The Complete 2006 Canadian GP Review

Until Jacques Villeneuve hammered into the wall on lap 59, the Canadian Grand Prix looked like it was fizzling out in rather disappointing fashion.

Usually notorious for its abundant incidents and upsets, Montreal was being tamed by Fernando Alonso's dominance and the large gaps that were opening out between the cars all the way down the field.

The race may have started in characteristic style with Nico Rosberg and Juan Pablo Montoya's collision and MF1 Racing self-destructing, but the 55 laps between 'yellows' were relatively docile.

Yet that serenity was a real tribute to the skill of the drivers as they grappled with some of the most difficult track conditions encountered in a dry race for many years.

The combination of hot weather and a tyre war that is taking both Michelin and Bridgestone down ever-softer routes meant that the usual build-up of discarded rubber off-line developed into a shockingly slippery hazard that magnified every slight error. This situation was then worsened as the track surface itself crumbled in the heat.

Virtually every driver took a brief trip over the grass or explored the edges of a run-off area, but in general they kept the cars going straight even when nature and physics were trying their best to prevent them from doing so.

The two incidents that did result in safety car periods were more racing accidents than products of the track conditions, and both involved drivers who really needed to avoid trouble.

It is hard to recall when Montoya's fall from grace began, but at some point in recent seasons he changed from being the swashbuckling saviour of Formula One - the man single-handedly responsible for the majority of the fireworks in the opening half of the decade - to an expendable and incident-prone number two. As the 2007 driver line-up jigsaw gradually clicks into place, it becomes ever harder to see where Montoya might fit in.

The same applies to Jacques Villeneuve. This may have been his last home Grand Prix, and given BMW's Silverstone performance some felt he could sign off with a top five finish, which would have been his first points finish in Canada since 1996. Instead he crashed out of eighth in dramatic fashion, which was - sadly - rather more in keeping with his usual Montreal form.

Rosberg's place on the 2007 F1 grid is under no threat whatsoever. But his status as the next young superstar might be. With Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen and Robert Kubica all highly likely to join Rosberg in race seats next season, he may no longer be the major emerging talent in the field. And as Montoya can attest, excitement over early star performances can soon dissipate.

Rosberg will have already seen that, as the hype over his first two races faded once mundane midfield reality set in. But Canada could have been his chance to get back into the headlines (for the right reasons), and to atone for allegedly contributing to his teammate's dismal qualifying. Instead it was all over within a lap and a half.

All this seemed to be happening in a different world to Fernando Alonso, who looks increasingly invincible. He didn't appear to have so much as a near-miss on the treacherous track, and would have won by half a minute but for the second safety car.

Bad things - such underwhelming qualifying, poor tyre choices, late errors, jump starts, or first lap tangles - simply don't seem to happen to Alonso anymore.

It is as if he has become too good to be unlucky, misfortune is just another variable that the ever-efficient Renault have ruled out.

And that is why Michael Schumacher and Ferrari now have to celebrate losing only two points to Alonso in a race where, a few weeks ago, their target was to slash chunks from that points gap.

Practice

Robert Kubica's talent is no longer a secret, but the BMW Sauber number three's performance on Friday in Montreal bolstered his reputation even further.

Even though the mysteries of fuel loads, tyre usage and engine rev allowances obviously make practice times a deceitful form guide, Kubica's margin of superiority could not be ignored, especially as this was his circuit debut.

He was 1.5-2.0 seconds faster than the rest of the field for the majority of practice, ending the first session 1.916 seconds quicker than second placed Anthony Davidson.

Perhaps Kubica was flattered a little by Davidson and fellow Friday regular Alex Wurz's troubles. Both the Honda and Williams testers struggled to raise sufficient tyre temperature in the overcast conditions, with Davidson describing it as "the most difficult Friday I've ever experienced."

The dusty surface caused a few spins and copious shortcuts across the final chicane, but only Tiago Monteiro got as far as the wall, taking the right front corner off his Midland in opening practice.

Kubica stayed on top even when the race drivers joined in later in the day, but this time his 1:16.965 was just a tenth clear of Fernando Alonso in second place.

Despite Alonso's protestations that Renault would struggle to beat Ferrari in Canada, it was the world champions who seemed set to leave everyone else behind.

Not only was Alonso the fastest race driver on Friday, but he led Giancarlo Fisichella in a Renault one-two on Saturday morning.

Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld lived up to Kubica's promise by going third and fourth for BMW in final practice, only a tenth behind the Renaults.

