2007 Canadian Grand Prix

The 2007 Canadian Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2007 ) [ 2 ] was a Formula One motor race held on 10 June 2007 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal , Quebec, Canada. [ 3 ] It was the sixth race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship .

A test session was held on May 17 and 18 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France, with the track configured to replicate the characteristics of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the final two days after it had been in the style of the Monaco for the first two. Despite the fact that the McLaren team had dominated on the Monaco set up of the circuit, Ferrari were better on the Canadian set up. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]

Kimi Räikkönen had the fastest time on the first day, with a time of 1:28.833. Rain after lunch caused the test to be halted, when the test resumed Räikkönen was forced to finish early when his car experienced electronic problems. Scott Speed achieved the second fastest time, two tenths of a second behind Räikkönen, with seven tenths separating the first eight drivers. The Red Bull team focused on testing their suspension. Rubens Barrichello and Christian Klien shared testing for the Honda team ...

Räikkönen was also the fastest on the second day with a time of 1:28.624, with Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella ending the day with the second fastest time. Fisichella also completed 111 laps, the second most of the day, behind James Rossiter's 131. Pedro de la Rosa was third fastest despite completing fewer laps than other drivers due to his engine failing early in the day. The testing session was stopped twice, when Adrian Sutil's and Jenson Button's engines failed. Red Bull continued to pe...

During the two weeks leading up to the Grand Prix, Räikkönen and Felipe Massa released statements to the press saying they believed that everything would be different in Canada because of the very different conditions—as shown at Paul Ricard. [ 10 ] Fernando Alonso believed McLaren had momentum from their win in Monaco, and Martin Whitmarsh said that they were realistic about dominating the race. [ 11 ]

Consistent with previous form, the Hondas of Barrichello and Button failed to make it into the top ten; they qualified 13th and 15th respectively. Takuma Sato once again outqualified the two Honda cars, just missing out on the top ten, in front of Vitantonio Liuzzi . He made it through to the second session of qualifying by 94 hundredths of a second, where he qualified in 14th. Scott Speed was the slowest car in the second session of qualifying putting him in 16th position. [ 22 ]

Lewis Hamilton led from the start, preventing Fernando Alonso from overtaking at turn one. Alonso ran wide allowing Nick Heidfeld to overtake him and move into second place. Alonso damaged his car in the process and subsequently ran off the track at turn one a further three times during the race. [ 24 ] [ 25 ] Jenson Button had a gearbox problem at the start of the race and was unable to select first gear causing him stall on the grid. [ 26 ] Christijan Albers started from pit lane. The first ac...

Alonso ran across the grass at turn one again on lap 15, which resulted in him falling further behind Hamilton. Three laps later he made a similar mistake at the same turn, resulting in him sliding across the grass for the third time in the race. This caused him to drop back to fourth as it allowed Massa to go round the inside of Alonso into third. [ 24 ] Massa moved into second when Heidfeld pitted on lap 20. Hamilton pitted on lap 22, rejoining the race in third place. [ 27 ]

On lap 22 Adrian Sutil crashed at turn four and the safety car had to be deployed; Hamilton had pitted just before the incident. [ 28 ] Thus the pit lane was closed but Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg were forced to pit in order to avoid running out of fuel, and were given ten-second stop-and-go penalties. When the pit lane was re-opened and the rest of the field pitted, Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella left the pit lane while the red light was still on. Both were later disqualified from the race...

Austria 's Alexander Wurz drove through the field in his Williams from 19th at the start to finish third by taking one pitstop, completing 40 laps on super soft tires. By finishing third, Wurz recorded his third and final career podium in the race that marked ten years since his debut race in F1. His podium remains the last scored by an Austrian driver. This was the first podium finish for Williams since the 2005 European Grand Prix , with Nick Heidfeld in second place after trailing Hamilton fo...

Sato overtook the McLaren - Mercedes of world champion Fernando Alonso on lap 67, just after overtaking Ralf Schumacher and having overtaken Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen earlier in the race. He finished sixth after having a race that had seen him move from the middle of the grid; to the back of the pack and to a high of fifth before a pit-stop error caused him to move back to eleventh; were moved up 5 places in the last 15 laps. Sato was voted "Driver of the Day" on the ITV website over Hamilton's f...

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