2010 Formula One Canada Grand Prix

[Peter]

Man, I thought Alonso would've done it, but nope. COngrats to Hamilton and McLaren!!!!!

 

[niky]

And that's it.

Lewis Hamilton's victory in Montreal is a dominating performance... the fact that he won from pole somehow doesn't seem to convey how hard he had to work for it... dicing with Alonso and Webber and performing some good overtakes. He even found time to put in some blistering laps to keep Button behind him. Just in case.

Button, Mister Smooth, once again... brings his car in second after a poor qualifying... in a race defined by poor tire wear, you just had to know Button would make a good go of it.

Alonso drives a great race into third... fighting all the way.

Sebastian "What's the fastest lap" Vettel in fourth... and stopped on track with a dead car after the checkered flag.

Webber drives a heroic race to first from seventh... then back down to fifth.

Rosberg and Kubica an uneventful race in sixth and seventh.

Buemi does a terrific run to eight...

And Liuzzi and Sutil finish their game of Ring around the Mercedes to clinch ninth and tenth.

Poor Michael... to work so far up from thirteenth only to fall back down to eleventh...

 

[Peter]

Look at Hamilton's tires, they're very worn.

 

[Smallhorses]

Is there a car out there that Schumacher hasn't run into today?
He may be a 7-time World Champion, but he's a danger to other drivers out there at the moment, as he can't let his huge ego accept that he's in an inferior car and so is still absolutely unwilling to yield to anyone at all.

 

[ranhammerR34]

MSC to be replaced by Hiedfield? LOL Nico and Nick.. that would be interesting.... ---- Randy

 

[BlacqueJacques]

Great race in Montral again; congrats to McLaren; Alonso hard fought third; Seb (don't care) and Webber battled all race. So much for my safety car (t) prediction!

 

[Watchman]

Fantastic race. 👍

 

[niky]

Look at Hamilton's tires, they're very worn.

But still in one piece. Webber's tires before his last pit were in ribbons.

 

[PeterJB]

Wow. Difficult to summarise a race like that! Wasn't quite the result I was hoping for, but 22 points for Red Bull is better than nothing.

Such a shame about Kobayashi! I so badly wanted him to score, but Buemi did so I'm happy!

 

[Alex.]

For the 2nd week in a row the exact result I did not want to happen, happened. I would literally have taken ANY other result.

Really frustrated for Massa too....he had pace faster than the leaders and even after he spent the entire race fighting back to score a point he gets put onto the grass and eventually pits by Schumacher.


Absolute disaster of a race and sporting weekend on a personal level. Being a supporter of England (football) Peugeot (LM24) and Red Bull / Ferrari (F1)

 

[Seismica]

Congratulations to Mclaren for another 1-2

Brilliant drive by both. Wonder why Button's tyres wore so quickly at the start, at one point there was a huge train of cars behind him. His conservative driving style may be driven by his inability to make the most of worn tyres (Or more likely, it may be a result of his driving style. I don't know, but I think there is a link). Hamilton's will have been just as bad at the start of the race, but he was running fastest of anyone.

Bad luck for Kobayashi. Off the grid, moved up from 18th to 10th and then he threw it away. Hulkenberg put pressure on him and he cracked. Who'd have thought he'd be the only one into the wall of champions? He'll learn from his mistakes hopefully... I want to see him succeed, I think he has champion potential, he just needs a bit of consistency and a cool head, something he will learn with experience.

 

[niky]

Massa didn't really have that pace... the leaders were running a conservative race on their tires by comparison... if he'd had that pace all along, he wouldn't have been starting so far down the order in the grid.

Red Bull got a decent result out of a track we always knew didn't suit their car.

The only way that this race could have been better is if Alonso had won. He drove an absolutely brilliant race, and if not for the interference of backmarkers, he would have won it all.

EDIT: I wonder about Button's early pace, as well... hopefully we'll learn more about it in the post-race interviews.

 

[Peter]

MSC to be replaced by Hiedfield? LOL Nico and Nick.. that would be interesting.... ---- Randy

Not in a million light years. Not that I don't want it to happen, but Schumacher is worshipped in the F1 world and in that team, no way will they replace him with a guy who has never even won a race in his career before.

 

[spyrrari]

Fantastic race,as almost allways in Canada...

Really enjoyed it ,although i would have loved to see Alonso take the win.


spy.

 

[Touring Mars]

I reckon the writing is now on the wall for Schumacher - if Ross Brawn is spotted in the Mercedes gift shop, looking for a nice pipe and a pair of slippers, you'll know what they are for!

 

[ranhammerR34]

I reckon the writing is now on the wall for Schumacher - if Ross Brawn is spotted in the Mercedes gift shop, looking for a nice pipe and a pair of slippers, you'll know what they are for!

