Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber won the Canadian Grand Prix in a race full of incidents on Sunday. He was followed by the second BMW driver, Nick Heidfeld and David Coulthard in the Red Bull Renault in third.
There had been concerns over the state of the circuit after the qualifying session on Saturday as parts of the surface were crumbling away and repairs were made over night.
Lewis Hamilton led the race from the start in the McLaren followed by Kubica and the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. Nico Rosberg moved into fourth place for the Williams team by the second corner going around the outside of Fernando Alonso in the Renualt.
Hamilton started to increase the gap as Raikkonen set the fastest lap putting pressure on Kubica until the safety car was deployed. Adrian Sutil in the Force India car retired at the side of the track after hitting the wall and then his car caught fire bringing the safety car out while the Force India machine was removed.
With everyone queuing behind the safety car, the top drivers poured into the pits to refuel. Raikkonen and Kubica got away in front of Hamilton but were held-up at the end of the pit lane by a red light. It seemed that Hamilton hadn’t seen the red light and ploughed into the back of Raikkonen, ending the race for both drivers.
Rosberg did the same but with less of an impact and he was able to make repairs and get back in the race. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have both been penalised for the accident in the pit lane and they will both lose ten places on the grid at the next race at Magny Cours.
The Toyota team had a great race with Timo Glock finishing in fourth place and Jarno Trulli taking sixth after their one stop strategy paid off for them.
Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari had a disappointing race, only finishing in fifth place after having to pit three times because of a problem with the refueling rig on the first stop.
Rubens Barrichello was pleased with his seventh place in the Honda. He would have been in fourth but lost three places at the end of the race as he started losing grip and ran wide letting three cars through. His team-mate, Jenson Button finished in eleventh place after a miserable weekend. Button had to start the race from the pit lane after developing mechanical problems on Saturday.
Nelson Piquet hit the wall half-way through the race but manged to get back on the track but not for long and was soon in the pits and retired, another weekend for him without any points.
Fernando Alonso crashed out with twenty-four laps to go after over-steering on the corner and hitting the wall. Alonso, however, blamed the disappointing race on a strategy error. He was called into the pits when the safety car was deployed but rejoined the race behind traffic.
The second Williams driver, Kazuki Nakajima also failed to complete the Canadian Grand Prix after returning to the pits with a wobbly nose cone, it dislodged itself at the start of the pit lane and went under the wheel sending Nakajima into the wall.
Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso, also had to start from the pit lane after badly damaging his car on Saturday leaving the team to rebuild and repair the machine over night. He was on a one-stop strategy but there was a problem with the teams refueling rig causing a slower stop, but he still managed to score eighth position in the race.
Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Force India hit the wall with seventeen laps to go meaning no points this weekend for his team.
Here are the results;
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1h36:24.447 2. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 16.495 3. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) + 23.352 4. Glock Toyota (B) + 42.627 5. Massa Ferrari (B) + 43.934 6. Trulli Toyota (B) + 47.775 7. Barrichello Honda (B) + 53.597 8. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 54.120 9. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 54.433 10. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 54.749 11. Button Honda (B) + 1:07.540 12. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1:11.299 13. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:17.387 Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 54 Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 49 Alonso Renault (B) 47 Piquet Renault (B) 42 Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 20 Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 20 Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 14
0 comments so far
There are no comments for this post yet. Why not be the first by filling out the form below.