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DIFFICULT RACE FOR FERRARI IN CANADA
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton scarcely made a wrong move as he raced to a debut victory in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix held in perfect conditions on the Ile de Notre Dame in Montreal. The rookie, who had never seen the circuit before, put his McLaren on pole position and only lost the lead during pit stops in what was an action-packed race in which there were no less than four pace cars.
Nick Heidfeld drove an equally perfect race to second place, but behind him there was almost chaos, as drivers suffered incident and accident, the worse, by far, befalling Robert Kubica who crashed violently just before Montreal's hairpin. In spite of his car being wrecked, the Polish driver was amazingly unhurt, a testament to the remarkable safety drive in modern Formula One.
Among those to suffer were both Ferrari drivers. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa started fourth and fifth respectively but Massa ran fourth during the early stages.
"What happened at the pit stop is a real shame,” said Massa assessing his Canadian performance. “Even if the safety car didn't help me I was having a good race and I could have brought home some important points for the championship. Unfortunately, when I left the pits, I did not even look at the lights, partly because there were so many cars in pit lane behind me. It's true that today the McLaren was very strong, but this was not the result we should have had, we should have been able to finish on the podium. The season is long and still very open. We must work to improve our performance. I am happy that Kubica, who is a friend of mine, was not seriously injured in his accident: it is almost a miracle."
Massa’s team mate Raikkonen was two places further back in the field behind the Brazillian.
"It was a very difficult race for me, right from the beginning,” said the Finn. “I did not have much grip at the start, being on the dirty side of the track and immediately after, I hit Felipe's car with my front wing. Then, there were so many safety car periods that it caused chaos. On top of that, after Kubica's accident, a piece of debris got stuck in my front wing and I had so much understeer and some difficulties with the brakes. All these problems put together made this a really complicated race. At the end of the day, I picked up some points: it could have been better but it could also have been worse."
They were holding these places when the first safety car was deployed after Adrian Sutil hit the wall and his Spyker had to be removed to safety. When the pit lane was opened, a number of cars made pit stops, including Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella, both of whom rejoined against a red light for which they were subsequently black-flagged and excluded from the race.
Almost immediately after the track was clear, Kubica hit Jarno Trulli from behind and was launched into a terrifying series of rolls which prompted another safety period while the driver was removed to the medical centre. Once again, that shook up the order, leaving Raikkonen in tenth place at half distance. Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso were also penalised with a ten second stop and go penalty for pitting for fuel during the first safety car period, but they had little choice.
On lap 50 of the 70 laps, the safety car was again deployed, this time to clear up the track because of debris left by Christijan Albers' Spyker after he went off the circuit and lost his nose section. At this stage, both Raikkonen and Alonso pitted from sixth and seventh, and staged a great drag race out of the pits which the World Champion won, but then he went off at the first series of corners for the fourth time in this race, and dropped back.
After another safety car period to remove Liuzzi's crashed car, with ten laps to go, and most of the drivers on soft tyres, Hamilton was heading for his maiden win and pulling away from second placed Heidfeld. Amazingly, Alex Wurz was in third place from 19th on the grid and gaining on Heidfeld who was suffering grained tyres. Behind Wurz, Kovalainen was next pushed hard by Raikkonen and then came Alonso.
But in the closing stages, an astonishing Takuma Sato came through to overtake Ralf Schumacher and then Fernando Alonso to claim sixth place behind Kovalainen. Alonso was seventh from Ralf Schumacher eighth, while Mark Webber, at one time third, finished in ninth place ahead of another potential top six finisher, Nico Rosberg who fell back after his penalty. It was that sort of a race.
Hamilton's win gives him an eight point lead in the championship over teammate Alonso, the Spaniard now a full seven points ahead of Massa who failed to score for the first time this year. Raikkonen is now six points behind his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro teammate and only a point ahead of Heidfeld. In the Constructors' series, McLaren have 88 points to Ferrari's 60, but all that could change at Indianapolis next weekend, round seven of the 17 round championship.
