Maiden victory at Montreal

Another incident packed race unfolded at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal. BMW picked up their Maiden victory, Maiden double podium finish & for the first time a BMW driver leading the Drivers’ Championship. The best weekend of the career for the Munich based team since inception. At the start of the race not many would have fancied for a BMW on the first step of the podium but as things unfolded it was to be so.

On Saturday the track held up pretty well for a deteriorating one. It was business as usual for the front runners. Kimi came up with a stunning lap at the dying minutes of the qualifiers to take P1 but was not to be. Pole stole Pole from the Finn. The Poles’ party hopes were dashed by Lewis Hamilton who took his maiden victory here 12 months back.

The starting grid had all the major constructor teams in the lineup from positions 1-5 McLaren, BMW, Ferrari, Renault, Williams. A clean start to the race saw Lewis pull away almost 8-9 second lead over Robert & Kimi. Nico had a good start as he managed to get past Alonso in the first few corners.

It was as if the race had decided to be one dimensional. Adrian Sutil in the Force India car, the hero of the Monaco race had other plans. His brakes got very hot & were on fire. He was forced to stall the car to the side. This caused the first safety car periods.

Most of the front runners went in as soon as the pit lane entry opened. Lewis came speeding & crashed into Kimi who was waiting for the pit lane exit to open. Nico also clipped the rear of Lewis at the same time. It was really busy one way pit lane traffic with close to top 7 cars pitting.

After this incident, Robert Kubica was in the lead with Nick behind. Alonso joined behind Nick. Massa was a victim of circumstances as he was called into pits again to be properly fueled. When Massa rejoined he was at the back of the field in 18^th place & forced to fight thru the traffic to go up again. Massa ended his race on 5^th.

Hekki had a clean race throughout but clearly he was struggling & did not finish in the points. He had to battle it hard with Vettel in the leading STR car. Vettel managed to score the last points up for grabs.

Toyota meanwhile had a great outing at Montreal with a double points finish. The best result for the team this season. Timo Glock finished 4^th & Trulli 6^th. Both the drivers were on a single pit stop strategy. As the record books would have it the Toyota drivers lead the race for a brief period of 5-6 laps. Glock seemed to be very high on fuel as he pitted in 42^nd lap of the race.

Honda too were on a single pit stop strategy for Rubens. Rubens drove well & finished in the points, but could have finished higher than he did. Jenson did well to finish in 11^th after stating from the pit lane. Honda is showing improvements as the season progresses. Ross Brawn is surely having a big impact.

The story of the day belonged to a veteran of 230+ GP starts. Yes, it was the grand old man DC. DC managed to put a great show by finishing on 3^rd step of the podium. His teammate Webber, who out qualified him did not have much of a finish as he ended up finishing 12^th.

Williams team did not manage to score any points with Nico finishing 10^th close behind Hekki while Kazuki had to retire. The STR team would be happy to see both the drivers finish the race. While Vettel managed to score the last available points his teammate Bourdais finished 13^th.

Renault had a double retirement. Alonso who was on a hot pursuit of Nick Heidfeld had a gearbox failure & spun his car close to the escape route on the track. His teammate the much under pressure Nelson managed to race ferociously against the Toyotas till he too was forced to retire with technical problems.

The end of the Canadian GP leaves us in a peculiar situation with BMW leading the Drivers’ Championship & Ferrari managing to hold on to Constructors’ Championship just 3 points clear of BMW. Kubica leads Drivers’ Championship with Lewis & Massa tied in 2^nd with Kimi in 4^th.

With the season headed for a Battle Royal, we head to French GP in 15 days time. Hope the French Connection brings the teams good luck.

Till ten & now, Drive safely.