Fernando Alonso
By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
Weekends in the late spring are usually spent on one of two main activities. There is the productive side, endless honey-do lists, grass that needs cutting, brakes that need changing, and any other activity that can only be done on the weekend as work precludes either the time or the energy to needed to tackle the list. And then there is the non-productive side, loafing on the couch, having an adult beverage (or seven) with friends and turning on the selective hearing when it is suggested to move one’s “fat ass” off the couch.
Then there is that one weekend every year when one can almost overdose on real racing and possibly even tolerate the delusional NASCRAP that requires the average US based fan to head for the net to either steal a live feed in a variety of continental languages or listen to Radio Le Mans to get all of the proper coverage. An entire weekend of cars that do more than turn left! There is a god! For those who stayed up too late to see racing from the Circuit de la Sarthe until the wee hours of the morning, only to wake up mid afternoon, dazing in and out of consciousness on Sunday afternoon, that déjà vu feeling you had that you weren’t missing anything wasn’t the result of a hangover or lost brain cells from accidently watching something vaguely looking like a Toyota Camry lapping Pocono. The grand prix on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve didn’t take twenty four hours, but it did take four.
Fernando Alonso & Felipe Massa
Montreal even in mid June can have questionable weather. It has flurried here before (I can recall freezing my back side during the 1980 event). This weekend was nice on Friday, grey on Saturday and Noah furiously hammering away in his garage on Sunday. Immense focus has been placed on aerodynamics; this was a weekend when hull design may have been more appropriate. But with foul weather and constantly changing conditions, we actually had a race that several will be talking about likely even beyond this season. Anyone that knew a good tee shirt shop could have made a fortune selling shirts that said “I went to Montreal to watch F1 and all I got was this lousy tee-shirt and pneumonia”.
Lewis Hamilton proved that the levels of maturity we thought he had last season were well choreographed and the same reckless driver is still there by almost taking out his team mate on the front straight. The Woking based team has stood behind him and been supportive. It would be un McLaren like for Ron Dennis to stand on the pit wall screaming louder than a Ferrari fan “what the hell he thinking”. Now if Hamilton was driving for the Scuderia, newspaper sales would be up…
Felipe Massa
His team mate would eventually do almost everything one can do in a grand prix, collide with you team mate, drop as far back as last, take out a former world champion and even win the race. The Brit even tried to show that Vettel is human, but one has to think that the German remembered that to finish first, one must first finish. With a substantial lead in the points, second place is just fine.
Mark Webber was able to pass a flashback like performing Michael Schumacher. The rain-meister was back, but the Mercedes still isn’t at the same performance level as the Red Bull chassis. Petrov may have finished in fifth, but the final sprint for a drive next year was Massa getting around Kobayashi-san at the absolute last moment for a photo finish. Fortunately for his bank account, the Brazilian was
successful with the pass.
Fernando Alonso
Both Toro Rossos finished in the points and even Burinio finished in the points for Williams, two in a row for the driver with the most F1 starts.
The problem with the Montreal track is it really isn’t a dedicated track and as was shown this weekend, the infrastructure isn’t there to deal with standing water. Expect the FIA to expect changes. Expect the city of Montreal to pray for sunshine.
Racing returns to the continent in two weeks for the European Grand Prix to be held at Valencia. Still too early to make any snide and overused remarks about the rain in Spain…
Fernando Alonso
Race Results
| 1 | BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 4h04m39.537s |
| 2 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | + 2.7s |
| 3 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | + 13.8s |
| 4 | SCHUMACHER | Mercedes | + 14.2s |
| 5 | PETROV | Renault | + 20.3s |
| 6 | MASSA | Ferrari | + 33.2s |
| 7 | KOBAYASHI | Sauber-Ferrari | + 33.2s |
| 8 | ALGUERSUARI | STR-Ferrari | + 35.9s |
| 9 | BARRICHELLO | Williams-Cosworth | + 45.1s |
| 10 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | + 47.0s |
| 11 | ROSBERG | Mercedes | + 50.4s |
| 12 | DE LA ROSA | Sauber-Ferrari | + 63.6s |
| 13 | LIUZZI | HRT-Cosworth | + 1 lap |
| 14 | D’AMBROSIO | Virgin-Cosworth | + 1 lap |
| 15 | GLOCK | Virgin-Cosworth | + 1 lap |
| 16 | TRULLI | Lotus-Renault | + 1 lap |
| 17 | KARTHIKEYAN | HRT-Cosworth | + 1 lap |
| 18 | DI RESTA | Force India-Mercedes | + 3 laps, accident |
| 19 | MALDONADO | Williams-Cosworth | + 9 laps, spun off |
| 20 | HEIDFELD | Renault | + 15 laps, accident |
| 21 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | + 21 laps, accident |
| 22 | ALONSO | Ferrari | + 34 laps, accident |
| 23 | KOVALAINEN | Lotus-Renault | + 42 laps, driveshaft |
| 24 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | + 63 laps, accident |
| Fastest Lap |
BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m16.956s |
Note – D’Ambrosio failed to set a Q1 time within the 107% requirement but permitted to race at stewards’ discretion. Karthikeyan finished 14th, but had 20s added to his race time for missing a corner and gaining an advantage.
