Montreal Grand Prix...

So, Lewis Hamilton on pole... can he get his first win in F1?

This track is notorious for cars being destroyed into walls after a moment's inattention and it's happened to the best (Schumacher etc). Will he be able to concentrate for race-distance under such pressure?

RW

I think Alonso will win. I think he is more consistant over a GP and Hammy is learning this. I could be wrong but I want Alonso to win neither the less. The first few laps will be very exciting between the Macca's!

I'd tend to agree with you... moreso than ever at Montreal - so many experienced guys, let alone rookies hit the wall so to speak at this track.

Race-distance driving Alonso still really has it over everyone else in F1 without doubt.

RW

Well, those predictions didn't come out right did they?

Alonso really needs some help learning the old saying "You can't win a race on the first corner, but you can easily lose one".

Twice in the last three races he has compromised his race with first corner incidents. I must say, even as a Macca fan it made me smile to see Sato pass Nando. Always had a bit of a soft spot for the crazy Japanese guy.

I was irrate with Sky for not showing the podium or the interviews. I don't know what happened in the Golf following the F1 but it had certainly better have been more important than a potential future world champ winning his first race, and the fairy tail situation that seems to follow Lewis around. I know Sky have their obligations to their advertisers, and to sponsors of the golf etc, but would they cut an All Blacks match speaches short for golf?

*Rant over

Excellent race though, full of action.

And glad to hear Kubica is okay, a broken leg means Vettel will probably get a go, but jeez that was like an airplane crash, very very messy.

He won one of those races and the other one was someone else's fault. Your point is... pointless.

Anyway, as I suspected, the new safety car rules for 2007 have begun their life of ruining races..

Alonso - due to pit on lap 24 and the safety car came out on lap 24.. penalised for entering the pits when the alternative would be to run out of fuel on the track.

Alonso #2 - due to pit again on lap 49/50 and the safety car came out on lap 47, ruining his race further.

Without these he would have run a true 2nd place. Solely due to the new safety car rules he finished five places further back.

Many teams didn't want these rules for this exact reason and the FIA said the chances of it happening and affecting a race were negligible... And it's happened to one car twice in one race!!!

Bloody well driven by Hamilton for sure though.

RW

Great drive from Hamilton. Good to see him get that first win done. I switched off the TV as soon as he crossed the line to get some more sleep so didn't know SKY cut the podium out! That is terrible, considering they butchered Quali and did the smae thing in the GP. No effects mics comming through.

Sato drove well.

Alonso was a bit ragged but still showed Kimi he made the wrong move. I now think more than ever Kimi has given up, not that he ever had anything to give up on...

Yeah that really annoyed me, i was looking forward to seeing lewis get his trophy and the press conference afterwards. I mean golf can wait, they take all day to get round the course!!

Thing is, is there any chance of us seeing the podium and press conference now?

I doubt the Sky replay will change, and the news may have a snippet of either, maybe even both, but it would be one bar of celebration, and one quote from the press conference, if that.

Press conference transcripts are one plenty of F1 sites if the details and not footage are what you're after..

RW

I watched it on the replay, Sky used common sense and skipped the dead air between final lap and podium, and podium and conference.

I was going to wait and read the transcripts after seeing if the replay had the conference. I wanted to see the conference because I read a lot into how they are saying things and their body language. Especially with how Alonso has been acting towards Hamilton, and also how Hamilton is taking his first year in his stride.

Alonso huh! hamilton is better

I think too much gets made of team-mate comments. If Alonso says as part of a whole interview "~Hamilton was lucky~" (which he clearly was compared to Alonso in this GP) then somehow it gets twisted by some media into implying he said "Hamilton only won because of luck" which is not true and not what he said.

Hamilton has been driving amazingly for a rookie no matter which way you bake it. Alonso however, over the course of a whole race, is still a better driver than Hamilton - that is a fact.

Alonso's pit-stop penalties (the forced ten second one and the two safety cars mucking up his schedule) cost him 30+ seconds. Pretty much all of the time he lost going off while pushing hard he made up again.

RW

I'm not doubting Alonso's head game.

He did manage to beat Michael fair and square last year after all, much closer than 2005.

The reason I wanted to see the live footage is cos the media does twist things, and I wanted to interpret it myself.

Hopefully we can all look forward to a Senna/Prost type battle with Alonso being the racecraft savvy Prost and Hamilton being the gungho Senna (even has the right colour helmet for it).

One can dream eh.

Amateur vid of Kubica's crash... see how close the car comes to hitting the two marshalls by the parked Torro Rosso car... OR going over the barrier completely and into the oncoming cars!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWZ7iKXfLXs

RW

... probably the best canadian grand prix i've seen... it usually blows! even though alonso is my fave driver it was pretty cool seeing sato pull that move!