In fact, the front end of the field looked extremely close, with Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya also within half a second of Alonso's 1:15.455.

That was a step forward for Schumacher, who was gloomy after ending Friday in 15th place.

"We suffered with quite a significant loss of grip," he said. "We were not quick enough."

But Alonso wasn't convinced.

"I think maybe today they were a little too slow, on purpose maybe," he said. "I think maybe today Ferrari [were] playing."

Practice round up

Sorted by total laps from all three sessions

Qualifying

Part one

The natural order was quickly established in qualifying: Fernando Alonso at the front (narrowly ahead of Kimi Raikkonen with a 1:15.350), and the Super Aguris at the back.

Only a tenth separated Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny, but their moods had been disparate all weekend - Sato happy and Montagny a little melancholy on Friday, and the other way around after qualifying. While Montagny felt the handling had improved since practice, Sato was disappointed to be two seconds adrift of the field.

After the fillip of Silverstone qualifying, the Midlands were back in the bottom group in Canada, Tiago Monteiro 0.019 seconds ahead of Christijan Albers. They put the result down to poor straight-line speed and did not believe that their Toyota V8 was to blame.

"This is a track that requires efficient aerodynamics," admitted Colin Kolles.

Scott Speed took 18th, citing both sudden oversteer caused by the changing track temperature, and traffic (specifically Jenson Button).

The spotlight fell on Nico Rosberg as the clock ticked towards zero. The Montreal newcomer had missed all bar ten minutes of Friday practice with gearbox problems, and was now only 20th.

A flat-out final lap - including a dramatic brush with the Turn 9 wall - did the trick and put Rosberg into a safe eighth, but left his Williams teammate Mark Webber livid.

Not only did Rosberg's improvement knock Webber to 17th and out of qualifying, but Webber felt that the only reason he was near the elimination zone in the first place was because Rosberg had impeded him.

"Obviously it's frustrating when it's your teammate who is cruising along the back straight and screws you into the last corner," said Webber. "The straight's long enough to look in your mirrors, and he was focusing on something else."

Rosberg was suitably contrite, but would later question how much he had actually disrupted Webber's progress. "It only cost him a tenth-and-a-half, so it wouldn't have changed anything," Rosberg suggested.

Part two

Just as in Q1, Alonso popped out early, set an unbeatable lap time (1:14.726 this time) and then retired to the pits, ending up 0.4 seconds quicker than nearest challenger Michael Schumacher eventually managed on his second flying lap.

The gap between Schumacher and the critical 11th place was just 0.7 seconds, so the battle to scrape into the top ten was unsurprisingly tense.

Rosberg's first effort looked vulnerable, but he found 0.5 seconds next time around and moved up to an impressive fourth.

That left Ralf Schumacher, the Hondas and the BMWs to squabble over the final Q3 spaces.

After their eye-catching practice pace, Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld were surprised to find themselves in this lowly position.

"The track heated up, we lost the balance of the car and couldn't get it to work anymore," Villeneuve explained.

Heidfeld was shuffled down to 13th as others progressed, and Villeneuve's last run failed to generate the required improvement.

He briefly got up to ninth, but with the Hondas both on better laps, the home hero did not stay there long. As Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button scraped through, Villeneuve dropped to 11th, and was already dreading the often chaotic first corner.

The Red Bulls didn't go any further, either. David Coulthard was right down in 16th and distinctly unenthusiastic about the car's balance, but 12th placed Christian Klien was a little more positive and actually came within 0.02 seconds of a top ten place.

Vitantonio Liuzzi believed he had a shot at the top ten, too, but in the event he was 15th and pointed the finger at an affiliated car.

"I might have had a chance of going through to the final session, but there was a Red Bull car coming out of the pits as I came round, so we got a bit stuck in traffic," he said.

Unable to find grip or balance, Ralf Schumacher became the other man to drop out. He eventually fell to 14th, watching his elimination from the pits rather than going out to defend his time.

Part three

Ferrari were first to show their hand after the fuel burning - and it wasn't especially impressive, with Schumacher only managing a 1:16.284 and getting extremely close to the Turn 16 barrier.

That time was put into perspective two minutes later when first Kimi Raikkonen grabbed provisional pole with a 1:15.564, and then Alonso unleashed a 1:14.942.

The latter proved unbeatable - even for Alonso, who grabbed another set of tyres to defend his pole but proved 0.025 seconds slower.

