Canadian Grand Prix Review

After David Coulthard's cameo in Monaco, and a brief flutter when the Scot topped the times on Friday, it came as no surprise that when it came down to business in qualifying it was the Williams and Ferrari show once again. After all, they were the two teams with the best overall package, with the strongest engines, and the lead ambassadors for Michelin and Bridgestone respectively. For the second race in a row, Juan-Pablo Montoya pulled out a brilliant lap to claim pole ahead of Schumacher.

Following Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen resumed the 5th place on the grid which he has made his own, and from which he had been rudely demoted in the past two events. Then came perhaps the real star of qualifying, Montreal specialist Giancarlo Fisichella, who planted his Jordan in 6th. With Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis in 9th and 11th in their updated BARs as well, this was an encouraging sign of improvement from Honda at a track where horsepower is important.

Arrows had been showing very well ever since San Marino and Spain, totally dominating the similarly Cosworth-powered Jaguars, but here they only started 17th and 19th, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen trailing Enrique Bernoldi and recording his worst grid slot ever, allowing the Jags to start 14th and 16th, their best result in ages. Strange also that the Toyotas, renowned for straight-line speed but not cornering grip, would do so well in Monaco but only qualify 18th and 20th on the straight blasts of the Ile Notre Dame.

Off the start, Montoya kept his advantage and chopped ahead of Michael, but the German probably didn't mind too much, as he skilfully allowed Barrichello on a lighter fuel load to go down the inside into turn 1. A risky thing to do with 19 red-misted, adrenalin-pumping drivers behind, but Schumi pulled it off ever so easily. This was the sort of situation where you admire Ferrari for the professional execution of their team tactics. Dare we ask why they couldn't do it properly in Austria?

In the end, it seemed like a bit of neither really, which reflected the rather meandering nature of this race. Barrichello wasn't holding Montoya up, but he wasn't pulling away enough either to suggest that a two-stop gamble was going to be able to work. And then the safety car came out when Jacques Villeneuve parked his BAR, which tore Rubens' tactics, whatever they were, to shreds anyway. After the race, the Brazilian was miffed as to why the safety car came out, and it was hard to disagree with him.

Montreal is something of an odd-man-out in the world of F1 circuits. Unlike modern European and Asian tracks with loads of run-off all over the place, it's a track with a strip of grass and then a concrete wall pretty much all the way around the circuit. Just like Melbourne, in fact, but whereas Albert Park is a street course, Montreal is purpose-built. For years cars have just parked on the side of the track, and that's one of the hazards you learn to live with at this place.

Although being at lap 15 it might have been a touch early to be in the two-stop window, of these three only Sato used the opportunity to come in as soon as the safety car came out. That neither Barrichello or Salo did demonstrated once again that F1 teams really don't know how to use a safety car period. Montoya showed that it was possible to dive in at this point and still complete the race with a slightly-skewed two-stop plan. Instead, Rubens lost all that time behind the safety car, and it may have cost him second place.

Why JPM did come in though remained unexplained. It was a contingency plan developed by Williams in the event of a safety car, but what was the point? Montoya's early pace did not suggest that he was two-stopping. Assuming then that if he was one-stopping, as Michael clearly looked like doing, then JPM was ahead of Michael anyway. Did Williams fear that the inconsistent performance of the Michelins would have given Michael a chance to pass on the track?

So, if JPM had been on a two-stopper all along, then credit where credit's due for making best use of the safety car. But if he was on a one-stopper, then what was the point of risking bringing him in and turning his strategy into an arbitrary two-stop plan? Especially since that first stop put the Colombian behind his team-mate and Räikkönen. Although he fortuitously got past them both, in hindsight that left both he and Michael with one stop each to go, but Michael ahead.

For all the talk that we were in for an exciting finish after Montoya's eventual splash and dash, and that he could have caught Michael for a mighty duel, I question why he was in that position at all. JPM unusually took umbrage when his engine eventually blew up for the second race in succession. One wonders if part of that was because he had had his strategy screwed up by his team. It was not the first strategic blunder by Williams this year - better tactics during the safety car could have seen JPM win in Austria.

Ralf of course knew he couldn't pass Räikkönen that way, so he backed off as well, allowing Montoya to draw alongside the both of them. It was an amazing three-way drag-race down the front straight which Montoya down the inside was always going to win. Räikkönen should never have been so perplexed by having Ralf alongside that he would suddenly be unsure what to do. A sign perhaps of his inexperience and that his racecraft may still have a few holes in it.

Ralf eventually finished a lowly 7th (and also blew up after the finish line) after refuelling problems at his first stop, forcing him to come in a second time. More than that, he had never looked like passing Räikkönen on the track. With their strategic errors, BMW engine blow-ups and refuelling mishaps, Williams now find their drivers 43 points behind Schumi, and the team 32 points behind Ferrari. Having handed the initiative to Ferrari on a plate, in a race of few silly moments, we award Williams the 'Reject of the Race'.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Williams-BMW
Engine blow-ups and shonky tactics handed Ferrari the race

For a moment Barrichello did have 2nd place, when he slipstreamed past DC who was caught behind Sato as they headed towards the last chicane. DC however went deeper under brakes and didn't make the chicane, but from his tight angle Rubens also cut across the corner, and so the status quo was restored. Apparently Rubens thought DC may have chopped across him a little, and his face showed his displeasure in the press conference, which really seemed a bit wussy on his part.

From 8th on the grid, DC had done well to salvage 2nd in the race, and now lies only a point behind both Ralf and JPM. McLaren seemed to have found that reliability that they lacked in the early part of the season; this was Räikkönen's first finish since Melbourne, after all. If Williams get their act together, there really is no contest for 2nd in the constructors', but after Renault's recent woes 3rd in the teams' and 4th or 5th for DC in the drivers' seems fairly safe now, although way below their initial expectations.

BAR's updated package did give them a slight boost, but still they are yet to score. They must be worried that a repeat of the point-less 1999 is on the cards, although in reality they are not that far off the pace, and with a bit of luck they should break their duck. Here, the final point went to Trulli's Renault, the Italian getting the better of Button for the second race in a row. One wonders if this is a shift in the balance of power between the two, but it means little when Regie's cars seemed to have dropped off the pace a bit.

After disappointing badly in Monaco, Sauber were non-entities in the race despite Nick Heidfeld qualifying a fine 7th. As teams like Jordan and BAR continue to improve, and with the resources behind Renault, it may just be that Sauber's honeymoon is drawing to an end, but a few consistent points-scoring results will put that right. Jaguar once again disappointed, and as soon as they seemed to have drawn a little closer on pace, both de la Rosa and Eddie Irvine were forced to retire from the race.

One wonders whether or not, considering the hefty sums Alex Yoong brings to Minardi, that TV money is so incredibly crucial that it's a life-and-death issue for Stoddart. If Minardi are really operating on such fine margins, then it takes a little bit of the gloss off Stoddart's supposed financial nous. One hopes that a certain amount of gamesmanship is involved. Unashamedly for us, the best moment of the year so far was when Webber came 5th in Melbourne. F1 needs Minardi, and feel-good underdog moments like that.

So the circus now heads to the Nurburgring, to be held on the same weekend that the World Cup semi-finalists are decided. Once again it seems as though the soccer will take centre stage, as the world gets transfixed by the most open and unpredictable World Cup in years. And rightly so, even if it is a tournament full of top teams either too young or past their prime, of unheralded countries like Costa Rica and Senegal, of dodgy and inconsistent refereeing, and even worse lines-judging and offside decisions!