What an amazing Grand Prix! It was so refreshing to see some real racing on Sunday at the 8th race of the season in Montreal.
With no refueling this year and super durable tyres teams have been limiting themselves to just the minimum 1 pitstop in general this season, making for some very average races so far.
Pitstop's are cruicial
It's long been a criticism of Formula 1 that overtaking is difficult; pitstop's offered a chance for the pit crews to out-perform their peers and give their driver enough of a boost to pass a rival without an overtaking maneuver. It also entertained us with constant speculation on when pitstops might happen and the ensuing fun when fast cars got dumped out of the pits into a group of slower drivers. So, it was a feast for the eyes to see the Bridgestone tyres literally melting away after 10 laps of the grand prix causing an almost constant flurry of pitstops to get some new rubber. The story of the day became 2 stops or 3 as all of the top 5 decided that although they had needed 2 stops in the first 35 laps they would try to cover the last 35 laps on just 1 set of tyres!
The lead kept changing
There were 5 different leaders throughout the race all at different stages in their tyre use. it was very hard to predict who would come out on top. The Mclarens started on soft tyres along with Alonso where-as the Red Bull's went for the more durable hard tyre. As predicted the Mclarens had to pit after only 6 laps because their tyres were shot, however they had got the soft tyre out of the way and were now clear to use the better tyre for the rest of the race. As the race progressed it looked like Mark Webber had performed some kind of miracle as he led the race for 20 or more laps and seemingly had no issues with his tyres at all! Could he hold out to the end? Alas no, just 15 from the end with finished tyres doing 2 seconds a lap slower than his rivals he came into the pits for new boots and re-joined in 5th. Although brave Webber's race was a little foolhardy.
Hamilton prevailed
Always looking fast, and often ruthless in his overtaking, Lewis Hamilton continually arrived back at the front of the pack after peoples pitstops and mistakes. he scythed his way through the back markers and took his chances to pass his rivals in his usual uncompromising style. Lewis romped to his second victory of the season and Button ensured the second Mclaren one-two in a row! Bring on Valencia....oh boring Valencia! You lot have been putting in some fast laps at Kart Champs so far but also some bullish overtaking - the tracks have looked particularly crazy these last few weeks with some new pilots on the track. Just the other day Facebooker Daryl Reseigh was talking of his ruthless overtaking and competitive spirit at Eastleigh (Southampton) during one of our ever popular Unlimited Karting nights. Keep up the good work, we will make Champions out of you yet!