"We expected a tough race, but given the outcome, that was just a euphemism,” said Ferrari Team Director, Jean Todt. “The only really positive news of the day is that Kubica, who had a really serious looking accident, is reasonably alright, given the impact he sustained. In a race that was confusing and chaotic thanks to the numerous safety cars periods, we come away with just four points for Kimi, whose car was damaged in a collision at the first corner after the start and then after Kubica's accident. As for Felipe, he was disqualified for driving out of pit lane when the light was still red. Of course this is not a happy moment for us. Now we have to study everything about this weekend, to understand how to move on. It is not the first time we have been in a situation like this and we have always shown that we can extricate ourselves from these difficulties."
(ENDS)
2007 Canadian Grand Prix.
1. Lewis HamiltonBritainVodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes 70 01:44:11.292
2. Nick HeidfeldGermanyBMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW +4.3
3. Alexander WurzAustriaAT&T Williams-Toyota +5.3
4. Heikki KovalainenFinlandING Renault F1 Team-Renault +6.7
5. Kimi RaikkonenFinlandScuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari +13.0
6. Takuma SatoJapanSuper Aguri F1 Team-Honda +16.6
7. Fernando AlonsoSpainVodafone McLaren Mercedes-Mercedes +21.9
8. Ralf SchumacherGermanyPanasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota +22.8
9. Mark WebberAustraliaRed Bull Racing-Renault +22.9
10. Nico RosbergGermanyAT&T Williams-Toyota +23.9
11. Anthony DavidsonBritainSuper Aguri F1 Team-Honda +24.3
12. Rubens BarrichelloBrazil Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda +30.4
Rtd Jarno TrulliItaly Panasonic Toyota Racing-Toyota 58 laps completed
Rtd Vitantonio LiuzziItalyScuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 54 laps completed
Dsq Felipe MassaBrazil Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro-Ferrari 52 laps completed
Dsq Giancarlo FisichellaItaly ING Renault F1 Team-Renault 52 laps completed
Rtd Christijan AlbersHolland Spyker F1 Team-Ferrari 47 laps completed
Rtd David CoulthardBritain Red Bull Racing-Renault 36 laps completed
Rtd Robert KubicaPoland BMW Sauber F1 Team-BMW 26 laps completed
Rtd Adrian SutilGermany Spyker F1 Team-Ferrari 21 laps completed
Rtd Scott SpeedUSA Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 8 laps completed
Rtd Jenson ButtonBritain Honda Racing F1 Team-Honda 0 laps completed
F1 DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP (AFTER ROUND 6 OF 17)
POSITION / DRIVER / TEAM / POINTS1. / LEWIS HAMILTON / VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES / 48
2. / FERNANDO ALONSO / VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES / 40
3. / FELIPE MASSA / SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO / 33
4. / KIMI RAIKKONEN / SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO / 27
5. / NICK HEIDFELD / BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM / 26
6. / GIANCARLO FISICHELLA / ING RENAULT F1 TEAM / 13
7. / ROBERT KUBICA / BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM / 12
8. / ALEXANDER WURZ / AT&T WILLIAMS / 8
= / HEIKKI KOVALAINEN / ING RENAULT F1 TEAM / 8
10. / NICO ROSBERG / AT&T WILLIAMS / 5
11. / JARNO TRULLI / PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING / 4
= / DAVID COULTHARD / RED BULL RACING / 4
= / TAKUMA SATO / SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM / 4
14. / RALF SCHUMACHER / PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING / 2
F1 CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP (AFTER ROUND 6 OF 17)
POSITION / TEAM / POINTS1. / VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES / 88
2. / SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO / 60
3. / BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM / 38
4. / ING RENAULT F1 TEAM / 21
5. / AT&T WILLIAMS / 14
6. / PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING / 6
7. / RED BULL RACING / 4
= / SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM / 4
9. / SPYKER F1 TEAM / 0
= / SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO / 0
= / HONDA RACING F1 TEAM / 0
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Release Number: Ferrari_202
Date of Issue: 4 December 2018. Time of Issue: 05:11:34