RULE BRITTANIA! RULE MCLAREN!
The Canadian Grand Prix. It used to be there, midseason, regular as clockwork, F1's usual North American stop. However F1 didn't go there in '09 but Bernie had a reality check this time around. The Canadian race I most remember has to be from '07, when a certain rookie did what had been looking inevitable. Fast forward to the present day and Lewis was again back to winning ways though a FUBAR by rivals Red Bull last time round certainly helped. So, the McLaren drivers certainly came into Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on a high but you couldn't bank too much on them keeping up that sort of form could you? Well, anything can happen in F1.
In qualifying, well of course the McLarens had no serious issues in Q1 but the same again couldn't be said for those driving for the new teams and Kovalainen was the best out of that bunch this time round. Q2, again no serious issues for the McLarens...but the same couldn't be said for Schumacher who had a disasterous session and he went out. In Q3 well Jenson opened up the session but his relatively messy lap was beaten by Lewis. Finally the others joined the McLarens on track and Alonso hit the front, then Webber, then in the last seconds Lewis came through to grab his first pole of the season! Further down, Jenson slotted into P5 which then became P4 for the second race in a row after Webber was knocked back due to a gearbox change.
In the race, Jenson avoided the startline insanity and made his way up to 3rd immediately but then had to go in early for fresh tyres as the insanity wasn't enough to force a safety car and that forced him way down. However Jenson soon made it back to 3rd and started chasing down Alonso and then made it up to 2nd during the pitstops only to wind up down in 4th when he pitted again before really starting to burn up the road, taking Alonso and when the dust settled, banked himself 2nd. Another solid performance from the reigning world champion that keeps him in the mixer to defend his title. He'll surely pick up more wins before the end of the season.
Lewis meanwhile was able to defend his lead at the start but like Jenson had to pit early and it was in the pitlane that he had the first of what would be a series of close encounters with Alonso. He survived that and and went on to retake the lead from way down the field, only to come in to the pits once more and this time work his way back up to 2nd by which point he was stuck behind a late pitting Webber, however this proved not to be an issue and smooth as you like, Lewis grabbed himself his 2nd win in a row, Jenson finishing 2nd completed McLaren's 2nd 1-2 in a row. This is starting to get seriously unreal - dare I believe this form can continue?
So, Lewis surges into the lead of the championship with 109 points. Only slightly further back is Jenson on 106 points. When was the last time two Brits were 1-2 at the front of the F1 world championship? Hell knows! Who cares?
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