The Complete 2007 Canadian GP Review

In a race that saw four safety car periods, the biggest accident in many years, the world champion off the road repeatedly, the circuit falling apart and the qualifying order virtually turned inside out, Lewis Hamilton remained calm, composed, and utterly in command.

His progress from his first pole to his first victory was about the only serene element of the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, as chaos reigned in Hamilton's wake.

The only man who could claim to have had a vaguely comparable race was second-placed Nick Heidfeld, but he had dealt with hydraulic problems, a few brushes with the wall, and a deleted Q2 time in the build-up to the GP.

By contrast, Hamilton's entire weekend was smooth and incident-free. It took him longer than he expected to learn the unfamiliar track on Friday, when he was only second and third in the two sessions. But then he was quickest in final practice, beat Fernando Alonso to pole, stayed cool when his teammate tried - and failed - to drive around him at Turn 1, and then shrugged off the drama and the constant safety car interruptions to take a consummate victory.

"To be honest, it was a fairly simple race apart from the restarts, making sure that I pulled a good gap from Nick," said Hamilton.

"I got a reasonably decent start, it wasn't great to be honest, and Nick was right up the back of me going into turn one, so I covered my position and went through the first corner and saw Fernando just fly down the outside, and I thought 'no, I'm going to lose it here.'

"But he just went straight, so I was able to continue with my line. And that was it, (I knew) this is my opportunity to get away into the distance, but from there it was fairly smooth."

The result puts Hamilton eight points clear of Alonso in the championship, with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen 15 and 21 points adrift respectively. The four-way title battle appears to be spreading out - and it's the rookie sensation who is gaining control. Not that you will catch Hamilton admitting that...

"The next dream is obviously to win a Formula One world championship but at the moment we have to be realistic again," he said.

"It's always good to bear in mind that I'm still a rookie and this is my first season. There are going to be some hard times. I hope that there aren't but it's just bound to happen, it's just the way it goes in this business and there'll be good days and bad days."

But when Hamilton talks about 'bad days' in F1, he is not speaking from experience, for so far in his career he appears to have fortune well under control. There were abundant ways that Montreal could have become a 'bad day' for an F1 novice, but instead it was his much more experienced rivals who slipped up. Whatever was thrown at Hamilton during the Canadian GP, he took it in his stride and still cruised home victorious. The prospect of a rookie world champion seems less unthinkable with every race.

For a short but terrifying period, it looked like Hamilton's success might be overshadowed by far more grave news following Robert Kubica's dreadful accident approaching the hairpin. Thankfully Kubica was virtually unscathed in F1's most violent impact for several years, but the incident certainly focused the drivers' attention on the perils that they face.

"They (circuits) are always safe as long as there are no accidents or special incidents - like Robert's," said Jarno Trulli.

"This must be addressed by people. Until the accident happens, everything is fine and we can calculate everything.

"But I've seen the accident today and it was massive and there was something pretty wrong there with the angle of the barrier."

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

McLaren-Mercedes moved straight into one-two formation at the start of the weekend, with Lewis Hamilton fastest initially before Fernando Alonso embarked on a long run that eventually took him to the top of the times as the extremely dusty track began to offer a little grip.

The Ferraris were third and fourth, Kimi Raikkonen ahead of Felipe Massa and both 0.4 seconds down on the McLaren.

Mark Webber was very happy to complete the top five for Red Bull, while Super Aguri showed promise again with Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato 10th and 11th.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was frustrated by the gearbox failure that forced him to sit out most of the session, but he was far luckier than Robert Kubica, who missed the entire 90 minutes thanks to an early fuel leak on his BMW-Sauber.

Practice two - Friday pm

Alonso dominated the afternoon, sitting a second clear of the field - Hamilton included - for much of the session. His teammate eventually closed to within 0.757 seconds, but would end up third after Massa split the McLarens with his final lap.

Having sat out the morning to allow Kazuki Nakajima to run for Williams, Nico Rosberg took a promising sixth in practice two, behind Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld, and just ahead of the optimistic Rubens Barrichello.

