Narain Karthikayen span across the run-off area with a suspected brake problem as he pulled over a few corners later into retirement. An identical problem seemed to be afflicting the fellow HRT of De La Rosa who entered pit lane with an epic amount of brake dust pouring from the wheels.
Time for the first of the main contesters to make their stops starting with Hamilton's McLaren followed a lap later by the Red Bull of Vettel who returned to the track having relinquished his lead to the British driver, but that too was to be short lived because Alonso stayed out for a couple of laps in clear air setting quicker times. Fernando completed his stop and emerged factionally ahead of Hamilton in the overall lead, but Lewis was able to pass the Ferrari in the DRS zone before the final chicane Slightly off the radar One-Stop Perez and Kimi Raikkonen were staying out and sneaking up the field to the edge of the top 5. Going in the opposite direction was Paul Di Resta in the Force India who before the round of stops was running in the top 5, before falling down to 12th.
We entered that moment in the middle of the race where not too much happened, the same period lasted for most of the race two weekends ago in Monaco but this week did contract a little, but sadly not be much there was thirty laps where it was time to get the snacks in. Whereas I tried to reload the live timing which insisted on being half a lap behind the real world Sergio and Kimi were still reluctant to stop - One-Stop running all the way to lap 44 before opting to go for some new rubber. A plan which may turn out to be productive later in the race.
Things were spurred back into action when Hamilton decided to pit again, pulling away from the theorised one-stop strategies which seemed to be the norm, except for Button who was onto his second at this point having a torrid day in 14th. As the McLaren entered the pit box, here's hoping for a decent problem free stop... well perhaps not dropping 1.6s through a slow rear tyre change. Prompting a table in the McLaren hospitality area getting a beating from who-ever that person is that is supposed to be Hamilton's woman. Which in turn prompted a remark from Crofty that it wasn't the first time 1.6s has cause problems there - temporarily silencing Brundle. Would this hand the race back to Fernando, but in order for that to work Alonso would have to come in within a couple of laps. However Alonso stayed out, and because Lewis was running faster on the newer tyres it passed the point where stopping would be a solution. Several radio messages went out to Hamilton informing him that the cars in front were going to stop - which didn't seem to be the plan.
With attrition failing to have a the effect on the race it traditionally does it was time for a retirement, and as luck would have it we got one, but luck wasn't the case for Oh Sch...umacher as his DRS flap had jammed open. In Canada that's not too bad as there are no high speed corners, it would be a severe issue if it had jammed in Spa or Suzuka but either way the car had to be retired as the wing couldn't be closed. He was shortly joined in retirement by Timo Glock's Marussia who after a spin down at the hairpin pulled his car out of the race. As for the cars still running there was action in the middle of the points positions as Massa was rapidly running out of tyres after having to make such an early stop and had gained the attentions in close proximity of Nico Rosberg who had Perez in tow. Nico looked to the outside in the final chicane but was forced across the run-off and gained a position in the process, Rosberg had to allow Massa back through but Sergio was right behind the par. The Sauber considered going three wide at a couple of instances on the front straight before going round the outside of the Mercedes in the first corner. Felipe decided to bail out of the battle at the end of the next lap diving to the pits to replace his worn tyres, because although power slides up near the wall of champions is cool, it isn't particularly fast
Back with the leaders and it was becoming evident that the top two were planning to run to the end which meant that Hamilton was going to have to pass them to re-take the victory. What was running in his favour was that both Vettel and Alonso were starting to suffer with tyre degradation after running close to 50 laps on the same set of tyres. Interesting, behind Hamilton Grosjean was running on a similar pace to Hamilton despite being on tyres that were only marginally fresher than the leaders, and One-Stop Perez was setting faster and faster laps from 5th. It wasn't long before Lewis had caught up behind Vettel's struggling car, as the pair entered the DRS zone, Sebastien didn't resist the inevitable and proceeded to pit as soon as he was passed.
Alonso could sense his time out front was numbered, as his tyres were degrading rapidly running up to 2s slower per lap than Hamilton and close to 4s slower than fastest man Perez, who was on unsuprisingly - one stop. In contrasting fortunes Ricciardo paid a visit to the grass between turns seven and eight going for a little spin but kept the car off the wall and kept going. The battle up front was now much closer with Fernando going a lot more defensive then Vettel did when threatened by the presence of the McLaren charging back to the front. No defence was going to stop the superior grip Lewis had and Hamilton drove round the outside in the final DRS zone, beginning Fernando's descent down the order. Grosjean was the next car in line, running three seconds per lap faster on tyres only two laps fresher, leading to another easy DRS based pass.
