Another excellent weekend for Alonso from start to finish. Stunning really, which carries on his run of five consecutive poles and four consecutive race wins. It was a pretty eventful race with various crashes and the ice rink conditions off the racing line was certainly a new one on me. Typically going on the marbles just causes a drop off in speed, not a total lack of grip. I don’t recall a Canadian GP where it’s happened before.
I’d love to see some form of penalty for both Toyota and Ralf Schumacher for their gross incompetence in keeping Ralf out on track for so long when his car was clearly not up to it. With the best intentions in the world (i.e. pulling over to allow an overtake), he caused Villeneuve’s accident. I feel sorry for Villeneuve, I’m not his biggest fan, but this year has put in some excellent drives and looked on for a good finish.
Toyota also managed to successfully shaft any chance Kimi had of attacking Alonso in the closing laps after the safety car period caused by Villeneuve. Kimi was stuck behind Trulli, who was off in the land of fairies and let Alonso storm off on the restart. That ruined any chance of a scrap.
Realistically though Fissichella should have been in second place to safeguard Alonso and help him extend his points lead in the championship. Instead he had a terrible start and ended up with a drive through penalty for speeding in the pits. The discrepancy between Alonso and Fissichella is starling. I can’t fathom why Renault signed him up for next year, I can only assume it’s maintain some form of consistency in the team what with Alonso’s impending departure at the end of the season.
The scary thought here though is that if Schumacher had qualified better I think he’d have won the race, but Renault and Alonso have this level of consistency that is just easing them through. The run Michael had at the end was frighteningly fast though!
But the same applies to Kimi, if his luck was better he’d have been in with a chance. He was all over Alonso at the start of race and nearly got past at one point, but his problematic pit stop put pay to that.
As to whether Alonso can repeat this performance at Indianapolis next week remains to be seen. Ferrari are again meant to be strong there, and given McLaren’s pace of late, it should certainly be entertaining! I just hope that it isn’t like last years utter farce of a race (just 6 cars taking part due to Michelin tyre problems!).
