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

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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/
 
I think JB knew he was there. I think he made the defensive move to cover the inside, *before* Lewis made the move to pass on the inside.

Some may disagree, some may want to argue. Some may even want to insult me for having a point of view that differs from their own. The last set are strongly encouraged to email me directly to express their feelings in a minumum of 10,000 words to spamblackhole@hotmail.com.
 
Button is proving to be a complete nuisance, he is just stalling Mclaren and Hamilton's progress, he is plain slow and gets in Lewis's way too often!
 
Both Mclaren drivers will go to the stewards and say it was an accident. They wont try and blame each other or a penalty will be given. They will toe the "party line" so to speak
 
I think after Monaco Hamilton is treading very carefully. I thought it was a great interview and I don't think he'd blame Jenson even without being prepped by the team.
 
Jonathan Neale in his interview with 'i don't care who it was' put it perfectly, 'You are not gonna win races by trundling along behind someone' you have to go for it. This is motoracing!

By the way Hamilton looked pretty smooth with Rihanah there!
 
I'm sure that I saw the result of the incident as no action taken - they can still penalise even if the other car retires.

Realistically the only two penalties available to the stewards would've been a drive-through penalty or a ten-second time penalty.The incident was not serious enough to enforce a tougher penalty than the afforementioned. I believe Hamilton retirement was a major factor in them deciding not to take any further action. This was potentially more clear cut than the tussle with Massa at Monaco in my opinion.
 
But Webber didn't move to give Lewis room despite what was stated by the commentary team earlier. Hamilton is a late braker and said he had good grip: "I went down the inside and he braked quite early," said Hamilton. "I was on the kerb and then I pushed over, and we just touched."
 
Well this is dull, first time I've been on here mid-race.

Starting the race under the safety car was farcical, and the other rain safety car was too early. Also why did Lewis stop just before a break in the Armco, and made us endure yet more Safety car misery. Not the first time I've been questioning Charlie Whiting's decision.
 
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