back

THE DAVID COULTHARD MUSEUM

Canada 2007

In a race where many drivers including champions and race winners struggled to stay on the grey stuff it was testament to the driving brilliance of Lewis Hamilton that he managed to keep cool after so many restarts and drive flawlessly to a maiden victory. After the disappointment suffered by the young Brit at Monaco the sheer elation on the faces of him, his father and manager, Ron Dennis made it all too clear it was a great relief to see him finally leap on to the top step of the podium. It was a race of high drama and action. This was the first time that we really got to see the new rules of the Safety Car in action. However, it was the truly terrifying accident suffered by the BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica which slightly overshadowed the maiden win of Hamilton. Approaching the hairpin the Pole clipped another car and flew into the air. He then went on to launch into a series of horrific barrel rolls before eventually landing on his side against the barrier. The Pole was lucky to escape with just a sprained ankle.

After securing his maiden pole position on the Saturday it looked like the Canadian race could be the best opportunity for Hamilton to pick up his first ten pointer. Blazing down into the first corner it wasn’t exactly easy for him, with Raikkonen and Alonso pulling to the outside and Nick Hiedfeld trying to sneak up the inside and take his lead. However, almost exactly like in Spain Alonso was a little bit overenthusiastic into the first corner which forced him to take to the grass and bump over the kerbs, losing second place to the BMW of Hiedfeld and very nearly collecting Raikkonen’s Ferrari. Behind them Nico Rosberg’s Williams got a very good start of the line and managed to propel himself into fifth behind Felipe Massa in fourth. It’s so hard to think back now but the opening 20 laps was a fairly dull affair. After a bad start from Mark Webber in the Red Bull he was trying hard to get further up the field and whilst trying to pass Robert Kubica was launched into a spin at the opening corner. The only other incident involved Scott Speed flying over the Williams of Alex Wurz. This resulted in yet another retirement from the Yank who for me appears to be more and more of a disappointment as each race goes by. Wurz, who was able to keep on going , did have broken rear wing with a large piece of the endplate missing. He didn’t appear to lose any down force so the team left him out on the circuit.
It was around about the 20 lap mark when the race really came into its own. After Hamilton, who had stormed out in front opening a gap of about 20 seconds, had pitted on lap 22 it seemed the race would be a very simple maiden victory for the young Brit. This assumption was very quickly disproved. Hamilton’s old sparring partner from Formula 3, Adrian Sutil had slammed his Spyker into the wall at the chicane in the early part of the lap. To recover his car the marshals had no choice but to deploy the safety car. Under the new regulations for this year the drivers are only allowed to pit under the safety car when the entire field had been bunched up behind it. However quick thinking by the McLaren and Williams mechanics meant that Alonso and Rosberg were able to make their pit stop seemingly before the SC signal had been given. Once the field had been bunched up all the other drivers scrambled into the pits as frantic work from the mechanics occurred to try and get their driver(s) out as soon as possible. It appeared on the television pictures that whilst Kubica’s BMW sat at the end of the pit-lane waiting for the light to turn green Massa in the Ferrari and Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault showed a blatant disregard for the light and stormed out anyway to rejoin the race.
There was very little time for the marshals to contemplate this rule break as on the same lap that the Safety Car had pulled in Kubica made contact with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli and the rest as they say, is history. The Pole went skidding of into the grass at the side of the track and appeared to hit a bump in the run-off zone. This bump then launched his car flying into the air making contact with not one but two barriers and very nearly collecting the wreckage of Speed’s Toro Rosso. He then barrel-rolled across the tarmac before eventually coming to rest sideways up against the barrier. His head and arms were flailing around within the cockpit as he skidded along the ground. The marshals and medical team were quick to act and were very fast on the scene to help remove and treat Kubica. Amongst all the chaos Alonso and Rosberg had both been given ten second stop-go penalties for coming into the pits at illegal times. The drivers like Wurz, Barrichello, Coulthard and Liuzzi who passed the opportunity earlier in the race pitted under the second safety car period. The latter two of the four took on board a clever strategy. The super soft tyre that was a lot slower over a long stint was only used by these drivers for few laps before they made another pit-stop and took on the more suitable soft tyres. Sadly we were not able to see if this strategy would have paid off as Coulthard encountered gearbox troubles on lap 39 and Liuzzi binned it in the ‘Wall of Champions’ later in the race.