Raikkonen did manage to improve on his time, but only by 0.2 seconds. That proved insufficient when Giancarlo Fisichella carved seven tenths from his previous best right at the end of the session and jumped to second, completing the second all-Renault front row of the season.

This didn't upset Raikkonen too much, as he had found the car much more difficult to drive than in practice, so he was relieved to be as high as third.

His relief was nothing compared to what Jarno Trulli felt after securing fourth.

Yet to score a point this season, the Italian's Montreal weekend looked like it would follow the luckless pattern set by the previous eight races when he had gearbox failure in practice.

But it all came right in qualifying, when he finally recaptured his 2005 form. Perhaps the news that he was on the verge of signing a contract extension with Toyota was not unrelated...

Schumacher could only find another 0.2 seconds on his last lap so had to be content with fifth. There was a suspicion that the Ferrari were running heavier than their main rivals, but even so the one second gap - not to mention the three ostensibly slower cars - between Schumacher and Alonso was a cause for concern.

"Obviously, we can't be happy with this result," said Schumacher. "We are still suffering from a lack of grip. This could be down to the car, the tyres or the set-up: at the moment we cannot be sure which."

Felipe Massa fared even worse, ending up 10th after a radio failure meant that he could not inform the team of the set-up changes he wanted during the session.

Between the Ferraris, Rosberg redeemed himself with a very impressive sixth, Juan Pablo Montoya rued both an error at the final chicane and a general loss of grip after taking seventh, and Button finally managed to out-qualify Barrichello again as the Hondas claimed eighth and ninth.

Qualifying results

The grid

Barrichello joined Webber in criticising Rosberg's track manners, but the only complaint that actually became an official protest was Trulli's suggestion that Fisichella had blocked him.

No action was taken, but the FIA did see fit to issue an edict reminding teams that they should take responsibility for warning their drivers of cars approaching on fast laps.

The only change to the starting order came when Red Bull discovered a problem with Coulthard's engine on Sunday morning - the subsequent penalty putting the Scot to the back of the grid.

Final grid, after penalties:

Pos  Driver                Team
 1.  Fernando Alonso       Renault              (M)
 2.  Giancarlo Fisichella  Renault              (M)
 3.  Kimi Raikkonen        McLaren-Mercedes     (M)
 4.  Jarno Trulli          Toyota               (B)
 5.  Michael Schumacher    Ferrari              (B)
 6.  Nico Rosberg          Williams-Cosworth    (B)
 7.  Juan Pablo Montoya    McLaren-Mercedes     (M)
 8.  Jenson Button         Honda                (M)
 9.  Rubens Barrichello    Honda                (M)
10.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              (B)
11.  Jacques Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber           (M)
12.  Christian Klien       Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)
13.  Nick Heidfeld         BMW-Sauber           (M)
14.  Ralf Schumacher       Toyota               (B)
15.  Vitantonio Liuzzi     Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)
16.  Mark Webber           Williams-Cosworth    (B)
17.  Scott Speed           Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)
18.  Tiago Monteiro        MF1-Toyota           (B)
19.  Christijan Albers     MF1-Toyota           (B)
20.  Takuma Sato           Super Aguri-Honda    (B)
21.  Franck Montagny       Super Aguri-Honda    (B)
22.  David Coulthard       Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)*

The Race

Buoyed by both his new contract with Renault and the return to a track where he has so often excelled, Giancarlo Fisichella clearly felt he could take on teammate Fernando Alonso in Canada.

Those hopes were dashed a millisecond before the start of the race, as Fisichella lurched forward prematurely on the grid.

He immediately realised his error and stopped, but a jump start penalty had already been incurred, and all that his vain attempt to make amends achieved was to drop him to third as Kimi Raikkonen swept through to challenge Alonso.

Jarno Trulli's concerns about Toyota's start system proved groundless as he easily held fourth, in contrast to Michael Schumacher, who immediately dropped to seventh behind Nico Rosberg and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Schumacher managed to stay alongside the McLaren out of Turn 2 and attempted to repass around the outside into the following chicane, but Montoya was never going to make it easy. Sure enough, the Ferrari had to visit the grass, rejoining without losing positions.

Montoya then attacked Rosberg, getting a run on the Williams into the final chicane. Rosberg braked late to defend and cut the second apex, losing momentum in the process.

This allowed Montoya to draw alongside again. They were wheel to wheel through Turns 1 and 2, before Montoya switched lines and prepared to take the place under braking for Turn 3. Rosberg turned in, perhaps too aggressively, and the pair banged wheels twice - the second hit sending Rosberg straight into the wall and retirement.