Heidfeld was one of many drivers in trouble during the eventful session, as he understeered into the Turn 4 wall but continued without damage.

The same could not be said for Heikki Kovalainen, who mangled his Renault's left front corner in a spectacular incident at Turn 7 - causing a flash of flame from the brake disc as he slammed into the wall.

Jarno Trulli had two suspension breakages at Turn 8, but purely from running over the kerbs. This caused great consternation at Toyota and briefly led to fears that the team would have to pull out of the Grand Prix.

"Things can happen once, but when it happens again you will start thinking twice before you get in a car at a circuit where there are not huge run off areas and high speed corners," said Trulli.

Toyota soon concluded that the problems were specific to that particular corner, and resolved the issue by switching to a more conservative set-up.

Elsewhere, Kubica and Liuzzi's troubled days continued - with the Pole tapping the Turn 8 wall after brake problems contributed to an early spin, and Liuzzi stopping with another gearbox failure.

The low grip conditions saw countless drivers cutting across the grass and run-off areas, but no-one did so with as much style as Adrian Sutil, who somehow kept his Spyker out of the wall despite flying through the air after an error at the last chicane.

The action continued even after the chequered flag, as a disagreement between Scott Speed and Webber ended with the Toro Rosso running into the back of the suddenly-slowing Red Bull exiting Turn 8 on their in-laps.

"I don't know what he was doing - something like that, I've not witnessed since I was in go-karts. Brake testing a Formula One car - that's a new one for me," said Speed.

"I think he was a little bit asleep initially but then we managed to wake each other up," said Webber. "Boys being boys..."

Webber was given an official reprimand, but no penalty, for the incident.

Practice three - Saturday am

The final session was something of a non-event. A messy Formula Ford support race had left the track covered with cement dust, and then as the circuit began to clean up Kovalainen suffered a major engine failure approaching the final chicane, causing a 17-minute-long red flag period.

Hamilton had taken the top spot just before the stoppage, while Alonso's first run ended on the grass after he hit Kovalainen's oil. He took second immediately after the restart, but was later pushed down to third by Raikkonen.

Massa was fourth, while Sato continued Super Aguri's habit of setting eye-opening Saturday morning times in fifth place.

Heidfeld was back in an unaccustomed 19th for BMW - hydraulic problems meaning he only completed five laps.

Practice round up

Sorted by total laps from all three sessions

Qualifying

Part one

Having lost a lot of mileage on this unfamiliar circuit thanks to his crash in second practice and his engine failure in the morning, and knowing that he would lose ten grid positions for his change of V8, Heikki Kovalainen was already disadvantaged going into Q1.

But he then compounded his difficulties by sliding into the Turn 4 wall on his first flying lap. The impact damaged the Renault's floor, ripped the right rear tyre apart and left the rear wing in the middle of the track, but miraculously the suspension was still intact.

As the red flag flew so his debris could be cleared, Kovalainen nursed the car back to the garage, where the remarkable Renault mechanics managed to get the chassis back in shape in time for the rookie to rejoin before the 15 minutes were up.

He managed to jump to 13th with his sole lap, but as others improved that time proved insufficient. Kovalainen duly fell to an eliminated 19th, which would become 22nd when his penalty was applied.

The other big name Q1 departures were eliminated in more prosaic fashion. Ralf Schumacher is becoming reluctantly accustomed to brief qualifying sessions, and for the third Grand Prix in a row he failed the make the first cut, blaming traffic for his 18th position.

Alex Wurz made no excuses for ending up 20th.

"It was just slow, that's it. I'm annoyed with myself and pretty angry," he said.

After an encouraging Monaco, the Spykers fell to the back again, but Mike Gascoyne remained upbeat.

"Although we qualified with both cars on the back row, it's probably true to say that today has been our most competitive of the season," he said. "In both free practice and qualifying we were just two seconds off the pace."

