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/
 
It was strange to see the Merc's DRS system fail stuck open when it is supposed to fail stuck closed, I'm beginning to think that if Michael didn't have bad luck he would have no luck at all......
 
Yes, this isn't the first time we've seen issues with that drs system. Remember China 2011 qualifying. They seem to have an unusual mechanism opening and closing that wing. I think it is unrelated to the fact that they have a double drs system.
 
I would guess the actuator is under permanent power to keep the flap down and so if the power fails, the flap stays down.

It's a bit like the brakes on a truck which if they fail will actually cause the vehicle to brake.
 
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:

Poor judgement from someone supposedly noted for his intelligence.
 
Brogan I assume you mean the flap stays up as it goes up when the DRS opens? That or I'm misunderstanding you...


I thought it was a pretty boring race to be honest, apart from the last couple of laps. Red Bull did the smart thing by making the late pitstop or Vettel would have been further down, probably 6th or seventh seeing how Rosberg was only 4-tenths away from Alonso at the end...

Great drive from the top 3 though, Hamilton really deserved to be on the top step again and it's great to see Perez and Grosjean back on the podium :).
 
It was a very controlled and assured performance from LH, and an intelligent at that since he wasn't sure FA and SV were to to stop again, so made sure he pushed hard enough to avoid rejoining too far behind in the event they didn't..
It does look like a monumental blunder from Ferrari especially because it should have been clear much earlier on when Massa's tyres were degrading fast that Alonso's would do the same.
 
Ferrari were not going to beat Lewis today, even jumping him on the pitstop he was always going to retake the place

Therefore Ferrari were justified in going for the win instead of playing safe, plus Alonso was leading the WC and so could afford this gamble

These bold moves have characterised Ferrari and Alonsos rise this season
 
Ferrari should've pitted Alonso immediately Hamilton stopped, that would've given them the chance to make the most of the DRS and then get clear air. They screwed up in the same way as Lotus with Raikonnen earlier in the season.
 
Cookinflatsix Not quite so sure it would have been all that clear-cut actually because with Alonso and Vettel intending to last the distance on the softs they never likely to push as hard as Hamilton who knew he was stopping again were they?
 
Both Ferrari and Red Bull's strategies with their lead drivers were a direct response to Hamilton's pace. It was clear that they were not going to beat him on pace and so tossed the dice on strategy. It was worth a gamble, despite not paying off, and Red Bull and Vettel did well to pull out and give themselves a chance to consolidate their losses.
 
Incubus I would not say that both teams planned to do a one stopper, I think they only switched once it was apparent that Lewis was committed to a two stop and was faster. They did not let him disappear in the lead but tried to match his pace
 
Everyone thinks this or that depending on their allegiance It is what it is, it's all a load of blah blah blah as Rubens would say, In my view Ferrari threw the race away I said before the race it was Alonso's race to lose and that is exactly what Ferrari managed to do for him, but that car is getting stronger and stronger so the rest had better watch out, in fact I'm gonna stick a hundred quid on Alonso to win the championship and I don't gamble, that's how sure I am...
 
Hamilton would have probably won on pace anyway and to be fair neither Ferrari nor Red Bull would have known too much about how fresh tyres would be after 50 laps. No valuable previous data from practice run under much cooler temperatures nor even from last year's race.
 
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