After Monaco, we return to a track which has provided us with just the one podium, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love Montreal or the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Very fast, very tight and rather dangerous, it has a well-deserved reputation as the home of never-a-dull-moment racing. Long, long straights into hard-braking corners stress both car and driver. Failures, and thus collisions with the barriers, are common here. Based on the Ile Notre Dame in the St Lawrence river, local wildlife often plays a part over the weekend too, with seagulls, groundhogs and the native brown beaver often forgetting their road safety routine over the weekend...
Our single trophy here came courtesy of David Coulthard’s third place in 2008 – his final podium of his career. Our debut season of 2005 was also a good race for DC, who finished seventh after starting 12th on the grid, when team-mate Christian Klien, moved from 16th on the grid to finish eighth.
Coulthard then brought home a point a year later in 2006. The Canadian GP had a one-year hiatus in 2009, but last year, Sebastian Vettel came fourth and Mark Webber fifth. Mark started seventh following a five-place grid penalty for a change of gearbox.
The race in Canada has been part of the Formula One calendar since 1967 when the first race was run at the Mosport Park circuit in Ontario. This will be the 42nd running of the grand prix and Montreal’s 32nd time of hosting.
A temporary circuit, the smooth track has low grip and is plagued by cross-winds. It has 12 turns on its 4.361km lap. The race is 70 laps, a distance of 305.27km.
Michael Schumacher is king of the Canadian race, with seven wins, while the lap record-holder is Rubens Barrichello’s 1:13.622, set in 2004.
Montreal goes very F1 over the grand prix weekend, as fans from around the globe enjoy the non-stop celebrations of street parties, exhibitions and driver appearances. Everything, everywhere, seems to be related to the race, as the whole city goes down with a healthy case of Formula One fever.
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