On his circuit debut, Adrian Sutil beat teammate Christijan Albers by 0.6 seconds as the Dutchman struggled with locking brakes.

Anthony Davidson was the sixth driver eliminated, and could consider himself highly unfortunate to miss the cut by a paltry 0.001 seconds - especially he believed he would have found far more than that thousandth had his tyres not grained during the lap.

The McLarens easily moved to the top at the start of the session, but Kimi Raikkonen completed a longer run and ultimately ended up fastest.

Part two

For the first time in Toro Rosso's history, the team got both their cars through to Q2 - and the impressive form continued as Vitantonio Liuzzi secured 12th on the grid, four places ahead of teammate Scott Speed, who struggled with understeer.

They weren't the only 'minnows' with something to celebrate, as Takuma Sato fulfilled the promise he had shown in practice and grabbed 11th on the grid. "Our rightful place," sporting director Graham Taylor suggested.

Not for the first time this season, Sato was comfortably faster than the works Hondas, as Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button took 13th and 15th. While Barrichello was "feeling positive," believing a Q3 place was possible had he not run wide at the hairpin, the downcast Button summarised the session as "shocking, really."

Struggling with glazing brakes and consequently spending more time off the road than on it, David Coulthard had excelled simply to reach Q2. But there was no way he could coax the wayward Red Bull any further and he qualified between the Hondas in 14th.

"One lap, I would brake early and I'd overshoot, while on other laps I'd brake at what I thought was the normal place and the car would stop a lot earlier," Coulthard explained. "It's been a pretty ugly weekend."

Part three

The McLarens had carried their form through Q2, with Hamilton beating Alonso to the top spot by 0.036 seconds, and the inter-team battle continued in the session that really mattered.

Hamilton's first flying lap put him straight onto provisional pole with a 1:16.316, but it was swiftly beaten by Alonso's 1:16.163.

However when it came to the final shoot-out the order was reversed, as Hamilton lowered the benchmark to 1:15.707 on his last lap.

Alonso was fractionally quicker in the first two sectors, but an error at the hairpin cost him critical time and pole position.

"I was running a little bit off-line and put some marbles on the tyres and I lost the grip there and I lost three tenths in that corner," rued the champion.

His teammate was understandably ecstatic, especially given the manner in which he had secured his first F1 pole, and the calibre of his opponent.

"We had to pull it out to the last minute and it's not easy, especially when you have a two-time world champion hunting you down - but I did it," said Hamilton. "I stayed strong today and I owe it all to the team."

For the first time since Melbourne, a driver outside McLaren and Ferrari snuck into the post-qualifying press conference, as Nick Heidfeld took third on the grid - a remarkable achievement given that his first Q2 flying lap had been deleted for cutting the final chicane, and that he had brushed the wall during the session.

"I'm quite sure that we've made a step forward," said Heidfeld. "I hope not just for the weekend, I hope we will continue like that for the rest of the season."

The Ferraris only managed fourth and fifth, with Raikkonen ahead of Felipe Massa for only the second time. Not that the inter-team contest mattered much given the team's under-performance.

"This was a very disappointing qualifying session for us, the worst of the season as we were no match for our main rivals," said Jean Todt with blunt honesty.

Mark Webber equalled his season-best with sixth on the grid for Red Bull, beating Williams' Nico Rosberg by just 0.006 seconds as both proved that their rapid practice times were evidence of genuine pace.

While Heidfeld celebrated, his BMW teammate Robert Kubica was a disgruntled eighth.

"Right from the beginning of the weekend I had problems with the balance of the car, which we could not solve before qualifying," said the Pole. "It stayed the same for today, and there was no grip in the rear."

Compatriots Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli shared row five - the Renault driver frustrated by an error-ridden final lap, while Trulli was relieved to be in the top ten considering his unnerving start to the weekend, and the need to skirt around the Turn 8 kerbs.

Qualifying results

* Heikki Kovalainen dropped to the back of the grid due to an engine change

The Race

Lewis Hamilton's start from pole was not fantastic, and as he approached the first corner he found himself being attacked on the inside by Nick Heidfeld, and on the outside by teammate Fernando Alonso.

