Craziness in Canada Too

On only his sixth attempt, Lewis Hamilton has become a race winner in Formula One when he won the incident-packed Canadian Grand Prix.

Having finished on the podium in the first five races of his career, Hamilton went one step further in Montreal, and in the process became the first ever black driver to win a Formula One race. He now enjoys an eight-point lead over his teammate, two-time defending Champion Fernando Alonso, in the Championship standings.

Like so many races this season, the very first corner was an eventful one. This time Alonso was the culprit as he out-braked himself into the tight left-right combination and went through the infield grass. As per race rules, he wasn't allowed to gain any advantage while cutting across the track, and so he backed off a little. But BMW's Nick Heidfeld sneaked through in the skirmish, and Alonso oh-so nearly lost another position to Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

With Heidfeld holding up the field, Hamilton was able to build a healthy lead over the rest of the field. While everyone thought that Hamilton would win by minutes, the presence of four, yes that's right, FOUR safety car periods changed the complexion of the race.

Being a temporary circuit, the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve is surrounded by walls which aren't forgiving to those who have made a tiny mistake. But Robert Kubica's horrendous crash was definitely not a fault of his own.

Having been overtaken at the pitlane exit by Jarno Trulli during the first safety car period (for stopping but not restarting in time at the red light), BMW's Kubica was soon able to latch on to the back of the Toyota and when the two approached the hairpin section, Kubica's left front wheel made contact with the right side of Trulli's car, and the BMW was launched into the air, and slammed head-on into the infield retaining wall, just missing the parked Toro Rosso of Scott Speed. The disintegrated car then ricocheted back to the track and rolled a couple of times, and the TV cameras caught a glimpse of the cockpit which showed Kubica's left arm thrown up the air during the collision and fell back to his body when the car mercifully stopped at the other side of the track. And to the horror of TV audience, Kubica seemed to have lost his consciousness as his head was leaning to one side.

While I was expecting to witness Hamilton's first win, my thoughts were on Kubica as reports first said that he had suffered a broken leg. But fortunately it turned out that he only had a sprained ankle and concussion, and otherwise he's completely fine.

With everyone slowed by the four safety car periods, cars on a one-pitstop strategy were the biggest beneficiaries. Austrian Alex Wurz, in a Williams, promptly found himself on the third step of the podium, ten years to the week when he made his debut in Formula One.

Interestingly, the top-four finishers of this race (Hamilton, Heidfeld, Wurz and Heikki Kovalainen) had never won in Formula One before this race. The last time a similar thing happened was last year's Hungarian Grand Prix, when the top-three finishers (Jenson Button, Heidfeld and Pedro De La Rosa) combined for zero previous victories. And even the disappointing Ralf Schumacher finished in the points too, in eighth position.

And to add an extra sense of surrealism to the race, Takuma Sato in a Super Aguri was able to catch and overtake Alonso two laps from home for sixth position.

So pals, the time has finally come. The Super Aguris are now more than capable of fighting with the McLarens and Ferraris for glory.