2006 Canadian Grand Prix - Race - Its Alonso amidst the Chaos…
Jun 26th, 2006 by Haas
Alonso extended his dominant lead in the Formula One World Championships with a flawless performance to win his maiden Canadian Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen flanked the World Champ on the podium finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The on-the-edge race became apparent after Nico Rosberg and Montoya collided right after the start of the race. Both were fighting for 5th place after getting a slip ahead of Michael Schumacher on the start. Giancarlo Fisichella was the other loser at the start as Kimi overtook him into the first corner. The incident became clear after replays showed the Renault jumpstarting and stopping and then moving again. He was given a drive through penalty ending his hope for a podium.
Michael was stuck behind Trulli for a major part of his first stint costing him valuable time. Alonso and Kimi built up a amazing lead going into the first set of pitstops. Alonso pitted first and was cleanly back into the race. Kimi who needed to equal Alonso’s time to come out ahead of the champ was unfortunately held in the pits for 12 sec. The reason the back right wheel nut refused to come out. The bad luck of the Finn hit him in the second stop as well this time his engine stopped and had to be restarted costing him all chances to fight for a win.
Towards the end of the race Alonso looked comfy with a 25s gap to Kimi and a 40s to Michael but all that got negated when Villeneuve hit the wall and crashed out. The safety car was bought out and the leads became immaterial. Michael saw the opportunity and passed the Finn in the penultimate lap when the Finn ran over the marbles and lost pace. Alonso maintained a decent 3 sec gap to Michael into the last lap and reached the checkered flag unscathed.
The race saw almost every single driver make a mistake. Alonso ran wide once, Kimi had problems with grip all the time and ran wide at the hairpin twice (last one costing him 2nd place) Michael had possibly the worst race of the 3 as he stayed in Trulli’s slipstream heating up his brakes and ran wide and on the grass many times.
We now move to America and to Indy for the US Grand Prix. The last race there was a disaster after the Michelin runners pulling out of the race. Michael will pray to repeat the same result as it will help keep his challenge for the world championships alive. Alonso will look to win one more race which he has never won in his career. Kimi will look to build on the promise shown in England and Canada.