Driver’s Championship Standings
| 1 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | 161 Points |
| 2 | BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 101 Points |
| 3 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | 94 Points |
| 4 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 85 Points |
| 5 | ALONSO | Ferrari | 69 Points |
| 6 | MASSA | Ferrari | 32 Points |
| 7 | PETROV | Renault | 31 Points |
| 8 | HEIDFELD | Renault | 29 Points |
| 9 | SCHUMACHER | Mercedes | 26 Points |
| 10 | ROSBERG | Mercedes | 26 Points |
| 11 | KOBAYASHI | Sauber-Ferrari | 25 Points |
| 12 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | 8 Points |
| 13 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | 8 Points |
| 14 | ALGUERSUARI | STR-Ferrari | 4 Points |
| 15 | BARRICHELLO | Williams-Cosworth | 4 Points |
| 16 | PEREZ | Sauber-Ferrari | 2 Points |
| 17 | DI RESTA | Force India-Mercedes | 2 Points |
Constructor’s Championship Standings
| 1 | RBR-RENAULT | 255 Points |
| 2 | McLAREN-MERCEDES | 186 Points |
| 3 | FERRARI | 101 Points |
| 4 | RENAULT | 60 Points |
| 5 | MERCEDES | 52 Points |
| 6 | SAUBER-FERRARI | 27 Points |
| 7 | STR-FERRARI | 12 Points |
| 8 | FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES | 10 Points |
| 9 | WILLIAMS-COSWORTH | 4 Points |
Since Nielsen felt ‘we’ would all be more interested in his family duties and his various opinions, somewhat forgetting to even mention the winner’s name – yes, I am well aware of who Hamilton’s teammate is…but – I felt it was only fair that a commenter could take a few liberties.
So continuing the off-the-wall chit chat regarding Formula 1, I feel that the rules regarding the cars themselves should be changed to incorporate Formula 1 Aesthetic Police. And it’s not a moment too soon.
Should I be elected as Chief of the Formula 1 Aesthetic Police I can pretty much guarantee you that the ‘new’ Formula 1 cars will look very much like many of the ’60’s Formula 1 cars. Teams can cram in (in being the key word) any electronic do-dads they want. I suppose there should also be a maximum engine displacement. Being unAmerican in this sense I like small engines that put out tons of power – so 1.5 liters it will be. And if the teams go through 20 or more engines a season, that’s fine, expensive, but fine.
I now return you back to the hard-core don’t-care-what-it-looks-like-as-long-as-my-team-wins contingent.
Ah, you are correct. But perhaps our chatty F1 editor felt that Button–that’s who won, right?–didn’t deserve to have his name mentioned. I don’t know. I just wish he’d write more about Kobayashi, but he never listens to me anyway!
Am I the only one or does somebody else think that Button should have gotten at least a drive thru penalty for taking out Fernando? And after escaping a six race ban for his antics at Monaco doesn’t Hamilton deserve at the very least a one race ban for his stupidity in Canada? He seems to think he’s racing at Islip, Long Island.
I actually loved the intro to the report and sympathised with the author’s situation as it sounds so similar to mine. He has a great sense of humour.
Being from the Antipodes, the race was telecast at 2.00am in the morning, so I recorded it. Having missed the end of the Monaco race due to the red flag incident, I “wisely” added an extra 30 minutes to the record time. I spent the entire afternoon the following day watching the Montreal red flag period, believing (hoping) that the race would restart any minute. When it eventually did, the recorder stopped. Doh! 🙂 So I went on line to read the results (not quite as entertaining).
I’m not into the politics, just love good racing. Oh and if Mark Webber wins? All the better! 🙂
Regards
Alan
Schumacher got screwed by the DRS rule.
DRS and KERS should be usable anywhere on the race track, anytime the driver wants to. Or we shouldn’t have them at all.
Indy Car’s limit on the number of times the driver can use “push to pass” is intended to save engines and make Honda look good. It’s kind of random in the way it affects competition. That’s okay.
But to give a following car a 10 mph advantage, while not give the leading car squat? That’s positively NASCAResque.