"I decided to just brake late and stay on the outside and let him do whatever he wanted to do on the inside," said Rosberg. "I never actually saw him. All I felt was the touch on the rear and that was it."

Inevitably, Montoya had a different view. "If you want to touch wheels, I don't mind," he said. "But I was on the inside, I was beside him, and he turned it straight at me. Two cars don't fit at that corner."

The McLaren only suffered nose damage and was so able to pit for repairs during the safety car period, which was required to remove Rosberg's car.

The caution also allowed the marshals to tidy up the mess caused when the Midland teammates became entangled in mildly comedic fashion at the hairpin on the opening lap.

Both had lost out to Takuma Sato's fast-starting Super Aguri off the line, and as Christijan Albers tried to repass the Japanese car on the outside, he was rammed into a spin by none other than teammate Tiago Monteiro.

"I was on the inside, the dirty part, and I locked my rear wheels," Monteiro explained. "I lost control of my car and hit my teammate, so I'm very annoyed with myself."

So was MF1 technical director James Key, especially as the shunt put Albers out of the race and left Monteiro's car very battered. "These types of incidents really don't do us any favours," said Key.

While the Midlands had been bouncing off each other, Raikkonen had been investigating the possibility of passing Alonso for the lead.

He continued to show such intentions after the restart, matching Alonso's pace and getting right alongside the leader approaching the final chicane on lap 11.

The move didn't quite work, but a successful pass looked inevitable eventually given the way the McLaren was shadowing the Renault, even after Alonso upped his pace as the pitstops approached.

Alonso came in for the first time on lap 23, two laps earlier than Raikkonen. This might have proved crucial but for the clutch problem that would ultimately ruin both Raikkonen's stops. With the wheels still spinning while the car was jacked up, the McLaren mechanics were struggling to change Raikkonen's right rear. Worse still, five seconds - and a shot at the lead - were lost before they sent him back out.

Had Raikkonen emerged ahead, the middle stint would surely have been spectacular, for the McLaren proved incapable of matching the Renault's speed in the remainder of the race. Alonso was able to put on a sprint and break Raikkonen's challenge, extending his lead to 12 seconds before the second round of stops.

The Renault appeared to be coping better than anyone else with the extraordinarily difficult track conditions.

The main problem was a build-up of tyre debris off the racing line that proved much more treacherous than the usual 'marbles'. This was exacerbated by the number of cars having minor off-road trips and bringing dust back with them, and the asphalt beginning to crumble in places, particularly the Turn 10 hairpin.

This meant that even the tiniest errors were being punished with a time-consuming excursion, as Raikkonen found on a couple of occasions.

Despite Raikkonen seemingly drifting out of contention, Renault urged Alonso to keep the pace up, convinced that the McLaren could run longer before its second stop and perhaps get back on terms.

In the event, the four additional laps that Raikkonen had made little difference, and when the clutch problem led to the McLaren's engine stalling in that final stop, Alonso's lead suddenly grew to almost half a minute. Renault could finally relax.

The manner in which the lead battle wilted mirrored the general lack of excitement in the middle stages of a Grand Prix that normally tends towards the endearingly chaotic.

Montoya's recovery drive should have been entertaining, but instead he only managed to pass David Coulthard and the struggling Ralf Schumacher before clouting the final chicane wall and putting himself out on lap 13.

By that time Rubens Barrichello had also retired. A poor start dropped him to 12th, and he had little chance to regain ground as his engine tightened ominously on lap 11.

Fisichella tagged along behind the leaders until taking his drive-through penalty on lap seven. The combination of an uncomplicated pitlane and a field that was spreading out quite quickly meant that he only lost two places, rejoining close behind Trulli and Schumacher.

The Toyota was losing a second or more per lap to the leaders, but Schumacher proved unable to pass it until lap 24, by which time his victory chances were already as good as over.

As it happened, Ferrari's poor qualifying pace was partially fuel related, as Schumacher stopped a full nine laps later than Alonso, but this strategy was of little benefit. He was 27.9 seconds behind Alonso just before the Renault pitted, and 28.8 seconds down after his own stop.

Although Schumacher pushed hard, he was caught out by the slippery surface a few times and could not make any headway. Indeed, he was lucky to continue after giving the Turn 16 wall a solid clout on lap 29.

