Hamilton wins Canadian GP

[Wizzo]

Lewis Hamilton drove a copybook race to win the Canadian Grand Prix and take his first Formula One victory in only the sixth race of his career.

The Englishman led a dramatic race throughout, driving with composure as the field fell apart around him.

He survived four interventions by the safety car to head Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber and Williams's Alexander Wurz.

World champion Fernando Alonso finished seventh and Robert Kubica survived a huge crash after rolling his BMW.

The Pole's 180mph crash at the hairpin prompted the second, and most lengthy of the safety car periods, but by that time all semblance of a challenge to Hamilton had evaporated.

His victory puts him into an eight-point championship lead over Alonso and strengthens the astonshing prospect of him winning the title in his first season.

Lewis has done a great job, he deserved it. I am happy for him

The 22-year-old started from pole position, and was expecting a strong challenge from team-mate Alonso.

But the Spaniard ran wide at the first corner, and slipped down to third place behind Heidfeld.

But Alonso was taken completely out of contention through no fault of his own.

The first caution period was triggered by a crash involving Adrian Sutil's Spyker, and, running low on fuel, Alonso had no choice but to make his first pit stop at the same time, breaking rules that say drivers cannot pit until the field has formed up behind the safety car.

That meant Alonso was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty, dropping him down to 13th place.

He started lapping at record pace in an attempt to make up places, and was aided in his quest by three further safety car periods - the second for Kubica's horrendous crash.
 
The Pole's car appeared to touch Jarno Trulli's Toyota as they approached the hairpin and speared off the track. The car was launched into the air, flew into the barriers and barrell-rolled down the track before coming to rest on its side.

Medical crews took several minutes to get him out of the car, and he was taken to Montreal hospital for further checks, but his manager Danieli Morelli said he was "fine".

The constant safety car interventions might have unsettled some drivers, but Hamilton demonstrated the coolness and maturity that have been his signature in his stunning debut season to continue unflustered at the front.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis, who has overseen Hamilton's career for the past decade, said: "He has done a great job, he deserved it. I am happy for him.

"I am disappointed that the saftey car was deployed when we needed fuel. It really destroyed Fernando's race.

"We are here to do well with both cars but nothing can take away from Lewis's first and fantastic victory."

Behind him, the unrelenting drama continued to shake up the order.

And by the end of the final caution period, Wurz was in an unaccustomed third place thanks to his team's decision to fill his car up with fuel at his first pit stop and gamble on more safety car interventions allowing him to get to the end of the race without stopping again.

Renault's Heikki Kovalainen was another beneficiary, taking an impressive fourth place after crashing in qualifying and starting from the back.

Other drivers were less fortunate - Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella were both disqualified for leaving the pits when the exit was closed.

Kimi Raikkonen was fifth for Ferrari, ahead of Takuma Sato's Super Aguri, which emphasised the sense of surrealism hanging over the race by passing Alonso for sixth place on the penultimate lap.

Ralf Schumacher took the final point in eighth place.

[The Stig]

Lewis Hamilton took his first Grand Prix victory in only his sixth Formula One race, controlling a highly dramatic race at Montreal from the start.

Nick Heidfeld and Alex Wurz completed the podium, with Fernando Alonso only seventh after a series of errors, while Felipe Massa was disqualified for a pitlane infringement.

Hamilton's win has moved him clearly ahead in the championship standings, eight points in front of teammate Alonso ahead of next week's United States Grand Prix. Massa is already 15 points behind in third.

But the race will be remembered mainly for the terrifying accident that befell Robert Kubica. The Pole is believed to have escaped only with a broken leg after a high-speed impact with the wall approaching the hairpin.

Hamilton held the lead from the start as Alonso's bid to oust his teammate on the outside line at Turn 1 ended with a locked wheel and a trip across the grass, dropping the world champion to third as Heidfeld nipped between the McLarens.

Two further minor errors saw Alonso lose more time and eventually third place to Massa, while Hamilton stormed away into a 12-second lead over Heidfeld.

Hamilton then made his first pitstop just before Adrian Sutil crashed at Turn 4 and caused the first safety car period. Alonso and fifth-placed Nico Rosberg both dived straight into the pits, but were adjudged to have done so while the pitlane was closed, and were subsequently awarded 10 second stop and go penalties.