While Heidfeld tucked in behind the McLaren before the corner, Alonso inched ahead on the outside - only to brake too late and skitter across the run-off area and grass.

He bounced back onto the track in front, but Hamilton and Heidfeld instantly cruised past, leaving Alonso to slot into third ahead of Felipe Massa, who had passed teammate Kimi Raikkonen off the line.

Raikkonen almost emulated Alonso's error at Turn 1, and then nudged the rear of Massa's car as the Brazilian backed off to avoid Alonso. This allowed Nico Rosberg to accelerate around the outside of Raikkonen and into fifth.

An excellent start by Giancarlo Fisichella took the Renault up to seventh, ahead of Robert Kubica, the slow-starting Mark Webber, and Takuma Sato, who had muscled past Jarno Trulli into the first corner.

The Canadian GP never even began for Jenson Button, as his Honda failed to engage a gear at the start.

"It hasn't been a fantastic weekend, but there is pace in the car on long runs, so it's frustrating we can't even get off the line," he said.

Button left the circuit quickly, not sticking around to watch the chaos that soon began to unfold.

Eager to make the most of a relatively light fuel load, Webber attacked Kubica for eighth into Turn 1 on lap three, getting ahead but carrying too much speed and arriving at Turn 2 backwards.

He got going in 14th, just ahead of Alex Wurz and Scott Speed, who provided the next moment of drama six laps later when the American's probe down the inside of the Williams into Turn 8 saw the Toro Rosso bouncing over Wurz's right rear tyre - leaving Speed with broken suspension and ripping a chunk out of the Williams' rear wing.

At the front, Hamilton knew he had to make the most of his opportunity, and immediately started notching up new fastest laps and established an 11-second lead over Heidfeld, who was under no pressure from Alonso.

Indeed the world champion was battling just to hang onto his third place - taking to the Turn 1 grass again on laps 15 and 19. The second error cost him a position to Massa, and left him under pressure from the impressive Rosberg.

Heidfeld was the first of the leaders to pit on lap 20, with Hamilton coming in from first two laps later. Those stops proved to be hugely significant, for the safety car then made its first appearance on lap 23 after Adrian Sutil thumped the Turn 4 wall.

Under the 2007 regulations, the pits were immediately closed. But Alonso and Rosberg were both due to pit on that lap, and had to choose between incurring a penalty or running out of fuel behind the safety car. They opted for the former, hoping in vain that they might complete service before the pit lane was officially off limits.

Most of the rest of the field, including temporary leader Massa, waited behind the safety car until the pit lane open signal was given two laps later.

That meant that Hamilton and Heidfeld were back up to first and second at the restart, ahead of the soon to be penalised Alonso and Rosberg. They were followed by a string of cars who had eschewed a stop under yellow: Rubens Barrichello in fifth, then David Coulthard, Heikki Kovalainen, Wurz, Anthony Davidson and Ralf Schumacher.

Webber had already made up several positions after his spin, then pitted moments before Sutil's incident, putting him 11th, with Massa 12th and followed by Fisichella, Trulli, Kubica, Raikkonen (who had to queue behind Massa in the Ferrari pit), Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sato and Christijan Albers.

But Massa and Fisichella had already sealed their fate by ignoring the red light at the pit lane exit - which is shown when the safety car train is passing the pits - as they rejoined. A black flag would ultimately await them.

The race resumed on lap 27, but was soon back under caution after the day's most savage incident. Kubica clipped the back of Trulli's Toyota on the kink before the Turn 10 hairpin, sending him onto the grass flat-out.

The BMW became airborne, clipped Speed's parked Toro Rosso, then slammed into the inside wall with horrifying force, before rolling back across the grass and onto the track, sliding upright into the outside barrier and eventually coming to rest on its side in the Turn 10 run-off. Miraculously, given the violence of the initial impact, Kubica escaped virtually unhurt.

