2007 Canadian Grand Prix - Race - Lewis Hamilton’s Maiden Win…
Jun 11th, 2007 by Haas
Lewis Hamilton made history by winning only his sixth Grand Prix race at the Canadian Grand Prix. The incident packed race saw 4 safety cars, 10 retirements, 6 accidents, one horrific crash, 2 black flags, 2 stop go penalties, one hilarious pitstop and loads of confusion.
Canadian Grand Prix made up for every boring race in the past 2 years simply based on the incidents that marred it. Right at the start Alonso dove into first corner alongside Lewis but right on the marbles giving him a free trip thru the grass costing him one place. The race was going downhill from there for the double world champ. Hiedfeld took advantage and was chasing Lewis to the flag.
Lewis had not much contention after the first corner. The Briton simply had to keep on track and do his pitstops fine to pick up a well deserved win. His only challenger was unfortunate to run out of fuel in the safety car period and pitted, costing him a 10 second stop go penalty. Robert Kubica was another casualty of the rule but his day was going to go from bad to worse as an airborne high impact crash left almost nothing remaining in the car.
The first safety car would have multiple casualties, this time it was Massa and Fisichella’s turn. Both entered the pits fighting for position when the pit lane was open but unfortuantely the exit was not open! Both received black flags for their negligence.
Lewis used the safety cars well to pull away at restarts without any problem. The Briton looked like a winner from the word go. Alonso in the other Mc Laren ran off as many as 4 times at corner 1… a rare sight from the flawless Spaniard. To add to his trouble he came out on 15th after the penalty… The next few laps showed some of the best overtaking from the Spaniard who rose to 8th overtaking cars right and left. He showed the true pace of his Mc Laren punching in the fastest lap on lap 46 and demolishing a 10+ sec deficit from Kimi Raikkonen in under 5 laps! But the effort was not going to be worth it another overtaking attempt pushed him onto the marbles and saw him lose places again. The champ finished the race in 7th.
Alex Wruz and Hiekki were the story of the day, starting from 19th and 22nd they fought amazing odds to pull off a one stop strategy and end up 3rd and 4th. The misfortune of the top drives helped them extremely but it was their controlled drive that clearly made them the drivers of the day.
Next big winner was Sato who did impossible overtaking both Alonso and Kimi in the very same race… A feat that will probably never be repeated. Interestingly both the maneuvers were when the top drivers were struggling for grip but none the less it was a moment for the Super Aguri driver to cherish.
awful race for kimi seems like, kimi has lost it or may be he is taking this being a team player or scoring in every race little more seariouly than he should. it uncharacteristic for alonso to do so many mistakes and even repeat the same mistake. you could see kubica just waiting for lights to go green, but these two big shots just went ignoring that as well so it a deserving black flag i suppose. seems to me every time a brit wins a race, it turns out to be eventful, remember hungrian grand prix!!
Absolutely man! It messes up Grid Bids as well
Kimi has really been off man, I think its someone else in kimi’s clothes and helmet
Seriously though they are calling it the ‘Schumi Syndrome’ Each time Michael is around Kimi is not doing great! This time he was lucky with Massa’s dq coz without that he would have finished behind him again and that would take things from bad to worse.
Uh, what are you talking about? Sato never overtook Kimi.. He only overtook Alonso amongst the top drivers.
And it’s Lewis Hamilton
You are the second guy that has told me this! Sato for a stint in the middle of the race was driving ahead of Kimi, he did indeed overtake him before that, it might have been just after either of them pitted but it was on track. (I think the telecast just came out of a break as that happened)
Fixed the name
Uh, you mean when Kimi pitted behind the safety car (and immediately behind Massa having to wait in the pits)
That is NOT overtaking at all. Sato did not over take Kimi but Kimi came out behind.
And if you go by that definition, then Sato overtook Alonso twice. First during Alonso’s stop and go penalty and then again later, 2 laps from the chequered flag.
I think Sato did overtake Kimi, when kimi made a mistake at the hair pin he capitalised on it. there is no denying for that!!
Exactly! That was what I was talking about. For some reason everyone seems to have just blocked the incident out, not a single review mentioned it. Anyway the interesting point in the incident was that even though it was a mistake Kimi only managed to get back ahead thru pitstops! Ferrari were clearly struggling at Canada, hope they can comeback and stop the Mc Laren express before its too late.
PS: I meant the incident occurred 5 laps before or after the pitstop period, was trying to narrow down the time it happened