The race resumed only briefly before Kubica clipped the back of Jarno Trulli's Toyota while running flat out on the approaching to the hairpin. The BMW ran wide onto the infield grass, got airborne over an access road and slammed into the inside wall, before rolling back across the track and coming to rest on its side in the hairpin run-off.

Kubica was carefully removed from the car and taken to the medical centre, where he was awake and alert. He was airlifted to hospital in Montreal for further checks, and subsequently diagnosed with a broken leg.

Hamilton led from Heidfeld - who had also pitted before the first yellow - Alonso and Rosberg when the restart eventually came, but when the latter pair pitted to take their penalties, Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson appeared in third, having not yet made his first pit stop.

His moment of glory was only fleeting, as he locked up at the final chicane a lap later and had to take to the pitlane, to the surprise of his crew.

Alonso fell to 15th after his penalty, with Rosberg losing even more ground after spinning in tandem with Jarno Trulli shortly after he rejoined the race.

Meanwhile Hamilton pulled away from Heidfeld, Mark Webber, who spun while battling with Kubica early on but benefited from pitting before the first safety car, Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella. But the latter pair would be disqualified for exiting the pitlane while the red light was on during a safety car period, ending Massa's hopes of making up ground on Alonso in the championship.

Webber also dropped out of contention after making his second pitstop just after the third safety car period, which was called on lap 50 when Christijan Albers deposited much of his front wing in the middle of the track after a trip over the grass.

Once again the restart was brief, as Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed out of fifth place at the final chicane on the first lap under green.

That proved to be the final interruption, with Hamilton confidently pulling away from Heidfeld after the restart. Rubens Barrichello had moved up to third by not pitting under the cautions, but could not make his fuel load last any longer and stopped three laps later, elevating Wurz to the podium on the tenth anniversary of his F1 debut, despite only qualifying 20th.

Heikki Kovalainen used a similarly successful one-stop strategy to take fourth from the back of the grid, ahead of the muted Kimi Raikkonen.

Alonso had made up several places during the middle of the race, but lost more ground after his fourth trip across the grass of the afternoon. He then came under pressure from the remarkable Takuma Sato in the final laps, with the Super Aguri - on the more favourable harder tyres - driving around the outside of the McLaren to take sixth with three laps remaining.

Ralf Schumacher completed the points scorers, ahead of Webber and Rosberg.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Canadian Grand Prix
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada;
70 laps; 305.270km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1h44:11.292
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +     4.343
 3.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  +     5.325
 4.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +     6.729
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  +    13.007
 6.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    16.698
 7.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    21.936
 8.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +    22.888
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +    22.960
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +    23.984
11.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    24.318
12.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +    30.439

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:16.367

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Trulli        Toyota               (B)    59
Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    55
Massa         Ferrari              (B)    53
Fisichella    Renault              (B)    53
Albers        Spyker-Ferrari       (B)    48
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)    37
Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)    26
Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)    22
Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    10
Button        Honda                (B)    1


World Championship standings, round 6:               

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      48        1.  McLaren-Mercedes      88
 2.  Alonso        40        2.  Ferrari               60
 3.  Massa         33        3.  BMW Sauber            38
 4.  Raikkonen     27        4.  Renault               21
 5.  Heidfeld      26        5.  Williams-Toyota       13
 6.  Fisichella    13        6.  Toyota                 6
 7.  Kubica        12        7.  Red Bull-Renault       4
 8.  Kovalainen     8        8.  Super Aguri-Honda      4
 9.  Wurz           8       
10.  Rosberg        5       
11.  Trulli         4       
12.  Coulthard      4       
13.  Sato           4       
14.  R.Schumacher   2       
       
All timing unofficial

[Dare]

MONTREAL (AP) - Lewis Hamilton's learning curve just got shorter - a lot shorter.

The 22-year-old Englishman, the first black driver in Formula One history, added his first F1 victory to an already remarkable career start by winning the crash-filled Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.
And he made it look easy.

Hamilton started from the pole, also for the first time. Apart from losing the lead for three laps when he made his first of two pit stops, he led all the way and was never challenged.

The slim, soft-spoken youngster has six consecutive top-three finishes in six starts, something no other first-year F1 driver has accomplished.

"This is history," Hamilton said, grinning.

