Lewis Hamilton proved that he was right to approach Ron Dennis when he was a youngster by winning his first race after only six starts in a Formula 1 car, on a track that he'd never driven on. The young Brit showed that he was the real deal and not a flash in the pan. He more or less dominated the race from the start, frazzling his team mate in the process.
The excitement seemed to be with incidents and accidents with the safety car coming out four separate times (I was afraid that it was going to run out of gas the last time out, or at least need tires). Hamilton dominated the field and just had to navigate safely through all of the debris on the track from the various wrecks. He drove a stunning race and will be a drive to watch for probably a long time.
Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen
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His two championship winning team mate on the other hand looked like either a rookie (I'm being generous in case his mom is reading this) or like a fool (in case a member of the Scuderia is reading...). Turn one is tricky at Montreal, but not so tricky that you'll screw it up lap after lap after lap. I mean, Alex Yoong no longer is running in F1... Alsono would finish the day in seventh and be all but ignored by Dennis at the end of the race. Me thinks the youngster will be getting the fast bits for the car next week.
With all of the incidents, the final standings looked more like the result you would expect if it rained at Monaco, not on a sunny day on the island circuit. Nick Heidfeld just kept up with the front and ended up in second place, the best result since Peter Sauber stopped calling the main shots at the team. It was better news for BMW when it turned out that Robert Kubica's spectacular crash coming into the hairpin complex resulted in nothing more than a sprained ankle and a mild concussion. Some will say that the cars are better engineered. That may be the case, but he was lucky. If the doctors give him the green light, I'm expecting many cheers when he goes out on the track at Indy next week.
The Pit Wall
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Wurz had his best race of the season bringing the Williams to the podium for the first time in god knows how long. It's been a solid decade since we saw Villeneuve and Hill battling for the lead here. Unfortunately, the high finish was due more to who didn't get ahead than some breakthrough development of the car. One hit wonder? Bets are the answer is yes.
Kovalianen finished in fourth place which would have made Flavio happy, but the supermodel stalker was still bent out of shape that Fisichella was disqualified for running a red light behind Massa. Kimi was happy to get through the day and finish in fifth, but you can believe that there will be screaming in Italian, Portuguese and Finnish this week. Monaco was not a good result for the Scuderia, but Montreal was an embarrassment.
Everyone may have been cheering for Hamilton, but the drive of the day really went to Sato-san who finished not only in the best result for the almost-Super Aguri team in sixth, but ahead of Alonso. And yes, he passed him on the track. The Spaniard has been put on suicide watch. More importantly, the shoestring budget team did better than the factory Honda team and Toyota. More Japanese executives were also put on suicide watch this week... Well done, Sato-san. Who knows what he could do with a front running team, but he probably deserves a chance. Lest anyone think this was a fluke for the junior Honda team, Davidson also finished on the lead lap ahead of Barrichello's car.
Kimi Raikkonen visiting the Coronation School of Montreal
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Ralf Schumacher finished in the last points paying position. Now that his brother has retired, maybe it is time that F1 closes the book on the Schuie era and have the younger one retire before the team painfully announce that his contract will not be renewed next year.
Now granted, there were some bone headed mistakes this weekend, but the tide has turned and it looks like McLaren's lead in the car's development is real. Alonso looked so out of place on the track compared to Hamilton. I doubt we're going to have a revisit to the Senna/Prost team battles. What looks like it will happen is a young guy putting so much pressure on the older "expected champion" that the latter will break under pressure and crash out or make dumb mistakes. Too soon to tell.
The circus heads to Indy next. With all of the cars running Bridgestones, we should have a full grid this time. It has gotten interesting. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Maranello this week...
Felipe Massa
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Race Results