During the long safety car period that followed, most of the cars that had not previously pitted made their first stops, with Coulthard completing a perfunctory lap on the super-soft tyres to comply with the regulations before pitting again for the more competitive harder compound, although a gearbox failure six laps later would end his race before the tactic could have an effect.

Trulli and Liuzzi used similar strategies when both were forced to pit and check for damage, the Toro Rosso having been showered with debris from Kubica's disintegrating BMW.

So when the race restarted on lap 33, only Davidson and Schumacher had still not made a pit stop, putting them fifth and sixth on the road behind Hamilton, Heidfeld, Alonso and Rosberg.

The latter pair soon took their penalties, falling to 13th and 16th respectively, and allowing Davidson's Super Aguri to appear in an incredible third place.

But Davidson only held the position for a single lap before he struck a beaver on the approach to the final chicane. The unfortunate animal damaged the Super Aguri's front wing and caused Davidson to lock up and slew into the pit lane, where he caught his crew completely by surprise and lost a minute, before having to pit again for further attention two laps later.

Schumacher ran third until his lap 40 pit stop, which elevated Webber into a potential podium position. The Red Bull was losing 1-2 seconds per lap to Hamilton and Heidfeld, but was able to hold off the chasing Massa and Fisichella, whose disqualification was not announced until lap 51.

Sato had now risen to sixth, having slipped ahead of Raikkonen when the Ferrari - struggling with wing damage from both the first lap contact and stray Kubica debris - ran wide at the hairpin on lap 33.

Alonso was closing in on this pair, setting several new fastest laps as he hacked through the midfield. But Rosberg's recovery had been less successful, the Williams driver spinning in synchrony with Trulli as he tried a pass on the outside of Turn 1 just after he rejoined. No contact was made, but Rosberg lost an additional 26 seconds struggling to engage a gear.

At the front, Hamilton and Heidfeld's progress was a serene contrast to the scruffiness in their wake. The McLaren had established a six-second lead over the BMW, with the rest of the pack half a minute behind.

They then displayed inadvertently sublime timing once again by making their final stops on laps 47 and 48 - two laps before the safety car reappeared after Albers took a destructive trip across the kerbs and grass and scattered lumps of Spyker bodywork across the track at Turn 8.

Hamilton led the queue behind the pace car, while Webber stayed on track and in second, ahead of Heidfeld. With Massa and Fisichella finally receiving their black flags during this caution, Barrichello appeared in fourth, Honda also choosing not to make their final stop at this stage.

Wurz and Liuzzi had fuelled to the finish during the Kubica caution, so advanced to fifth and sixth, followed by Trulli and Kovalainen, the Renault having pitted for the last time on lap 44 after a brief middle stint on super-softs.

Alonso jumped Raikkonen as both stopped under yellow, and they rejoined ninth and 10th, ahead of Schumacher, who pitted at the same time, and Sato - who would benefit from a tactical masterstroke by Super Aguri. He had made his final stop, and taken on the unloved super-softs, moments before the Albers caution, so came in again before the green to revert to softs, giving him a tyre advantage over most of the rest of the remaining runners.

Once again the safety car barely had time to pause before it was required again, as Liuzzi - who had already brushed the wall more than once without damage - crashed at the final chicane on the restart lap.

The closely-following Trulli backed off to avoid the Toro Rosso and lost out to Kovalainen. Alonso tried to follow the Finn on the outside at Turn 1, only to revisit the run-off and fall back behind Raikkonen and Schumacher.

"I had to push as hard as possible because I was stuck in the middle of the field and when you push to the maximum you sometimes go off track but at that stage there was nothing to lose," said the struggling champion.

Meanwhile Trulli's race ended in bizarre fashion when he pitted late in the caution and then crashed at Turn 2 as he hurriedly rejoined the track.

Webber had pitted just after the previous restart, Red Bull's strategy being ruined when the safety car stayed out longer than expected while Albers' debris was tidied.

That put Heidfeld back up to second behind Hamilton when the final sprint began on lap 60, with Barrichello now in third.