The only one to give the Mercedes McLaren driver any competition during the 70-lap race on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's 2.71-mile road course was BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld. He chased Hamilton all day without catching him.

The only thing that kept the race at all was accidents - four full-course caution flags that wiped out the leads Hamilton built with seeming ease. He kept winning the restarts though and beat Heidfeld to the finish by 4.3 seconds.

"It was a was a fairly simple race, apart from the restarts," Hamilton said. "On those, I was just trying to keep the tires warm and not make a mistake. The last few laps I was just counting down.
 
 
"I'm the type of guy that will usually push right to the end, but it's a tricky circuit, and if you make one mistake you go into the marbles and into the wall. So I quieted down towards the end and just enjoyed it."

Once he had the race in hand, the youngster scrambled out of his cockpit. He thrust his arms in the air and jumped up and down. He then bounced to the ground, trotted to a barrier and jumped across to dive into the midst of his crew, hugging everyone in sight.

"It's been a fantastic season already," he said. "We've had six podiums and I've been ready for quite some time for the win - it's just been a matter of when and where. The team gave me the best car and I had no problems during the race at all."

Heidfeld was almost as happy with his runner-up finish, matching his career best.

"I think I had a very good chance to finish second even in normal race conditions, without so many safety cars (on the track) and without Fernando (Alonso) being penalized," Heidfeld said.

Alonso, the two-time and reigning F1 champion, started alongside his McLaren teammate on the front row. He made a mistake on the start when he drove off the course in the first turn and allowed Heidfeld to dive past into second.

That was just the beginning of a very bad day for Alonso, who was hit with a penalty for pitting too soon during one of the full-course cautions. That set the Spaniard back to 14th, but he got back as high as sixth before two more off-course excursions slowed him. Alonso was passed two laps from the finish by Super Aguri'a Takuma Sato and finished seventh.

Hamilton, who came into the race tied with Alonso at the top of the standings, will take an eight-point lead into next Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis.

"The next dream is to win the Formula One championship," he said. "But, bear in mind, I'm still a rookie and there's bound to be some bad times, too."

Robert Kubica, a 22-year-old driver from Poland and Heidfeld's teammate, was involved in a frightening crash just before the halfway point. Team officials said he broke his right leg.

Considered one of the rising stars of F1, Kubica was racing with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli and the Ferrari of Felipe Massa when he suddenly veered off course into the grass as they drove toward the hairpin turn.

Kubica's car slammed into the inside concrete wall, then somersaulted across the track in a shower of debris. He then hit the outside wall and came to rest with what was left of the car on its side. The Ferraris of Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were expected to pose a threat for the McLarens, but both had problems.

Massa was running fourth when he was disqualified, along with Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, who was eighth at the time. Officials said they both ran a red light at the end of pit road during a caution.

Raikkonen ran through the grass several times and struggled to a fifth-place finish, coming in behind the Williams of Alexander Wurz and the Renault of Heikki Kovalainen. Ralf Schumacher, driving a Toyota, took the eighth and final points position.

[cosworth151]

It was certainly one of the most exciting races in quite a while. Too bad about Jenson Button, who suffered gearbox failure at the start. Maybe he should get one from Aguri-San!

By the way, the rumor that the fellow they showed in the stands when Sato passed the Alfonso, (the one with the Minardi shirt and the Super Aguri paddy hat) was me is totally untrue.

[cosworth151]

I wondered what happened with Ant's last pit stop. The team seemed totally surprised by his arrival. I just found out what the story was on Super Aguri's website:

Anthony Davidson's ninth F1 race might well have ended with him scoring his first points, were it not for a wayward groundhog that came to grief against the front wing of the speeding SA07- 03, which was at the time occupying a useful third place behind the Safety Car. Ant's sympathy for the unfortunate creature was tempered by the need for a quick pit stop for repairs. His unexpected visit at first caught the pit crew off guard, but they responded quickly and, as they had done with his team mate, they also equipped him with the right tyres to finish the race in style.

In a post race interview, Davidson said that he thought it was a beaver.

Hodge, my long-time friend and the official resident groundhog at the Casa del Cos, denied any knowledge of the incident, and agreed with Mr. Davidson that it was most likely a beaver.

