First off, sorry about 2 consecutive weekends with no posts; allow me to explain myself... The first instance once again revision for exams left me no time, and last weekend I was away enjoying some motorsport of a different kind: The legend that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans. No excuses this weekend though, and sure enough here I am.
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is one of the few circuits still on the calendar that seems to have no problem, year in year out, producing a corker. 2010 was certainly no exception. It's a massive hit with teams, drivers and most importantly fans – its disappearance from last year's calendar was nothing short of travesty. The main reason that the majority of dry races this year have been a tad dull is that the longevity of the tyres hitherto allowed for very little scope to deviate from the standard 'start on options, pit when they start graining, finish on primes' strategy. As it happened though, not even the harder tyres at Canada were durable enough to allow any teams to do that, which opened up the array of strategy options us nostalgia buffs so craved for.
Qualifying was also unusual in the sense that it wasn't a Red Bull on pole position – that honour instead fell to Lewis Hamilton after a scorching lap in his McLaren-Mercedes. The usual pacesetters were thus forced to concede defeat and start from 2nd and 3rd positions, championship leader Mark Webber ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Fernando Alonso came next, from Jenson Button, and 6th place deservedly went to Force India's Tonio Liuzzi. Webber however was docked 5 positions for a gearbox change, meaning it would actually be Vettel who lined up alongside Lewis on the front row. Mercedes on the other hand were strangely off the pace – Rosberg could only manage 10th, and Schumacher failed to even make Q3 in a lowly 12th.
Come race day, drama was unfolding even before all 24 cars passed the starting gantry. Whilst Hamilton emerged from the first 2 corners as leader from Vettel and Alonso, Liuzzi after a fine qualifying performance was tagged 3 times in one corner by the fast-starting Ferrari of Massa. The net result for the Italian was a spin which saw him fall behind everyone but Petrov and De La Rosa, who were too busy having their own accident further back. The former would continue, but the latter would not – and the Spaniard was soon to be joined on the list of retirees by teammate Kamui Kobayashi, after a tangle with Nico Hulkenberg and subsequently the dreaded 'Wall of Champions' at the end of Lap 1. This gave the Sauber team a rather unenviable finishing record of 25% for 2010.
The initial round of pitstops was passed without much incident, even if they did allow Sebastien Buemi to lead his first ever lap of an F1 race, though Red Bull elected to give their drivers differing pit strategies – Webber would run his softer tyres in the final stint, Vettel the middle. In exiting the pits himself, Schumacher displayed shades of his old self by squeezing the Renault of Robert Kubica onto the grass on the approach to turn 3 – both pilots were fortunate to not make contact or even lose any places.
Webber's strategy appeared to have been the correct one at first, but found tyre wear an increasing issue as his middle stint wore on in spite of using the harder compound tyres. Hamilton, closely shadowed by Alonso, rapidly closed the gap to the Red Bull, and with 20 laps to go, both relatively easily passed the Australian. Alonso proceeded to have an attempt to the lead of the race, but found himself baulked by backmarking traffic before Hamilton opened himself a small gap that he would maintain to the end of the race. Webber thus was forced to pit earlier than planned to make the compulsory stint on soft tyres, and exited in 5th place, behind his teammate Vettel.
Jenson Button then suddenly found a late turn of speed with which he surprisingly effortlessly dispatched Alonso, before making serious headway into his fellow McLaren driver's lead. He was able to narrow the margin to just 2 seconds with 10 laps to go, but Hamilton duly responded and the gap remained constant until the end of the race. Thus McLaren scored their second one-two finish in as many races, with Hamilton's erstwhile arch-rival Alonso completing the podium some 7 seconds behind Button. Vettel nursed an alleged gearbox issue home to claim a somewhat lacklustre 4th, ahead of the man who was usurped from the championship lead – Mark Webber.
The top 10 were completed by Rosberg, Kubica, an impressive Buemi, and the Force Indias of Sutil and Liuzzi who had both passed the ailing Schumacher on the final lap. The 91-time victor simply couldn't find any grip with which to fend off the duo, and was left with nil point to reflect on what Martin Brundle described as the 'worst weekend of his career'. Uncharacteristically for the circuit, the rate of attrition was remarkably low – the lowest all season in fact. Only Glock, Trulli and Senna failed to finish along with the luckless Saubers, and all with mechanical issues. Perhaps even more astonishing was the notable absence of the safety car all race long.
So, with two back-to-back wins firmly under his belt, Lewis Hamilton has retaken the championship lead by just 3 points from Jenson Button, and 6 from Mark Webber. Chuck in Mr. Alonso and Mr. Vettel who are just another 9 and 13 points back respectively, and the fact we still have 11 grand prix left to run, along with major updates packages for all 3 major teams in the next two races, and there's no doubt that this championship is well and truly wide open.
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