Grand Prix 2011 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Thought this might be useful if you wanted to sing along to the Canadian National Anthem before the start of the race.

Anyway, on to the Grand Prix, after all that’s what we’re here for. Last year Bridgestone provided tyres, which didn’t like the surface at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve too much, and the powers that be in F1 thought “ah, ha here’s an idea to spice up the racing. Why don’t we ask those blokes at Pirelli if they can make sets of boots for F1 cars that fall apart on the warm up lap”, and they did.

In 2010 Hamilton put his car on pole (you may recall him pushing his car back to the pits, so light was it on fuel) and then went on to win an exciting race with teammate Jenson Button standing on the 2nd step.

So what for Canada 2011? Red Bull, at least car No.1, has been a tad difficult to beat but McLaren and Ferrari are getting closer during the race. With 5 wins out of 6 races Vettel has a healthy lead in the Championship and some bookmakers are already paying out on the title being his. Vettel was 3rd on the grid last year, behind teammate Webber, and finished 4th with unspecified gearbox problems, still ahead of Webber who had led for many laps but got caught out by the high tyre wear rate.

Fernando Alonso was 3rd last time out in Canada after getting mugged by a hard charging Jenson Button. Mercedes had a mixed race, Rosberg was “best of the rest” behind the McLaren’s, Alonso’s Ferrari and the Red Bull’s whilst Michael Schumacher treated the race like a destruction derby, straight lining chicanes and bouncing off other cars with gay abandon. What of Felipe Massa I hear you ask; well, he was one of Schumacher’s victims and lost time pitting for a new nose cone.

This is very nearly the last Hurrah for the exhaust blown diffuser and we have two, yes 2, DRS zones. So expect cars breezing past another before and after the pits, when they’re not in their getting new tyres of course.

Will it be another Red Bull walk over or can the McLaren’s and Ferrari’s tame the charging Bull? How will the Pirelli tyres hold up dusty and bumpy Ille Notre-Dame Circuit? Will it rain? Who will win? Can one of the minor teams struggle up into the points? I don’t know but I get the feeling there will be lots of speculation.

And we have our own track side reporter this year - take a bow Ray in Toronto and make sure you post some good photos

For Galahad’s excellent circuit write up, track history and all the stats a boy or girl could want click here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-gilles-villeneuve/
 
TBY,

At the circuit - live - people were shocked at the rate Vettel was pulling away from, initially, Alonso/Massa...and, then, Koba/Massa. It seemed he could pull away at will. Live. Every safety car made his gaps go to nothing. I'm not really saying it was engineered for him to lose as in my own thread I did say Vettel benifited from the original safety car start to the detriment of the Ferraris. Once Hamilton and Alonso were out, though, Vettel's only serious oppostion was Button/Webber in the race and in the WDC table. I was being cynical admittedly. :) Having admitted so, I still think that when I said "there was one safety car too many" I meant that the LAST safety car was the one that lost Vettel the Grand Prix...because it lengthened the event and a dry line meant DRS...and where I was standing (i'd left my seatby then), every one was shouting...:

"DRS! DRS! DRS!" ...

...and Vettel was pushing to remain out of that 1 second DRS range of Button's rather potent McLaren/DRS combo at that point. No Saftey car ( the FINAL one) would have meant that Vettel's lead wouldn't have vanished again and they would have finished the race earlier. Vettel lost the race at 17:04 (coinciding with the 70 laps and the 2 hour rule concurrently)...Had there been no SC (which "slowed down" the race and allowed more "dry time running" (for Button especially to benifit)), the 70 laps would have come "sooner"- likely 17:02 - i.e. with less time spent on a dry line for Button to possibly employ DRS. Yes? See what i'm saying about DRS at 17:04 versus an earlier end to the race?
 
TBY,

At the circuit - live - people were shocked at the rate Vettel was pulling away from, initially, Alonso/Massa...and, then, Koba/Massa. It seemed he could pull away at will. Live. Every safety car made his gaps go to nothing. I'm not really saying it was engineered for him to lose as in my own thread I did say Vettel benifited from the original safety car start to the detriment of the Ferraris. Once Hamilton and Alonso were out, though, Vettel's only serious oppostion was Button/Webber in the race and in the WDC table. I was being cynical admittedly. :)

Conspiracy theories Ray? Really? :)
 
This was the 1 time I:
A. Hated DRS cuz it allowed schumi to be overtook!
B. Wanted the safety car for longer cuz then schumi couldnt be overtook and after it no DRS

But that made me realise i love DRS keep it but the double drs zone should be changed cuz having only 1 detection zone is ridiculous.
 