Fisichella jumped Trulli when they pitted together on lap 25, but then lost time stuck behind the BMWs, who were running longer. This delay left him in a very solitary fourth by the time the first stops were all complete.

Button had faded right out of the picture by then. A good start saw him running sixth initially, but his comparatively early stop dropped him behind the BMWs and Felipe Massa.

The second Ferrari was having a good race on a unique one-stop strategy. Massa passed Villeneuve on lap 18 and edged away, advancing to fourth before finally pitting on lap 36.

Heavily laden after the stop, Massa came under pressure from both Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld, but successfully resisted the BMW duo throughout his middle stint. Bottled up behind the Ferrari, they lost any chance of beating Trulli, who could not pull out enough of a margin over Massa before making his own second pit visit.

So as the final dozen laps approached, Alonso led Raikkonen by 24 seconds and Schumacher by 42 seconds, with Fisichella a further 14 seconds back but 10 seconds clear of Massa.

Trulli's mediocre pace left him a lapped sixth, five seconds clear of Heidfeld, whose stop and out-lap had been better than teammate Villeneuve's, swapping the order of the BMW Saubers.

If Villeneuve was a little peeved about this, his discontent was about to get a lot greater...

Ralf Schumacher had endured a dreadful afternoon, struggling to get any grip at all out of his hard Bridgestones. He went off the road repeatedly, pitted in vain a few times (incurring a pitlane speeding penalty along the way), and was limping around five or more seconds off the pace when Villeneuve came up to lap him again on lap 59.

"When he decided to let me by it was through a corner," said Villeneuve. "He lifted, and just to avoid him I had to go wide where there was old rubber from the tyres - it was like being on an ice rink."

The BMW understeered straight into the Turn 7 wall. Villeneuve was unhurt in the rather violent impact, which inevitably resulted in a second safety car period. It was also the cue for Ralf Schumacher to finally give up and retire, albeit rather too late for Villeneuve's liking...

Any thoughts that the full course yellow might jeopardise Alonso's win were quickly dispelled by the sight of Trulli and Heidfeld's lapped cars between the leader and his actual pursuers at the restart. Alonso was able to sprint away, with a 3.8 second advantage over Raikkonen as they crossed the line.

After that, there was no doubt that he was on his way to a fourth successive win, Michelin's 100th GP victory, and - most satisfyingly - his first win in Montreal, a track that had given him few fond memories in years past.

"It was one of the races that we should have had in the previous years and now we have it," said Alonso, who admitted that he had not been put under much pressure.

"Without the safety car I was 25 seconds ahead of Kimi and 40 ahead of Michael, so for sure it was not the toughest, but it was difficult in terms of not making any mistakes.

"The track conditions were really risky for the drivers, and leading the race with a nice gap you normally have more risk, because maybe you lose concentration."

Raikkonen knew all about that risk. His position had looked a little more vulnerable as Schumacher produced a late burst of speed, and on the penultimate lap the McLaren fell victim to the hairpin marbles and slid wide enough to gift Schumacher second place. The seven times world champion has rarely found a mere runner-up spot so satisfying.

"We kept the damage as small as possible," said Schumacher after losing only two points to his title rival. "We didn't have a perfect weekend, but we managed to have a good result."

"For me it doesn't really matter whether it's second or third if we cannot win, so I don't really worry about it," said Raikkonen.

Fisichella, Massa, the delighted Trulli, and Heidfeld had uneventful runs to the flag in fourth to seventh places, but the fight for the final point would produce one last splash of excitement.

Villeneuve's departure elevated Button into eighth, but even before the safety car, the Briton had begun to come under pressure from Red Bull teammates Christian Klien and David Coulthard, the latter having used a long first stint to make stealthy progress from the back of the field.

Three laps after the restart, the RBRs swapped places at the hairpin as Klien broke his first gear and ran wide, also dropping behind the chasing Scott Speed.

This freed Coulthard to hunt down Button, which he accomplished with ease. With a lap to go, the struggling Honda got a scruffy exit from the hairpin, allowing the Red Bull to get a run down the long straight and snatch eighth under braking for Turn 15.

Still far from happy with the car's balance, Coulthard was a little bemused to earn a point, although his list of complaints was rather shorter than Button's.

"I had no grip with either the front or rear tyres, as well as understeer and a lack of traction," said the Honda driver.

Behind Speed and Klien, Mark Webber had a disappointing run to 12th. Helped by a light fuel load, he made a proactive start to the race and quickly surged from 17th to 10th, behind Heidfeld. But the innovative strategy of pitting on laps 15 and 44 did not pay off, especially as Williams's tyre choice proved uncompetitive.

