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/
 
Yeah me too! I wonder if it'll be as bad as the ones in Australia, China, Malaysia, Bahrain and Monaco! Those were just ridiculous!
 
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Just been looking at the stats for Canada and you would say Hamilton has a pretty good chance. McLaren have won 3 of the last 4 GPs there and would have likely won all 4 had Hamilton not crashed in the pit lane.

In terms of Hamilton himself, he has raced 4 times there and has won twice there (well could of been 3 as stated above). Got 3 pole positions, but even more interestingly a team mate has never been closer than 3 tenths to him in qualifying:-

2007: Ham > by 0.4 from Alo
2008: Ham > by 1.2 from Kov
2010: Ham > by 0.3 from But
2011: Ham > by 0.4 from But

That additional time he seems to be able to find round this circuit could be invaluable with qualifying being so close and you must think gives him a chance of pole. I suppose apart from Monaco he was either 1st or 2nd in every qualifying and therefore unless they have the same problems here or have genuinally fell behind then he should be favourite along with the super DRS Mercedes boys.

I just hope McLaren haven't done what they did last year when everyone else brought a skinny rear wing except for them and it hurt them in qualifying.
 
But they were well set up for the race, just look at Button

As long as it rained Jos the Boss, maybe they won't be so lucky this time? I would ask you whether it's likely to rain this weekend but I've decided to guess your prediction - Sunday: 50% chance of rain, 50% chance of sun, maybe with some cloud coverage. Plagues of frogs and locusts on Friday, drivers will develop boils on Saturday. :snigger:
 
Well the Mclaren rain dance worked! It rained for 2 hours straight! And It's going to be dry this weekend apart from a heavy showers rain expected today!
Edited to please mjo!
 
The duct is in the wrong place for DDRS, for the duct is has to be starved of air when the wing is closed, that just gets air all the time.
 
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