photo credit: Flickr/Sara Terrones

There have now been seven different winners in this completely crazy season of Formula 1. Lewis Hamilton finally got his first win at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Before the start though, there was one grid penalty…guess who. Pastor Maldonado needed a gearbox change thanks to the damage from his qualifying spin. He started 22nd because of it.

Sebastian Vettel led the race until the pit stops started.

There wasn’t much in the way of collisions or other problems…unless you are HRT. Neither car was able to finish, despite things looking good for de la Rosa this time around. Jean-Eric Vergne had to come through the pits for a drive-through after speeding in the pit lane.

This was also not a great race for Jenson Button, who continued to struggle, or Michael Schumacher, who had to retire after his DRS wing became stuck open. In a great turn of events, it wasn’t so bad for Romain Grosjean for once.

Felipe Massa looked to be doing much better than he has, until he spun around and ended up in 12th. It was a non-eventful race for him after that point.

Fernando Alonso looked to have it in the bag after Hamilton had to make another pit stop. Towards the end of the race, the Ferrari driver began to slow dramatically and ended up in fifth place. Romain Grosjean, Sergio Perez, and Sebastian Vettel were all able to get by him. Vettel’s chances to be on the podium were lost after his very late pit stop.

Tires once again played a massive role in the race, but thankfully the wear didn’t turn the race into a snorefest. There were some great battles, and Vettel’s pass on Alonso at the end was fantastic.

Results
01. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
02. Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1
03. Sergio Perez, Sauber
04. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
05. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
06. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
07. Mark Webber, Red Bull
08. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1
09. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
10. Felipe Massa, Ferrari

» Continue reading “Seven Races, Seven Winners: Lewis Hamilton Wins In Montreal”

Qualifying begins at 1pm Eastern on SPEED in the United States. Come back to this post for live updates when we get started!

1:01pm: If you have SPEED on, you’ll see things that are clearly not Formula 1 cars….and they aren’t even going to show it live as is, it’ll be on a delay. So, so much for a live blog with them…looking for other options.

1:04pm: So yes, everywhere else in the world, qualifying in Formula 1 is going on. Currently Paul di Resta has the fastest time in Q1 with just over 15 minutes to go.

1:06pm: Massa already going off. Surprise!

1:07pm: His teammate now has the fastest lap time. Since I haven’t updated at all about practice, Sebastian Vettel was fastest this morning. Lewis Hamilton was fastest in both sessions yesterday.

1:10pm: Halfway through, Sebastian Vettel has yet to set a lap time. Pedro de la Rosa is outside of the 107% rule, and the other 5 at the bottom are Heikki Kovalainen, Jean-Eric Vergne, Timo Glock, Charles Pic, and Narain Karthikeyan.

1:14pm: On his second lap out, Vettel goes P1. Petrov is now in the knockout zone.

1:20pm: With Q1 over (and just starting on SPEED, sucks), Jenson Button’s up in second! The knocked out cars have not changed, although the order did. Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov, Jean-Eric Vergne, Pedro de la Rosa (seriously), Timo Glock, Charles Pic, and Narain Caboosekeyan.

1:28pm: Q2 is underway!

1:34pm: Sebastian Vettel once again is on top halfway through the session. I’d tell you who’s in the knockout zone, but there’s no timing showing on the screen sooooo…

1:37pm: Okay, I think this is what I just saw on the BOTTOM which isn’t as helpful: Di Resta, Maldonado, Senna, Kobayashi, Perez, Ricciardo, Alonso are in the knockout zone. Alonso has just gone to P2 though.

1:40pm: Seriously I’m amused that I start watching Sky and I can’t even get times. That’s not their problem though but it’s just like watching qualifying shouldn’t be this difficult, right?

1:44pm: Q2 over..but not before Pastor Maldonado makes a ridiculous spin and somehow saves the car. Drivers not making it to Q3 and starting 11-17th: Kobayashi, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Perez, Senna, Maldonado. Jenson Button got lucky with Maldonado’s spin.

1:50pm: Q3 is go! Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button head out immediately.