After his stop Vettel dropped down into 5th behind One-stop Perez, and began lapping on the same pace as the Sauber, even brushing the infamous wall in the final chicane, sparks dancing off the rim indicating it was close to another visit the wall for the German bloke. Right at the front Hamilton had a stable lead from Grosjean in second, the battle for third however was far from being so stable as Alonso now had the attentions of Sergio Perez in the Sauber in a flashback to Malaysia. On this instance it was the tyre saving Mexican who had the upper hand and it was in the DRS zone once more where the move took place where Fernando had nothing left to defend from one-stop Perez who was off into another podium position. Sebastien set the fastest lap behind Alonso and threw the car down the inside coming into the hairpin to drop Fernando down another position. The Ferrari came close to losing another position as Rosberg was the next car in line to challenge but there weren't enough laps left to take the place.
Out front Hamilton crossed the line to take his first race win of the season and extending the run of differing winners to seven races now, and reasonably exhausting the list of traditional contenders for victories. Grosjean and Perez completed the podium exhibiting impressive tyre conservation over the course of the race especially for Romain. Vettel finished fourth having started the race from the front, ending the recent run of pole-sitters claiming the victory, Alonso survived to take fifth from Rosberg ahead of Webber and Raikkonen. The points were rounded off by Kamui Kobayashi and Felipe Massa's Ferrari.
The bonus points championship points winners
This was a race of three distinct phases, the opening one where the pit stops and strategies were decided, the middle where not much took place, and an entertaining conclusion when the tyres began to wear away. But no matter how a race plays out it is these points which are important and these are the winners, even though it is hard to give out enough points to lot of average performances.
25pts - Romain Grosjean - While Alonso fell backwards on tyres of a similar age, Romain went forward into 2nd, and was catching Hamilton
18pts - One-Stop Perez - Another perfect demonstration of tyre management gaining 12 positions to claim another podium finish
15pts - Lewis Hamilton - Took a bit of a risk coming in when the others stayed out and it proved to be the right decision or Grosjean would have won the race
12pts - Felipe Massa - For being entertaining, battling with Rosberg, and powersliding close to the wall
10pts - STC - Have to have some points for their performances at the celebration event, got points this time last year too,
8pts - Pastor Maldonado - Gained the most positions over the course of the race 1 more than Perez
6pts - Fernando Alonso - Damage limitation mission at the end on the ruined tyres
4pts - Jenson Button - Here are some consolation points from a fairly dire day
2pts - Vitaly Petrov - For turning the fastest lap out of the bottom three teams during the race
1pt - David Croft - For the Hamilton joke, brilliant
The penalties championship
We went through a long time at the beginning of the season where no-one was getting penalties and Heikki's presence on the board was getting rather lonely but in recent events we have added to that list, and following today's race we have one more entry to the championship. That entry goes to Jean-Eric Vergne who received a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
And here is the is the most interesting part I have no penalty points to hand out from this race because everyone was too well behaved, should almost give them all a penalty point for being too civilised but that would be going against the concept of this championship. Handing people penalty points for not doing anything that would result in penalty points does border on madness.
Looking onto Valencia
Suppose it had to happen eventually, after the two vastly anticipated races of Monaco and Canada the tone does get lowered when it comes to the European GP back in Spain, on the track loosely defined as a street track. Where in essence some people have drawn some lines on the harbour and moved some walls around, without barely seeing any actual streets, only a fleeting visit to harbour access channels. But go there we must and because in some sense it could be perceived that the past two races have fallen a little short of their hype hope is passed onto the marina of Valencia. Perhaps because there is no hype for the disappointing coastal lap, at least not here in Blog HQ, we might see the balance swap the other way and end up with an epic race... well that might be asking too much.
What is more exciting in the coming week is the running of the monumental race that is the Le Mans 24hrs, completing the trio of high profile races that people outside the world of motor-racing might have heard of. Which does mean a long night for the blog up all night for the fourth time, luckily not coinciding with the Candian GP like it did last season, resulting in some very fatigued reporting and giving points to bob the cat at 2am on Saturday morning. The Le Mans race commands the same level of anticipation that both the last two GP's have, but over the course of 24hrs it probably will deliver, so until next time this is farewell from me here at blog HQ.
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