Grand Prix 2012 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Going into the 7th race of the season we are now hitting new territory as far as different race winners are concerned as for the first time in history 6 different drivers have won the first 6 races with 5 different constructors as Red Bull are the only team to have had more than one driver win a race with victories in Bahrain and Monaco, the way things are going there could easily be 10 winners from 10 races with people like Hamilton, Raikkonen, Grosjean and Schumacher yet to win this season, and with Canada pretty much being Hamilton's best track, it could easily be 7 winners from 7 even though McLaren have been floundering in recent weeks.

Despite this downturn in form, Lewis Hamilton lies just 13 points off Fernando Alonso who no-one would have predicted to have been leading the championship after 6 races going into the opening race where Ferrari had a car which struggled to even get near the top 10 let alone fight for wins and podiums, but improvements with the car allied with supreme driving and consistency from Alonso has seen him top the table from Vettel who's clever strategy in Monaco nearly get him onto the podium despite starting from 10th on the grid.

While Ferrari have made the biggest improvements (even Massa has been better, even though one race a season does not make) it seems McLaren have surprisingly made the biggest backwards step. In Melbourne they had the quickest car and they romped to a comfortable 1-2 and many wondered if they were going to have a Red Bull type domination season, but Button hasn't won since that race and Hamilton hasn't won at all even though he has 3 pole positions so far (2 if you discount the one in Spain) but while Hamilton has made the best of a bad job on the Sunday it has gone even worse for Button who is struggling to even make the points and his performances are a shadow of his 2011 form. Hamilton has improved considerably but surely the pit stop problems and other issues will be getting to him if it costs him a shot at the title, it'll be 5 years since he won the title if the 2012 title slips away and with contracts soon to be under negotiation it could play a part in what he decides to do.

If the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix is even half as good as the 2011 race we are in for a treat, I dont think there will be a race like the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix ever again and ranks up there as one of the best I have ever watched and the 4 hour marathon was certainly worth the 2 hour rain delay in the middle. But even in the dry Canada serves up great racing with recent years being a testament to that and with the unpredictable nature of 2012 so far this seasons race will not be an exception and while overtakes in Monaco were only just in the teens, there could be nearly 10 times that in Montreal. Some say that this seasons unpredictability can be a bad thing, but really, it's so much better than the Schumacher years of the early 2000s and even better than 2011 as while there was very exciting racing in 2011, for a lot of races so far this year that action has been extended to the very front as well which is where the casual viewer could determine the entertainment value of a certain race.

For Galahad 's superb circuit write up - http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-gilles-villeneuve/
 
Kewee yes he showed great quali pace last year and really took the fight to Seb and came a close second

Maybe his temporary loss of form this year is due to embarrassment at having declared that Alonso was no threat to his title ambitions earlier this season :snigger:
 
I don't think anyone saw Alonso as a threat this season going into race one in Australia. As I've been saying for some time now, it's likely to be Alonso that everyone will be chasing during the second half of the season, maybe sooner. :snigger:
 
Kewee Indeed your opinions on Alonso have so far been spot on.
I wonder just how much more Ferrari can squeeze out of their car.So far they have worked wonders on the car that appeared in Melbourne.But is there anything left in the package to extract performance wise.No doubt there are still small areas that can be tuned but have they reached their limits on this chassis.
 
Re - Jenson going out on the prime tyre in Q3. I didn't understand it either. It seems he thought he could gain a higher grid slot but it was a futile exercise and he just about managed to squeeze into Q3 thanks to Maldonado. He's saying on 'autosport' that he regrets going out and it looks like he will be trying one stop strategy. If he doesn't go backwards at the start on what is a slower tyre, it may work for him.
 
Thanks for that bro I guess that holds true until you run out of allocated gearbox's and have to put in a new one, In which case it is best if the driver doesn't go bustin them up in that manner...
 
i think unless lewis gets of to a good start,a better start than vettel and alonso,vettel and alonso will get away from him and then i can see alonso winning.
 
Gearboxes have to do five consecutive events.

Each driver may use no more than one gearbox for five consecutive events. Every unscheduled gearbox change will require the driver to drop five places on the grid at that meeting. Every subsequent unscheduled gearbox change will require the driver to drop five places on the grid.

If a driver fails to finish a race due to reasons beyond his or his team's control, he may start the next meeting with a different gearbox without incurring a penalty.

For 2011 only, each driver gets one penalty-free gearbox change, with the replacement box only required to complete the remainder of the event where the change was made, which cannot be the final event of the season.

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/sporting_regulations/8689/
 
i think unless lewis gets of to a good start,a better start than vettel and alonso,vettel and alonso will get away from him and then i can see alonso winning.

I just hope McLaren don't try and restrain him and let him race (this means a two stop strategy at least). This is also a genuine overtaking circuit so you can't afford to be too conservative.
 
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