1:54pm: Massa is first somehow. Now Lewis, and now Sebastian. Too hard to keep track without times on the side!

2:02pm: Sebastian Vettel finished on top for Q3, so once again pole position is his! Lewis Hamilton will start next to him, and Fernando Alonso is third.

Starting Grid
01. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
02. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
03. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
04. Mark Webber, Red Bull
05. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
06. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
07. Romain Grosjean, Lotus
08. Paul di Resta, Force India
09. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
10. Jenson Button, McLaren

11. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
12. Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus
13. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
14. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso
15. Sergio Perez, Sauber
16. Bruno Senna, Williams
17. Pastor Maldonado, Williams

18. Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham
19. Vitaly Petrov, Caterham
20. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso
21. Pedro de la Rosa, HRT
22. Timo Glock, Marussia
23. Charles Pic, Marussia
24. Narain Karthikeyan, HRT

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Friday June 8
First Practice Session: 10:00am
Second Practice Session: 2:00pm

Saturday June 9
Final Practice Session: 10:00am
Qualifying: 1:00pm

Sunday June 10
Race: 2:00pm

All times Eastern. This race begins SPEED’s absolutely annoying move to showing races on Fox, typically on a time delay after this one. You can watch the second practice session and the qualifying session on SPEED, and the other two practice sessions on their website. A pre-race show will be shown on SPEED before the race at 1:30, and also a post-race show at 4pm.

Last year’s winner: Jenson Button

What to expect: Organizers had to cancel the typical open house in the pit lane today thanks to threats from the immature student protestors in Montreal. Because if you can’t have your way, you should ruin the fun for everyone else…I learned to stop doing that when I was 5.

Anyway. Red Bull are now not allowed to use the floor their car has had for the past few races. It was declared legal to use in Monaco, but it had to be changed for this race. There was talk that they would lose their last win, but that’s kind of ridiculous when the car was deemed fine. Haters. You’re even making Mark Webber mad and you know what happens when you make Mark Webber mad…

McLaren hopes to get their butts into gear once again, considering the poor performance of Jenson Button lately.

Of course, there’s still no sign of who could possibly win this race, because it could entirely be a seventh different driver for the season. Cue continued arguments about whether or not this unpredictability is good for racing/fans/etc. I think since we’re all different people, we all just have to shut up and deal with it. Though personally I enjoy it, and I find it stupid that team principals and what have you, as in people who are not fans, try to tell us how we think.

Weather: The race should be nothing like last year, with temperatures for the weekend in the 70s. There’s a 60% chance right now for rain tomorrow.

Tires: Once again, the tires are softs and supersofts. Tire wear will be key, as the track is not exactly used by cars any other time of the year. As rubber is laid down during practice sessions, the track will progressively become faster.

DRS: There will be a single DRS zone in Montreal this year instead of the two zones last year. The one zone will be located from turn 11 until the final chicane. Word is the second zone on the start/finish line was removed because overtaking was way too easy last year.

Well duh, just ask the winner who went from last to first.

Yes, it has been two days since this race. I may have just watched it again while I wrote this. It’s that fantastic, and it has to be the focus of my very first post.

What a weekend for racing. The Canadian Grand Prix was the icing on the 24 Hours of Le Mans cake.

Every summer, four F1 races move from SPEED to Fox. Excluding the Canadian race, all these are tape delayed and shown at 1pm eastern, rather than the typical 8am for a European race. This is extremely annoying for a hardcore fan, especially in the age of the internet. After this Sunday’s race? I don’t care. I hope whoever happened to come across that race on Sunday was in awe and is ready to tune in for the next race.

The days leading up to the race itself were the nothing like race day: muggy, hot, sunny. Sunday afternoon in Montreal resembled the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix for a couple hours. Thankfully, they were able to restart the race, and was it one of the best things I’ve ever seen. It was so good, the BBC is reporting that 8.3 million people watched. Only one race since they regained broadcasting rights has had more viewers…did I mention that this was even with a rain delay?

» Continue reading “Race Recap: 2011 Canadian Grand Prix”