Montreal hairpin to be resurfaced

With resurfaced parts of the circuit having started to fall apart during qualifying, most drivers were fearful about the state of the track for Sunday's 70-lap encounter.

Following discussions between track bosses and FIA race director Charlie Whiting, it was agreed that the hairpin - which was the worst affected part of the circuit - would be resurfaced this evening.

Canadian GP executive vice president Francois Dumontier said: "We have been monitoring the situation extensively.

"This year we chose a new specialist to settle the issue, but obviously conditions related to the technological evolution of the race cars do create some problems.

"Aggressive adhesion of grooved tyres, removal of traction control systems and the actual physical configuration of the hairpin corner itself could all be probable causes for this situation.

"We will correct this problem as soon as the last car leaves the track today, and everything will be rectified for tomorrow's races."

Kimi Raikkonen was one of several drivers unhappy about the recurrence of track problems in Montreal.

"I think it's quite disappointing to see these problems again, especially in qualifying already," he said. "In previous years we have seen in the races that it's starting to break up, but here already in Q1 we had problems.

"After every single qualifying the track was cleaned but after one lap it was again in the same condition. It's a nice track, everything is nice but it shouldn't happen in my opinion."

Parts of the track were resurfaced ahead of this year's race to try and prevent the high tyre wear problems that occurred in the 2007 race.

It is understood that a more major overhaul of the track will be considered for 2009 when race officials meet following the weekend to evaluate what has happened.