The Circuit
The circuit has a well earned reputation as a car breaker and when you look at the layout of the circuit is quite easy to see why-high speed straights leading into slow first and second gear corners. Brakes and gearboxes take a pounding and failures are common, a classic example being Heinz-Harold Frentzen's Jordan failing on the second last lap of the '99 race that led to that Grand Prix ended behind the safety car with double world champion Mika Hakkinen leading the field over the line in his McLaren.
Recent Canadian Grand Prix
Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver in the history of this race with seven victories but it is unlikely that we will be seeing number eight this weekend with the Mercedes slower than the pace of the leading Red Bull and McLaren teams. As it is Mercedes have moved ahead of Ferrari in recent races.
The Italian team is the most successful team in the history of this race with thirteen race wins but the red cars are clearly lacking right now. Felipe Massa signed a new two year contract with Ferrari and he will look to maintain the form he showed in Turkey, where he out qualified teammate Alonso, but he will need to buck the trend of his past results here if he is to beat his teammate again. Alonso is a past winner here while Massa has never stood on the podium here and has a best finish of two fifth places combined with a disqualification in 2007 for failing to stop at the red light in pitlane.
During the next years Grand Prix a somewhat similar incident occurred with the red light at the end of pitlane switched on and Raikonnen sitting at the end of pitlane waiting to reenter the race only for Lewis Hamilton to drive straight into the back of the then reigning world champion's Ferrari.
In 2007 as a rookie Hamilton claimed his first career win in Canada and then backed it up with a win at Indy the week after. The Englishman showed that he was sure to be a championship contender as he dominated a race blighted by safety cars, the most significant of these was as a result of a massive shunt involving BMW's Robert Kubica. The Polish driver crashed at the hairpin and was forced to sit out the next race which led to the arrival on the Formula 1 grid of a certain Sebastian Vettel.
Kubica returned to the scene of the biggest accident of his career in 2008 to deliver BMW their one and only Grand Prix win as a full works Formula 1 team. He led home his teammate Nick Heidfeld after his team gave him the benefit of a stronger strategy relative to his teammate. The win placed Kubica firmly into championship contention and the Pole spoke after the race of a need to continue to press hard and win more races that season to challenge for the title right until the end of the season. Of course with hindsight we know that BMW did not take his advice but with the form that Kubica finds himself in right now it is quite clear that Renault would not make the mistake maintain his current form.
Apart from the recent races there have been numerous talking points and interesting events throughout past runnings of this race, one of the most memorable was in 1991 when Nigel Mansell waved to the crowd on the last lap and his Williams ground to a halt leaving a bemused Englishman to stand trackside and watch Piquet take the chequered flag.
Weather for this weekend
The weather for this weekend is quite promising with temperatures expected to be in the range of 20 and 24 degrees with no rain forecast on Friday or Saturday. Raceday though has thunderstorms forecast but these are set to arrive after the flag has dropped. Rain has played a part in some Canadian Grand Prix but the safety car has been much more prevalent in the past and it is this that we should expect to see on Sunday rather than rain.
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