Vitantonio Liuzzi sustained front wing damage while trying to pass Webber on lap 14, blaming the Williams driver's defensive tactics, and could only recover to 13th.

Right at the back, Super Aguri almost reached a morale-boosting milestone only to suffer a last lap heartbreak.

Their day began badly with Franck Montagny's engine failing during the first caution period and Sato pitting for a new front wing after contact with Coulthard.

But Monteiro's difficulties (which included an unsuccessful strategy, as well as the collision damage) meant that the Midland was behind Sato at the final restart, giving Super Aguri a real chance to beat their arch-rivals to the flag in a head-to-head dice.

They came within half a lap of doing so, only for Sato to run wide exiting Turn 9 and plough into the barriers. It wasn't quite as significant as Raikkonen, Villeneuve or Button's late errors, but it was felt just as keenly at the humble end of the pitlane.

Race results

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Alonso        Renault              (M)  1h34:37.308
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              (B)  +     2.111
 3.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  +     8.813
 4.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  +    15.679
 5.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +    25.172
 6.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +     1 lap
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (M)  +     1 lap
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  +     1 lap
 9.  Button        Honda                (M)  +     1 lap
10.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  +     1 lap
11.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari     (M)  +     1 lap
12.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth    (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth  (M)  +    2 laps
14.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota           (B)  +    4 laps
15.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    6 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:15.841

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber           (M)    59
R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)    59
Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)    14
Barrichello   Honda                (M)    12
Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)    3
Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth    (B)    2
Albers        MF1-Toyota           (B)    1


World Championship standings, round 9:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso        84        1.  Renault              121
 2.  M.Schumacher  59        2.  Ferrari               87
 3.  Raikkonen     39        3.  McLaren-Mercedes      65
 4.  Fisichella    37        4.  Honda                 29
 5.  Massa         28        5.  BMW-Sauber            19
 6.  Montoya       26        6.  Toyota                11
 7.  Button        16        7.  Williams-Cosworth     10
 8.  Barrichello   13        8.  Red Bull-Ferrari       9
 9.  Heidfeld      12
10.  R.Schumacher   8
11.  Coulthard      8
12.  Villeneuve     7
13.  Webber         6
14.  Rosberg        4
15.  Trulli         3
16.  Klien          1

Team-by-Team

Alonso takes pole, fends off Raikkonen's early challenge, and takes his fourth win in a row. As usual, life proves more complicated for Fisichella. He qualifies a strong second but jumps the start. The penalty drops him from third to fifth, but getting stuck behind first Trulli then the BMWs is just as costly. Finishes a distant fourth.

Verdict: Should have been a one-two for this currently peerless team.

Raikkonen qualifies third and piles the pressure on Alonso in the early laps. He looks a potential winner but clutch problems cause two disastrous pit stops. Coupled with fading pace in the second half of the race, this sees Raikkonen drop away from Alonso and he eventually loses second to Schumacher after a last minute error at the hairpin. Montoya is a frustrated sixth on the grid, wins an early dice with Schumacher, but then tangles with Rosberg on lap two and needs a new wing. Rejoins but hits the Turn 16 wall on lap 12 and retires with damage.

Verdict: Definitely closing in, but niggling problems are proving costly.

Bridgestone appear to be in trouble as Schumacher and Massa only qualify fifth and 10th, although fuel loads prove to be a factor. Schumacher loses two places at the start, then regains them when Montoya and Rosberg tangle. Fisichella's penalty helps too, but being stuck behind Trulli for 24 laps leaves Schumacher a long way behind Alonso. Late safety car brings him back into the picture and he snatches second when Raikkonen runs wide on lap 69. Massa makes impressive use of a one stop strategy to earn fifth.

Verdict: Very successful damage limitation.

A welcome return for Trulli, who shrugs off practice gearbox issues to qualify fourth. He doesn't have the pace to match the leaders and is ultimately lapped, but still earns his first points of 2006 for sixth. Schumacher has an abject weekend. A gripless 14th on the grid, he struggles with severe tyre problems in the race. Has several excursions, speeds in the pit lane, gets lapped four times and contributes to Villeneuve's crash before finally giving up and retiring.

Verdict: Still waiting for both drivers to be on song at the same time.