Cos

[Ian]

What a great win by Lewis, he earned it with qualifying and keeping a cool head during the 4 safety cars, good to see Heidfeld and Wurz on the podium, ain't it great to see new faces on it, BUT, has Lewis rattled Alonso or what, don't think I have ever seen a back to back double WC make so many basic mistakes, as for the first one, with cold tyres and everything the man deserves a slap, but I love it. Still can't believe all Kubica got was a broken leg.

[Dare]

Starting to look like Kimi;s season is shot,and
if Massa doesn't start performing,his too

[claw_67]

As  life-long personal friend of Hodge (now 'technical consultant Hodge'), I can attest to her believeability.

Is that a word?

Claw

[cosworth151]

I think Massa would have done alright if he could have finished. Black flagging him and Fisi was way too much. They should have gotten a 10 second stop-and-go.

[The Stig]

'A groundhog, not a beaver, Anthony'
While the rest of the specialist media obsesses about Lewis Hamilton, or Robert Kubica's miraculous Montreal escape, a corner of the Canadian press is concerned with a much more pedantic detail.

Anthony Davidson told reporters after Sunday's race that a now very deceased beaver had damaged the front wing of his Super Aguri and his chance of a podium finish.

A journalist for Canada's National Post, however, says the Briton committed a "wildlife identification error" - Davidson's road-kill was a groundhog, not a beaver.

"A beaver? Give me a break. I think the last time there was a beaver in Montreal was 1649," said grand prix spokesman Normand Prieur.

"This is all because of (British journalists) who have probably never seen a beaver in their lives."

Prier said officials captured many groundhogs - but clearly not all of them - in the vicinity of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in the weeks before the event.

[cosworth151]

An update on "Beaver-gate": The Official F1 website, foumula1.com, continues to claim it was a groundhog that brought Davidson to grief.

Davidson himself, however, continues to place the blame on a beaver. "It is such a shame about the beaver," rued the Englishman. "It had it in for me for sure! I was running in third place at the time, behind the Safety Car. I was on a clear, one-stop strategy and it damaged the front wing. I couldn't even see it at high speed and I could not understand why suddenly I locked up the front tyres and so I had to come in to the pitlane.


"The guys were taken by surprise in the garage when I came in, but they were really on it with the race strategy after that, telling me to overtake the safety car to get my lap back and it was a really enjoyable race at the end."

The Planet-F1 site also has reported on the errant beaver:

"The condition of the beaver is not known, but there are understandable fears that it may not be able to attend next year's race."

As for the claims by some Canadian sources that Davidson made a "wildlife identification error," how much can one expect from people who think that bacon is round.

Hodge would like to thank Mr. Davidson on behalf of groundhogs and woodchucks everywhere for clarifying this matter. I shall try to investigate the incident further while at Indy.

Cos

[The Stig]

I bet the Beaver or Groundhog thought it would be safe to come out while the safety car was deployed.
I think he, and some of the drivers had better check the rules again before Indy.The new safety car rules ruined the race for a few of the drivers,and red lights in the pit lane really do mean stop.

[cosworth151]

Canadian former chmpion Jacques Villeneuve has now weighed in on Beaver-gate.

The beavers, some of whom have set up home at turn 15, location of the so-called ’Wall of Champions’, are believed to be in the process of building a dam, made from the nibbled remains of F1 packing crates.

Villeneuve said today: “Everybody seems to think that what the beavers are doing is acceptable but I don’t think it is, and I’m amazed the FIA don’t take any action.”

He went on: “If I had behaved like this when I was in F1 then I would have been black-flagged – it’s one rule for the beaver and one for the rest of us.”

A spokesman for the beavers retorted: “Jacques always has too much to say. This is just water off our backs, so to speak.”

I have also heard reports that this cover-up is due to the beaver being the national animal of Canada. All I can say is that if an eagle wonders on to the track at Indy, or a lion at Silverstone, we won't try to say "It's a groundhog!" Not even if he wore a kilt and carried a sign at Silverstone.

I will not be a party to the rumors that the beaver had been into the Moosehead Lager prior to the incident. Nor will I repeat the rumor that the beaver was in the pay of Honda, trying to avoid a double-points to none situation.

My sources at Homeland Security have told me that Kubica's race engineer's visa problems are due to the fact that he is suspected of being an undercover beaver. (Would that be a "beaver mole?")

Cos