2006 Grand Prix du Canada - RaceWelcome everybody here at the sunny Montreal, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to the 9th race of the 2006 F1 Season. Jos Verstappen will start from pole position today, alongside Robert Kubica in the McLaren. Let's head to the track now, as the cars are returning from the formation lap and lining up on the grid.
The five red lights are on
And here they go!
No changes in the first five places, but Heidfeld has passed Davidson for 6th
Verstappen has kept the lead
Oh, and Davidson took the inner line in turn 1 and passed both Heidfeld and Da Matta
Schumacher up one place, now in 11th
No changes at the back of the field
Positions 1 to 9
Schumacher passes Heidfeld for 7th
As a result Heidfeld gets very slow out of the chicane, and now it's three wide
Webber also past Heidfeld, but Leinders stays behind
Montoya overtakes Lotterer and is in 16th
But Lotterer retakes his position through the final chicane, and Montoya now has to defend against Villeneuve
He manages to keep him behind
Massa brakes too late and bumps into Kubica
who runs a bit wide as a result
what allows Massa to pass him
Missed by the cameras Glock has lost 2 places
Now Button passes him aswell
And this explains why, Glock has an oil leak and has to retire
Contact between the two McLarens, not for the first time this season
Kubica spins as a result and drops back to last place
Raikkonen with the fastest lap
Heidfeld retakes the position he lost a few minutes ago
Once again Kubica has to fight back through the field, today he starts with passing Button
The standings after 10 laps
da Matta takes 5th from Davidson
And Kubica passes the second Renault
The top three, very close together
Montagny side by side with Schumacher
and he gets past the Toyota
Montoya with an early pitstop, according the the team radio he has problems with his throttle
Meanwhile Kubica passes Montoya's teammate Coulthard
Alonso gets past the Scot, too
Both Midlands passing a very slow RedBull of Vettel
Lotterer now also past his teammate Frentzen
But the latter shows that he still has the pace and retakes his position
Smoke now coming out of Vettel's car, I doubt that he can continue
Vettel too retires with an oil leak, and da Matta in for his first stop. Looks like he's on a three stop strategy
He gets back out ahead of his teammate in 10th
The gap between the first three now under 2 seconds
And now Raikkonen comes in the pits. Seems that he too is on a three stop strategy
He gets out in 11th behind Schumacher and da Matta!
The Ferraris now with a big gap to third placed Davidson
Raikkonen loses no time and immediately passes Schumacher
Massa now in for his first stop
Montagny also in the pits, as Massa leaves them
And he too drops behind da Matta! The Toyota crew has done a fantastic job at da Matta's stop
Kubica now in the pits, as well as Alonso
Da Matta gained two places thanks to a very quick stop. The question now is will he also pass Verstappen?
Davidson, Schumacher and Heidfeld come to the pits
What happened here? Heidfeld is in the wall and out of the race!
Here we see a replay. Apparently there was contact between him and Button as he left the pits
The race leader is in the pits
He managed to stay ahead of da Matta
Kovalainen and Lotterer now in for their first stop
Webber now is leading the race
But not for long, as he too comes in the pits
Followed by Frentzen, Schumacher and Villeneuve
This puts Leinders in the lead
Coulthard heading to the pits
Raikkonen passes da Matta and now is back in third
Button and Leinders the last one to do their first stop
Verstappen now back in the lead ahead of Raikkonen
Into the hairpin, and Raikkonen alongside Verstappen
And he takes the lead!
But Verstappen fights back in the final chicane
Everyone has stopped once now, here are the standings
That's Leinders off the track! He retires with a gearbox failure
Raikkonen tries to pass Verstappen in turn 1
But the Ferrari driver stays in front
They're side by side again, on the way to the last chicane
And Raikkonen gets past
da Matta now right behind Verstappen as he had to take a slow line through the chicane
They're side by side in turn1
While trying to defend second, Verstappen made a mistake and runs wide
and crashes into the wall! Massa just avoids to hit him
Verstappen is out of the race
Raikkonen now on fire, look at the gap he pulled out in only one lap
Kubica overtakes Frentzen and is in 11th now
The standings with the second round of stops soon to begin
Lotterer has spun!
The replay shows that he bumped into Kovalainen while trying to pass him, and spun as a result
Kovalainen thus stays in 9th, but Lotterer dropped back to last place
da Matta in the pits for his second stop
Back out in 6th ahead of Montagny
Raikkonen comes in one lap later
This time he manages to stay in front of the Toyota
Kovalainen and Kubica side by side in turn 1
And the Finn can keep the McLaren behind
Massa now leading, with Davidson in second and Schumacher in third
Kubica tries again to pass Kovalainen
This time he gets through
Raikkonen again with a fastest lap
Montagny and da Matta side by side
And Montagny is already ahead way before the chicane. Looks like the Toyota has some problems.
As Montoya earlier in the race, he too has problems with his throttle
Speaking of Montoya, here he comes for his second stop
Da Matta dropped back to 12th after his stop
Webber is in the pits
And someone is in trouble here!
It's Kovalainen! He's the third one to have an oil leak today!
Schumacher, Montagny and Kubica now in the pits
Schumacher gets back out in 4th
Lotterer and Davidson coming in for their final stop
Davidson gets back out, and he'll stay in front of Schumacher
Disaster for Renault! Both cars come in in the same lap.
Button loses many time now
Massa and Schumacher come in for their last stop, that puts Raikkonen back in the lead
But not for long as he pits only one lap later
However his laps were fast enough to put him in second ahead of both Davidson and Schumacher
Villeneuve, Coulthard and Frentzen in the pits
Massa leading, but there's still enough time for Raikkonen to close the gap
da Matta in the pits for the fourth time, his team didn't adapt the strategy when he had the problems some laps earlier
The gap between Massa and Raikkonen is down to 1.3 seconds
Therer's a Williams of the track
It's Villeneuve! A gearbox failure ends his race
Montagny and Webber fighting for 5th place
Webber manages to stay in front
da Matta tries to pass Frentzen for 9th
But he too can't find a way past
Here are the standings with 10 laps to go
Kubica has managed to get back into the points
Again Montagny tries to pass Webber
This time he makes it
Only 4 laps to go now, and Raikkonen doesn't seem to be able to get any closer
Last lap for Massa, the gap to Raikkonen now is 2 seconds
And Felipe Massa wins the Canadian GP!
Second place for Raikkonen
Davidson in 3rd completes the podium
Michael Schumacher crosses the line in 4th
Montagny finishes in 5th
6th place goes to Webber, 7th to Ralf Schumacher and Kubica gets the last point for 8th place
And only some meters after crossing the line Montoya rolls out with no fuel
Thanks everyone for watching, full results will follow very soon!