Webber furiously accuses Rosberg of blocking him after ending up 17th on the grid for the second race in a row. He starts the race well and soon progresses to 10th, but makes an early first stop on lap 15 and never features afterwards, struggling with his tyres on the way to 12th. Rosberg has his best qualifying since Malaysia and takes sixth, despite gearbox problems severely reducing his practice time on this unfamiliar track. His race is a short one, as a collision with Montoya sends him into the wall on lap two.

Verdict: Rosberg exemplified the 'rough diamond' cliché this weekend; catastrophic tyre choice made Webber's performance hard to judge.

Button and Barrichello take eighth and ninth on the grid and are relatively satisfied. The race proves disappointment, with Barrichello loses ground off the line then retiring early with engine problems. Button advances to sixth but worsening grip problems see him fade to a distant eighth and then lose out to Coulthard on the penultimate lap.

Verdict: Plenty for Shuhei Nakamoto to get on with.

Coulthard struggles to 16th on the grid then has to take an engine change penalty. Pessimistic about his race chance but makes steady progress on a long first stint and is 10th at the final restart. Passes first Klien, then Button to score a quite amazing point. Klien starts 12th, runs on the fringes of the top ten all afternoon, but has a problem with first gear at the hairpin and drops to 11th.

Verdict: Perhaps flattered a little by others teams' dramas, but that point was very hard-earned and fully deserved.

Kubica dominates Friday practice, and the race drivers are third and fourth on Saturday morning. But the temperature change wrong-foots the team in qualifying, where Villeneuve and Heidfeld can only manage 11th and 13th. They make immediate progress in the race, although being stuck behind the heavy Massa in the middle stages doesn't help. Seem set for seventh and eighth until Villeneuve, who lost out to Heidfeld in the final pit stops, crashes while trying to lap Schumacher. Heidfeld holds onto his seventh.

Verdict: Ultimately disappointing given their amazing practice pace.

Monteiro and Albers qualify 19th and 20th and then embarrassingly collide on the first lap. Albers is out immediately and guilty party Monteiro suffers a lot of damage. He limps on to finish 14th after Sato's late crash.

Verdict: Not far off qualifying for Q2 and expected to be stronger in the race, so the crash made this a real missed opportunity.

Liuzzi qualifies 15th but says he could have reached the top ten but for traffic. Runs 11th early on then has a brush with Webber and needs a new wing. Cannot recovery the lost ground and finishes 13th. Speed is 18th on the grid but faster in the race, staying in the vicinity of the Red Bulls and finishing 10th.

Verdict: Evidence of a step forward relative to their midfield rivals.

Sato and Montagny are slowest in qualifying and both hit trouble early in the race, with Montagny's engine blowing and Sato pitting for a new nose after tangling with Coulthard. Aided by MF1's mishap, Sato manages to get ahead of Monteiro and fends him off successfully until crashing on the very last lap.

Verdict: Beating Monteiro would have been such a morale boost.

Lap-by-Lap

Lap 1: Starting from pole for the fifth consecutive grand prix, world championship leader Fernando Alonso makes a clean getaway, but teammate and fellow front-row starter Giancarlo Fisichella moves slightly early, then falters before being beaten away by Kimi Raikkonen.

Jarno Trulli grabs fourth, but Michael Schumacher is beaten away from fifth by Nico Rosberg - and Juan Pablo Montoya soon muscles the German down to seventh.

Michael Schumacher is passed on the opening lap by Nico Rosberg and Juan Pablo Montoya © XPB/LAT

Jenson Button lies eighth from Jacques Villeneuve, Felipe Massa, Nick Heidfeld, Mark Webber, Vitantonio Liuzzi, the slow-starting Rubens Barrichello, Christian Klien, Scott Speed, Ralf Schumacher, Takuma Sato, David Coulthard (who qualified 16th but started last, in the wake of an unscheduled pre-race engine change) and Franck Montagny.

MF1 teammates Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers collide at Turn 10. The Portuguese driver pits for repairs; Albers retires on the spot.

Lap 2: Montoya and Rosberg tangle while racing for fifth. Rosberg spins into the wall - and retirement - at Turn 4. The Safety Car is deployed. Michael Schumacher gains two places.

Lap 3: Montagny pulls off in a cloud of engine smoke.

Lap 4: Race restarts. Sato pits for attention and later rejoins. Montoya passes Coulthard for 16th.

Lap 5: Fisichella is served with a drive-through penalty for jumping the start. Alonso leads Raikkonen by 0.5 seconds.