You may be right. I like Schumi, he was a hero then, but just like Jordan, he may have to go. --- Randy

 

[astrosdude91]

Now all eyes are on Valencia Street Circuit. That track should suit Red Bull very well, so my hopes are for a good RB finish there. Now I'll have to get up early again though.

 

[Peter]

I think i'll just miss Valencia, it's the most boring track on the calendar and I really hope they drop it for something better. Like, go back to Nurburgring, Schumacher is back in F1, and so is Mercedes, they should attract a good crowd there, and TV viewers will be more satisfied as well.

 

[Seismica]

Valencia is going to be very boring. No overtaking. Red Bull half a second ahead in qualifying, with Renault and Alonso taking the second row of the grid. At least that is my prediction.

 

[Peter]

Was there even one on-track overtake last year at Valencia? Only one I remember was Badoer letting Heikki by after exiting the pitlane. There were a lot of overtakes in the GP2 race.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Excellence race in Canada today. I don't usually like watching F1 on the same day as a Sports Car race (Le Mans 24 hours) but I'm glad I did for this one.

Michael Schumacher is the second recipient of the newly created Dick Dastardly Richard Cranium of the Day award previously awarded to Anthony, Dick Dastardly, Davidson earlier today at Le Mans.

 

[Seismica]

Was there even one on-track overtake last year at Valencia? Only one I remember was Badoer letting Heikki by after exiting the pitlane. There were a lot of overtakes in the GP2 race.

But the fact we see lots of overtaking at other F1 venues just shows that Valencia is not right for this top level of motorsport.

They need to scrap Valencia ASAP. Remind me again, why we don't hold a race at Magny-Cours anymore? I don't know why we don't race there instead of these rubbish improvised street circuits.

 

[Peter]

I think they scrapped Magny Cours because it was isolated? How about going back to Imola? They did some renovations to it to make it suitable for an F1 race again.

 

[Ardius]

MSC to be replaced by Hiedfield? LOL Nico and Nick.. that would be interesting.... ---- Randy

I support this statement 👍.
Nick is/was the big shock for no race seat this year when arguably worse drivers (Trulli, Kovalainen, Kobayashi, De La Rosa, Glock, etc) all managed to find somewhere. Hopefully his time to shine again.

Massa didn't really have that pace... the leaders were running a conservative race on their tires by comparison... if he'd had that pace all along, he wouldn't have been starting so far down the order in the grid.

Red Bull got a decent result out of a track we always knew didn't suit their car.

The only way that this race could have been better is if Alonso had won. He drove an absolutely brilliant race, and if not for the interference of backmarkers, he would have won it all.

EDIT: I wonder about Button's early pace, as well... hopefully we'll learn more about it in the post-race interviews.

I think Red Bull will still be massively disappointed with what could have been a far better result with a different strategy.
There was too much stuff happening for me to focus on the leading teams' strategies but it seems once again Red Bull's weaknesses in reliability and team leadership and management have held their supreme car back. They weren't dominant pace but they were on pace with the rest.

As for Button at the start, I suspect a simple case of not getting the tyres into their optimum temperature range fast enough.

Fantastic race, Montreal delivers again and without a need for safety cars or other interventions! That was all racing action!

Drivers of the day:
Hamilton 👍👍👍👍👍
Button 👍👍👍👍👍
Alonso 👍👍👍👍
Kovalainen 👍👍👍
Buemi 👍👍
Rosberg 👍👍

Schumacher being Schumacher, the Force India's also making a bit of a mess of their strategy too, though Liuzzi can partially blame Massa for that.
Kubica was a bit messy today and Vettel seemed a bit passive really though again more his team's fault on strategy.
An amazing start from Kobayashi, shame about the confusion with Hulkenburg. The rookies generally did pretty badly today, Petrov being beaten by Kovalainen's Lotus is a particular highlight. Kovalainen was shown as high as 5th at some points early in the race! If there had been a safety car and a few more DNFs, Lotus would probably have been in there in 10th.

Further back, seemed fairly ordinary. The two main drivers who do battle DNF'd leaving Di Grassi and Chandhok to idle around. Trulli continuing his extreme bad luck with reliability. Williams and Sauber having yet more terrible weekends leaving them prime targets for Lotus to gain on and Toro Rosso to get away from.

Overall a fantastic weekend, great racing and still a close championship but now between the Brits at McLaren! Despite the terrible history of Valencia, I still look forward to the next round of the championship as its the closest I've ever seen between so many drivers!

But the fact we see lots of overtaking at other F1 venues just shows that Valencia is not right for this top level of motorsport.

They need to scrap Valencia ASAP. Remind me again, why we don't hold a race at Magny-Cours anymore? I don't know why we don't race there instead of these rubbish improvised street circuits.

