Canadian GP - RaceFernando Alonso can cross off ‘must win Montreal’ from his 2006 to do list as he claimed the 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix, claiming his fourth straight win and extending his championship advantage to 25 points over nearest rival
Michael Schumacher. The victory
was a historic one for Michelin who recorded their 100th Grand Prix triumph – the first of which came at the 1978 when Carlos Reutemann took the chequered flag in Brazil.
Alonso controlled his pace through the opening stint with
Kimi Raikkonen in close attendance. Starting second,
Giancarlo Fisichella moved a fraction too early, checked his start and then lost out as the race got underway. Fisichella would serve a drive through penalty for the jump start, even though he gained nothing, and then had a relatively quiet race from that point.
Out front, Raikkonen kept the pressure on Alonso until the first round of stops, with the gap rarely above a second. The first McLaren pit stop saw a problem with the right rear wheel and Raikkonen lost five seconds to Alonso. With a small cushion now Alonso was able to control the gap until the second round of stops when Raikkonen’s Mercedes inexplicable stalled.
From that point onwards Alonso had the race in the bag, despite a late safety car and he duly took his sixth win of the season.
Michael Schumacher took advantage of a late race slip-up from Raikkonen to claim the runner up spot after a very strong drive on a heavy fuel load in the early stages.
Raikkonen will be disappointed with third position as will Fisichella who crossed the line in fourth position.
Starting tenth, Felipe Massa ran a one stop strategy to finish in fifth position in the second Ferrari, while
Jarno Trulli lacked pure race pace, but made no mistakes on his way to sixth position a lap adrift and claimed his first points of the season for Toyota.
Nick Heidfeld finished in seventh position in his BMW Sauber. He and team-mate Jacques
Jacques Villeneuve ran a long first stint which moved the duo firmly into the points. Heidfeld picked up position over
Jacques Villeneuve in the final round of stops. It was
Jacques Villeneuve who triggered the late race safety car as he clobbered the wall at turn seven as he ran slightly off line onto the marbles.
Jenson Button looked set for the final point in his Honda, but a hard charging David Coulthard made a lovely pass for position in the closing stages of the race to claim eighth position and a point. Given Coulthard started the race at the back of the field following an unscheduled engine change, it was a very impressive run from the Red Bull Ferrari driver.
Jenson Button finished ninth and out of the points in his Honda while team-mate
Rubens Barrichello was an early retirement with a suspected engine failure.
Scott Speed finished tenth in his Toro Rosso, gaining position over Christian Klien who ran wide at the hairpin late in the race. Over at Williams it was a bit of a disaster as Nico Rosberg eliminated himself from the race almost immediately as he turned in on the challenging Montoya. Mark Webber finished in 12th in the second Williams five seconds behind Klien.
Tonio Liuzzi was 13th in his Toro Rosso while
Tiago Monteiro was classified in 14th position four laps down. Monteiro made a huge mistake on the opening lap under braking for the hairpin and took out MF1 Toyota team-mate
Christijan Albers. Certainly there is no love lost between these two team-mates.
Franck Montagny was an early retirement in his Super Aguri Honda with an engine failure while team-mate Takuma Sato found the wall on the very last lap of the race.
Juan Pablo Montoya survived his skirmish with Rosberg but would later brush the wall and damage the right hand side of his McLaren...
Next on Alonso’s 'to do list' is his first US Grand Prix win as the circus packs up and heads to Indianapolis for next weekend’s tenth round of the championship.
Earl ALEXANDER © CAPSIS International