Oh and I thought this was the ultimate in hypocrisy, coming from Brundle:

Considering he and Coulthard have been so quick to blame Hamilton for recent incidents, and only later has Brundle changed his opinion after reviewing the footage.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13754746.stm

Brundle is quick with the clichés, labelling and generalisations

Remember how eager he was to coin the moniker Koba bashi, until EJ pointed out that the dashing Japanese driver was actually quite precise and entertaining
 
Ok - caught up on the race now after a wet weekend in Bognor and have to say I was left breathless(by the GP not the weekend in Bognor).

Never in my life did I ever think I'd be shouting at the TV screen cheering for Schumi but hey it happened

Rasputin, you definitely weren't alone in your feelings, because I started to shout so loud, and startled my dog who was sound asleep on the couch, who then ran out of the room like someone set his ass on fire.
 
One last point on Montreal, then I'm moving on: here's a statement from Martin Brundle in his article on Hamilton on the BBC F1 website:

"Hamilton's contact with Mark Webber on the first lap was unnecessary, and that is what put him behind Jenson Button and led to the two McLaren team-mates coming together."

Wrong, I'm afraid Martin. Hamilton got cleanly past Button shortly after the first lap incident. It was Schumacher illegally pushing Lewis off as he tried an outside pass at the hairpin that put him back behind Button for the second time.

Right, onward and upward. Next stop Spanish docklands.
 
Here's an interesting moment that I didn't see during the broadcast. Heidfeld passed Massa, or more accurately, pushed him onto the grass during Lap 37. We saw this from Kobayashi's Rearward Facing onboard camera. The Safety Car was then deployed because of Alonso's Ferrari. Then during Lap 38, Nick must have gotten a call from the Pit Wall telling him to give back the place, possibly because the SC boards had been displayed before he took the position. Take a look.

 
I think we are all getting a bit carried away with precedence here and are also forgetting the conditions of the race. If we went by all previous decisions then they may as well not bother anymore.

Shit happens, they are racing drivers and sometimes there will be a collision. Why on earth anybody would want the race altered off track is beyond me, driver fan or not. What good would punishing Button do for Alonso? I've said before having a right to do something is different to doing the right thing.

There was no intent in either drivers case between Button and Alonso, I wouldn't even call it careless, just an unfortunate ending. Alonso and Dominicalli called it a collision, they didn't apportion blame. The stewards didn't apportion blame.

It was a racing incident.

Alonso & Dominicalli called it a collision.........well it certainly wouldn't have suited them if Vettel had won, which he most certainly would have done if JB had a drive through penalty
 
Just one more p.s. to my earlier 'last comment':

I just watched the highlights on Catch-up TV, and noticed something really weird.
During the latter part of the race, once visibility had improved and the dry line had appeared, I couldn't help noticing that on the main straight that dry line, that 'normal' racing line as the commentators had described it much earlier in the race, didn't go anywhere near the pit wall. Nor did Button. His left-hand wheels never ventured much more than halfway across the left-hand grid markings, leaving easily a car's width to the edge of the track.
 
Just one more p.s. to my earlier 'last comment':

I just watched the highlights on Catch-up TV, and noticed something really weird.
During the latter part of the race, once visibility had improved and the dry line had appeared, I couldn't help noticing that on the main straight that dry line, that 'normal' racing line as the commentators had described it much earlier in the race, didn't go anywhere near the pit wall. Nor did Button. His left-hand wheels never ventured much more than halfway across the left-hand grid markings, leaving easily a car's width to the edge of the track.
Ah, at least someone saw my post!
(After the thread was dumped in the archives just two days after the race. What's that all about Speshal?)

Either I'm suffering from de javu (or is that deja vu) or I've just had the opportunity to like that post twice.:)
 
I thought this would be better in canadian GP race discussion but i decided on here, but does anyone think that button would have passed Vettel even without the spin? I think he would have before or after the DRS straight.
 
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