LEWIS HAMILTON - MIRACLE WORKER!
And now the F1 show takes a timeout from Europe for a double header on the other side of the Atlantic! The Curcuit Giles Villeneuve has a nice long straight for overtaking on, a Wall of Champions for the big names to crash into, and a generally chilled atmosphere for F1 peeps to hang out in. For Lewis, it was a track he'd never seen outside a simulator. For Jenson, it was supposed to be his best shot at a renaisance with Honda amid rumours of him bailing.
Well in Q1, Schumacher, Kovaleinen and Wurz were the big names that got cut with Jenson and DC only making in through by the skin of their teeth. They weren't so lucky in Q2 though with Jenson starting 15th and Coulthard 14th, Jenson hoping that his new Honda would be better over a race distance. Q3 had Heidfeld taking an early provisional pole before Webber took over and then Hamilton took P1 only to get beaten by Alonso late on! However with seconds on the clock Lewis Hamilton improved to take the first pole of his F1 career!
In the race, well Jenson's Honda wasn't much use over a race distance, it conked out on the grid with a box full of neutrals. Cue last year's British number one wondering where his luck went! Having said that though Barrichello finished the race he didn't exactly have a spectacular afternoon either! Is either Honda going to improve at Indy next week? Depends if the improved Honda is actually for real on not. Doesn't look like it at the moment.
DC made it up to 13th and the start thanks to a poor start from Webber but the Aussie then retook him a few laps later. That was about as eventful as DC's race got though, like Jenson he also fell victim to a dud gearbox, though at least DC was able to give the car a 14 lap run. Not something that the Scotsman could do anything about and shouldn't have any bearing on what happens at Indy, though after earlier mechanical trouble in qualifying, DC definately had no luck in Montreal!
Forget all that though. What can I see about Lewis Hamilton's race? Well it started with Alonso having a go at him off the grid...and blowing it entirely! After that his lead kept getting bigger and bigger and it honestly hadn't sunk in what whas going on. They were four safety cars and each time you thought that this was when the dream was going to end, but it didn't. And then ten laps to go. Now came the nerves. Now came the pacing round the room. And then came the chequered flag. 100% podium record. Intact. And now in only his sixth race ever...absolutely incredible. Murray Walker says that he's the best F1 rookie ever! I'm not going to argue with him!
The last rookie to win a Grand Prix was Juan Pablo Montoya back in '01. Before that, there was Jacques Villenerve in '96. Both of those came into F1 off the back of succsessful careers in the big US centred formulae though! Emerson Fittipaldi is the only drivers than can seriously claim to have a better start to his career than Lewis, winning his fifth ever Grand Prix in 1970! For a British rookie driver winning a Grand Prix though you have to go back to 1965. Jackie Stewart. Even he didn't pick up his first win within six races! He did go on to win three world titles though!
So, the championship table looks like this. 1st place. Lewis Hamilton. 48 points, eaight points ahead of nearest rival Alonso. Further dow, DC's down to 11th with four points, equal on points with Sato and Trulli but only he can claim a top five finish. Jenson still has zippo.
Lewis Hamilton has answered the hype by winning his sixth ever Grand Prix. The question people are asking now is "can he win the championship?". Don't know, we're in unchartered territory here. Not only is he in the mixer though, he has told the rest of the grid one thing:
Bring it on.
Fernando, Kimi, Felipe. Your move.
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