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Canadian GP: BMW a Happy Family

It may be Lewis Hamilton in pole position on Saturday, but a stupid mistake by the young Brit driver caused him and Finnish driver Kimi Räikkönen to crash out, handing the victory to BMW's Robert Kubica in the Canadian Grand Prix.

On the track where his fate was very different last year, Robert Kubica showed his strength and resilience as an F1 driver by taking the victory, ahead of his teammate Nick Heidfeld and Red Bull's David Coulthard.

While the rain did not fall in Montreal, there was enough drama going on the track with its deteriorating condition. Adrian Sutil's Force India was the first car to give up and being in a dangerous position, the safety car had to be deployed while the marshals made quick work of removing the car.

The pit lane then opened up to the cars and we saw the first seven cars diving into the pit lane to get their pitstops down. This time, the traffic light in the pitlane caused problems again for the third time this season.

Kimi Räikkönen had came up alongside Robert Kubica at the end of the pit lane, both cars waiting for the signal to turn green before moving out. An over-zealous Lewis Hamilton then didn't see the traffic light and ploughed right into the rear of Räikkönen's Ferrari, pushing him across the line and taking off his rear wing. Both cars then limped to the side of the pit lane end and when Räikkönen came out of the car and approached the McLaren driver, he pointed to the traffic light to remind the Brit driver to look out for the traffic signal next time.

The Finn who usually has been described as laconic, had a few choiced words for Hamilton. One word being "stupid".

"I am not angry because that doesn't achieve anything and does not change my result. I am unhappy, because I had a great chance of winning," he said.

"I am maybe not the best person to say you shouldn't hit anybody from behind after what happened in the last race [when Raikkonen crashed into Adrian Sutil at Monaco] but these are completely different stories.

"If I am going 300km an hour and lose control and hit somebody it is natural. But if I do it in a pit-lane, with a speed limit, with two cars stopped, and you hit them it is stupid. I saw the red light and chose to stop. Unfortunately someone saw the red light and chose not to stop."

Hamilton is handed a 10-grid place penalty for France in two weeks' time, effectively ending any hope of a victory in Magny Cours for him. Nico Rosberg, who unfortunately followed Hamilton's footstep and lightly tapped Hamilton's car at the back, was served with the same penalty probably for consistency sake.

Renault's Fernando Alonso spun out and hit the walls later as he was trying to chase down Nick Heidfeld. His teammate Nelson Piquet Jr had gone out earlier after spinning at Turn 3, so the Renault team was sent packing home early.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa was also an indirect victim of the Hamilton-Räikkönen incident when his team sent him out for one more round before fueling when he was already in the pits in confusion. He made a valiant fightback to take an eventual 4th place.

David Coulthard was a lucky recipient of the third position amidst all the chaos, taking the third spot on the podium behind the two BMWs. The McLaren team were the biggest loser after Heikki Kovalainen failed to score a point for the team, ending up in the 9th place just outside point-scoring position. So now we have a new leader for the Drivers' Championship, Robert Kubica, and if he continues staying out of trouble (in Monaco, in Canada) he could very well taking his first ever, and Poland's first ever - Drivers' Title.

Results
01 R. Kubica BMW 1:36:24.447
02 N. Heidfeld BMW + 16.495
03 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 23.352
04 T. Glock Toyota + 42.627
05 F. Massa Ferrari + 43.934
06 J. Trulli Toyota + 47.775
07 R. Barrichello Honda + 53.597
08 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 54.120
09 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 54.433
10 N. Rosberg Williams + 57.749
11 J. Button Honda + 1:17.540
12 M. Webber Red Bull + 1:21.229
13 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
Did not finish
14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 17 laps
15 K. Nakajima Williams + 23 laps
16 F. Alonso Renault + 25 laps
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 29 laps
18 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 50 laps
19 L. Hamilton McLaren + 50 laps
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 56 laps
Times from PlanetF1.com

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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