Kubica Takes Historic Victory

BMW’s promise of a race victory in 2008 was fulfilled at Montreal as Kubica won. The Pole took advantage of Hamilton’s pit-lane cock-up to lead home a BMW one-two.

For all the complaints about how the track was breaking it up, we had a fantastic day of racing. The day was aided by Hamilton’s mishap. Had he ran a clean race he would’ve won by a long shot. Instead he lost his championship lead by his own doing.

Brundle called it a ‘bizarre red light’. I call it a complete and utter cock-up by the Brit and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is reprimanded for his action. It’s very simple – red light means STOP! It’s one of the most basic forms of driving, let alone driving. Nobody can turn around and say it couldn’t be expected, especially after the double black flag of Massa and Montoya a couple of years ago.

I have my own view on it. Hamilton lost two places because of a bad pit-stop. Red mist descended and he was just pissed off that he had lost the ground given his vastly superior car. In that moment, he forgot about the red light and by the time he had remembered, his McLaren was into the back of Ferrari. Hold your hands up and accept it. How ironic that he laughed off his father’s crash during the week...

It was a very disappointing day for Massa and Kovalainen. This was a perfect chance for both to make head-way but they suffered from botched up strategies from their teams. Why they didn’t go on a one-stop when everyone else did is beyond me.
It was a silly decision by both teams. The right call was to go long with the possibility of further safety cars. Massa recovered best to finish fifth, going equal with Hamilton in the championship. Plenty of props to the Brazilian for some opportunistic passing on the day, especially on Barrichello and Heikki at the hairpin.

The race saw seven different leaders and apart from the BMW’s running line astern, which would be in for the final spots was a lottery. Challengers came in and went as they slipped and slid off the road. David Coulthard overcame recent woes to take a podium alongside the BMW pair. The Toyota’s ran a strong day that saw Glock in fourth and Trulli sixth. Given recent troubles for the team, it was a great result. Barrichello continued his mini-resurgence with a second points finish and Vettel, who overcame a whole host of issues on Saturday, took the final point.

Hopefully the bitching and moaning about the track condition doesn’t hurt the Canadian race. We always get a fantastic and unpredictable race that we don’t want to lose.

PC's Driver of the Day: Robert Kubica. Could it be anyone else? He kept his head down and did what he had to do. He take's his first F1 one, the first for a Pole and a first for BMW as a team. Top it off with the championship lead. What a weekend!