Lap 6: Alonso laps in 1:16.883 - the race's best so far - to lead by 0.9 seconds. Trulli is dropping away from the top three - and Michael Schumacher is trapped behind him.

Lap 7: Fisichella serves his penalty and drops from third to fifth.

Lap 9: Raikkonen posts a 1:16.802 seconds but is only fractionally faster than Alonso.

Lap 10: Raikkonen ups his pace to 1:16.654 and cuts his arrears to 0.6 seconds.

Lap 11: Montoya passes Ralf Schumacher for 15th.

Lap 12: Raikkonen draws alongside Alonso on the approach to the final chicane, but the Spaniard holds firm. Barrichello pits to retire.

Lap 13: Montoya hits the wall at the final chicane.

Lap 14: Montoya pulls off to retire by the pit exit. Liuzzi makes an extended stop.

Lap 15: Webber pits.

Lap 16: Alonso laps in 1:16.277 and extends his advantage to 0.9s. Third-placed Trulli is 16.4s behind the leader.

Lap 18: Massa passes Villeneuve for seventh.

Lap 20: A new fastest lap for Alonso: 1:15.957. He leads by 1.1s. Michael Schumacher and Fisichella remain bottled up behind the distant Trulli.

Kimi Raikkonen pits his McLaren © Reuters

Lap 22: Alonso laps in 1:15.911 and Raikkonen does a 1:15.841. Coulthard passes Ralf Schumacher for 12th, but runs wide into Turn One and drops behind again.

Lap 23: Alonso pits and resumes in front of Trulli. Raikkonen leads.

Lap 24: Raikkonen pits and loses time with a jammed right rear wheel. He rejoins more than five seconds adrift of Alonso. Michael Schumacher passes Trulli for third. Ralf Schumacher pits.

Lap 25: Fisichella and Trulli pit. Ralf Schumacher spins at Turn 10 and pits again.

Lap 26: Massa passes Button for fourth.

Lap 27: Button pits.

Lap 28: Speed pits and Ralf Schumacher gets a drive-through for speeding in the pits.

Lap 30: Fisichella passes Heidfeld for sixth.

Lap 32: Michael Schumacher pits for the first time. He resumes third, almost half a minute behind the leader.

Lap 33: Villeneuve pits.

Lap 34: Heidfeld and Coulthard pit.

Lap 35: Half-distance. Alonso leads Raikkonen by 7.2s, with Michael Schumacher a distant third from Massa (yet to stop), Fisichella, Trulli, Villeneuve, Heidfeld, Button, Klien and the lapped Coulthard, Webber, Liuzzi, Ralf Schumacher, Monteiro and Sato.

Lap 36: Massa pits and slips to sixth.

Lap 44: Michael Schumacher runs wide and loses a few seconds. Webber refuels.

Lap 47: Raikkonen goes bounding over the grass at the first turn, but he remains a safe second, 12.2s adrift of Alonso. The incident costs him precious little time. Ralf Schumacher spins at Turn 10.

Lap 50: Alonso pits and rejoins 1.8s behind Raikkonen. Speed makes his final stop.

Lap 52: Fisichella pits and keeps fourth. Button pits.

Lap 53: Raikkonen peels in and it's another slow stop. He rejoins second, right in front of Michael Schumacher but now about 25 seconds behind Alonso. Klien pits.

Lap 54: Heidfeld makes his final stop.

Fernando Alonso wins the Canadian Grand Prix for Renault © Reuters

Lap 55: Local favourite Villeneuve takes on fuel and tyres. He rejoins behind teammate Heidfeld.

Lap 56: Coulthard pits.

Lap 57: Michael Schumacher comes in for a service.

Lap 60: Running a lapped eighth, Villeneuve crashes heavily at Turn Seven as he closes on the struggling Ralf Schumacher.

The Safety Car comes out but Alonso has a cushion of backmarkers between him and Raikkonen. Moments later Ralf Schumacher slides off at Turn 10 before heading for the pits.

Lap 64: Restart. Ralf Schumacher pits to retire.

Lap 65: Klien runs wide and drops from ninth to 11th, behind Coulthard and Speed.

Lap 67: Coulthard passes Button for eighth at the chicane.

Lap 69: Raikkonen runs wide at the hairpin and Michael Schumacher grabs second.

Lap 70: Alonso scores his sixth win of the year by 2.1s from Michael Schumacher. Raikkonen takes third from Fisichella, Massa, Trulli, Heidfeld and Coulthard.