After Kubica had been freed and the wreckage cleared the race was once again got underway on lap 33. Three laps later Alonso and Rosberg stopped for their penalties. The race became yet more chaotic on lap 38 as Rosberg and Trulli without actually touching were launched into synchronised spins at turn one. Such madness in the race left the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato in seventh place and even more remarkably the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher who started in 18th sitting on the final podium position. This is, however, somewhat misleading, he was to pit on the following lap for his one and only stop but still managed to finish eighth and score his second point of the season.
Yet more drama was to unfold in the closing stages of the afternoon. On lap 51 Christijan Albers’ Sypker was pitched over the kerbs of the chicane where his own team-mate crashed earlier in the race. This left numerous pieces of debris and broken front-wing scattered on the track. This was deemed too dangerous fore the marshals to clear in race conditions and the safety car made once, twice, three time an appearance. The following lap Massa and Fisichella were pulled up for their previous indiscretion in the pit-lane. Both were black-flagged and forced to retire with Kimi Raikkonen cementing Ferrari’s nightmare afternoon running only in eighth and on course for only one point.
It was lap 56 when Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso made contact with the infamous ‘ Wall of Champions’ which has claimed such great drivers as Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher. This triggered another trip for Bernd Maylander in the Safety Car. This was the fourth outing for the German who was really earning his pay that afternoon. It wouldn’t have been surprising if we had a repeat of the 1999 race in Montreal when the race ended under the safety car. But not even the relatively slow pace under the SC could calm this race down. Exiting the pit-lane a total lapse in concentration appeared to occur as he seemed to continue straight on into the barrier and out of the race. This incredibly exciting race left the top eight in an order which had anyone bet on at the beginning would have been rewarded with a rather healthy sum. Throughout the mayhem Hamilton and Hiedfeld were able to maintain first and second at the front. Barrichello, Wurz and Kovaleinen all followed with Raikkonen in sixth, Ralf in seventh and the reigning World Champion holding on to the single point.

However, with only ten laps to go yet more drama ensued ensuring this was not to be the top eight at the end of the race. First of all, Barrichello had yet to pit in the Honda promoting every driver up one place and Takuma Sato and his Super Aguri into the eighth points paying position. The buck for the plucky driver from Japan most certainly did not stop there. He put an awesome move on Ralf Schumacher down the back straight and into the final corner. He then went one (or ten) better than that by going round the outside of the reigning champion in a McLaren down the straight. Just for those ten laps he, for me, was the driver of the day. Even though Hamilton survived throughout the afternoon Sato really impressed with the sheer audacity of his move on Alonso.
An incredible day across the pond ended with the very first win for Lewis Hamilton. Hiedfeld held his head very well to finish second and Alexander Wurz drove superbly to receive the third podium position of his career at the race where he made his debut (standing in Gerhard Berger) ten years ago. Heikki Kovaleinen drove the best race of his career thus far and gained a well deserved five points. Raikkonen in the Ferrari finished a disappointing race with four points followed by the sublime Sato and Alonso and Schumacher to pick up the remaining points. The first part of the American leg has certainly had a profound effect on the championship standings. Lewis has now scored 48 points out of a possible 60 and now leading Alonso by eight points and Felipe Massa by 15. To put this start in context in the opening six races of arguably Michael Schumacher’s most domineering season (2004) he scored 50, only two more than Lewis in his opening season. It has also emerged this week that Alonso is not 100% content within the McLaren team. This added with Lewis’ brilliance means that in my humble opinion it will only take a serious u-turn in McLaren’s reliability and his own fortune to deny him the chance to fight for the championship. The American race should hopefully be equally dramatic and exciting.