Erm, because Magny-Cours was universally hated? The drivers didn't enjoy it, the teams didn't because it was miles from nowhere, the fans didn't because the racing was terrible.....Magny-Cours was no better than Valencia. I like it in video games to drive on but its not brilliant, certainly not for watching F1.

As PJ said, Imola should return.

 

[Touring Mars]

I reckon Liuzzi deserves a few 👍's too... great qualifying, taken out my Massa in the first lap, and still sticks one on Schumacher and scores points - deserved more, but a great performance nevertheless...

 

[Ardius]

I guess, I'm a bit meh on Liuzzi I half think he screwed up this weekend a bit, as that could have been a lot more and he had his own mistakes in the race. Sure we can blame it Massa mostly too but I think Liuzzi really needs to put more consistent performances in.
I just always keep thinking "what would have Fisichella done with that?". And I usually think "a hell of a lot better".

But yeah, a positive weekend for him anyway but it was close to no points. He needs to get his act together more though, I remember he was good at Monza last year so maybe low downforce circuits are his thing. In which case he needs to perform better everywhere else.

I also think the Massa incident was a little bit his own fault too as he did dive slightly on to the grass into a gap that really wasn't there without him smacking Massa into a sandwich.

 

[Fastas]

W.T.F....

Power failure fifteen minutes before race start

It took me thirty minutes to find a portable radio

I then had to listen to the whole race on medium wave radio

The power was out for over three hours and I missed all the action

👎

Great result though congratulations to the McLaren team 👍

D.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I think they scrapped Magny Cours because it was isolated?

Because it's difficult to get to, difficult to get in to, difficlt to get out of and never really produced an exciting race. As The Red Bulletin once put it, Magny-Cours is ear a tow called Nevers that, when pronounced properly, tells you exactly when everyone ants to come back.

How about going back to Imola? They did some renovations to it to make it suitable for an F1 race again.

Imola is a bit of a mess right now. They did indeed make some changes, ironing out the Variante Bassa, but the Start/Finish Line is right on top of a left-hand kink that cause a few troubles in 1994 and has since proven that it hasn't changed with problems in AutoGP and a few touring car series which have all experienced bad accidents at the start. Normally, the solution would be to extend the straight to remove the kink entirely and change the angle going into Tamburello, but the north-eastern edge of the circuit is defined by a creek, and that's not an easy challenge to overcome. In order to make the run to Tamburello perfectly straight, you'd actually have to move the main straight inwards - and that would mean reprofiling everything from Rivazza to Tamburello. And not just the circuit; you'd have to do the infield as well, and I'm pretty sure there's a grandstand or two that would need to be moved back.

While Tamburello is a shadow of its former self, it's still got a bit of character to it. As does Villeneuve. And Acque Minerale wasone of the few corners to be de-chicaned; likewise the Bassa. But at the top of the hill betwen Minerale and Rivazza is the Variante Alta, a completely pointless and ugly chicanewith high curbs that make it slow. It breaks up the rhythm of the entire circuit, so even if Imola sort ot their issues with the main straight and that little left-hand flick, Formula 1 shouldn't return until the Alta is history.

 

[hornet_burnout]

Well I loved it. It was real racing. Not a race between predetermined mathematical equations. It was but the effort of drivers and team managers, adapting their pace to the (unknow) tire wear and race conditions.

McLaren superior, Hamilton imperial, Button cool and smart as ever, Alonzo very well, and the RedBulls started making the wrong decisions on tires in qualifying.

Alonzo however is not in a car as fast as he likes to believe. It was not just traffic, the McLarens were extremely at ease when they decided to overtake and would have pulled away if they were not managing tire wear.

Another positive note:

I reckon Liuzzi deserves a few 👍's too... great qualifying, taken out my Massa in the first lap, and still sticks one on Schumacher and scores points - deserved more, but a great performance nevertheless...

And the dark spot in the race:

Is there a car out there that Schumacher hasn't run into today?
He may be a 7-time World Champion, but he's a danger to other drivers out there at the moment, as he can't let his huge ego accept that he's in an inferior car and so is still absolutely unwilling to yield to anyone at all.

Maybe he should have stayed out and saved the image he spent so many years building to make people forget the mess he did when he started his career in F1.

I guess he's going out the way he started.

 

[Seismica]

W.T.F....

Power failure fifteen minutes before race start

It took me thirty minutes to find a portable radio

I then had to listen to the whole race on medium wave radio

The power was out for over three hours and I missed all the action

👎

Great result though congratulations to the McLaren team 👍

D.

I missed a couple of overtakes because of interruptions to the TV signal But luckily they showed replays

It's funny how the BBC commentators completely missed when Button passed Alonso. Bit of a slow reaction, took them like 20 seconds to realise, and the camera was on them all of the time, so presumably they could see what we were seeing too.