But he too would have to pit again, Honda having waited as late as possible to take on the super-softs.

Barrichello's lap 63 stop dropped him to the tail of the field, and allowed Wurz to move into a podium position - an amazing achievement given that he had started 20th, and had been on the super-softs since lap 30.

"To be honest it was hell, so I thank God for the safety cars, because the tyres just grained to bits," said Wurz. "What I did, tactically, was I really scraped the tyres as much as I could, just to get rid of the graining quickly."

Wurz came under pressure from Kovalainen in the closing laps, as both gained on Heidfeld, but the real action was in the battle for the final points.

Alonso had rapidly dispatched Schumacher and looked set for sixth place. The Toyota then came under pressure from Sato, who was flying on the soft tyres.

Sato surged past the Toyota at the last chicane on lap 65, but his charge wasn't over yet - as he proceeded to hunt down the reigning world champion, and then drive around the outside of Alonso's McLaren at the chicane to grab a sensational sixth with three laps remaining.

Given a few more laps, Sato may have stolen fifth place from the troubled Raikkonen as well, for he halved the six second gap before the flag.

Alonso was suffering more than most on the soft tyres, and he only just held onto seventh as Schumacher, Webber, Rosberg and Davidson all queued up behind him on the final lap.

But while one McLaren driver was grappling with the minnows, the other was celebrating an astonishing maiden victory earned through a mixture of speed and composure.

"It's just really hard to grasp everything, it just keeps getting better and better," said Hamilton, who moved eight points clear of Alonso and into sole possession of the championship lead.

"Going into this weekend I really didn't think it would be my time. I thought Fernando was extremely quick here, perhaps he'll be quick this weekend and he'll get the job done.

"But that wasn't the case and I think I was fairly consistent, I drove quite well to keep it out of the wall and going into the race today I just had to knuckle down, keep focused and keep my mind clear and that's what I did."

Hamilton's delight was matched by his fellow podium finishers, for Heidfeld and Wurz had equalled their best ever results, with the Austrian taking Williams' first podium since Monaco 2005.

Fourth place was also a career-best for Kovalainen, and a particularly sweet result given his dreadful build-up to the race, while Super Aguri were again ecstatic after breaking into the top six for the first time.

But the most significant cause for joy was the news that Kubica had escaped his crash virtually unscathed. Because until that fact was confirmed, it looked like Hamilton's inaugural win and Heidfeld, Wurz, Kovalainen and Sato's stunning achievements might be tarnished by a serious injury - or worse - to one of their peers. Instead they could celebrate not only their deserved success, but a truly incredible escape that underlined the astonishing safety standards of modern F1.

Race results

70 laps; 305.270km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1h44:11.292
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +     4.343
 3.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  +     5.325
 4.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +     6.729
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  +    13.007
 6.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    16.698
 7.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    21.936
 8.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +    22.888
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +    22.960
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +    23.984
11.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    24.318
12.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +    30.439

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:16.367

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Trulli        Toyota               (B)    59
Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    55
Massa         Ferrari              (B)    53
Fisichella    Renault              (B)    53
Albers        Spyker-Ferrari       (B)    48
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)    37
Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)    26
Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)    22
Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    10
Button        Honda                (B)    1


World Championship standings, round 6:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      48        1.  McLaren-Mercedes      88
 2.  Alonso        40        2.  Ferrari               60
 3.  Massa         33        3.  BMW Sauber            38
 4.  Raikkonen     27        4.  Renault               21
 5.  Heidfeld      26        5.  Williams-Toyota       13
 6.  Fisichella    13        6.  Toyota                 6
 7.  Kubica        12        7.  Red Bull-Renault       4
 8.  Kovalainen     8        8.  Super Aguri-Honda      4
 9.  Wurz           8
10.  Rosberg        5
11.  Trulli         4
12.  Coulthard      4
13.  Sato           4
14.  R.Schumacher   2

Team-by-Team

MCLAREN-MERCEDES

McLaren have the dominant package again, and amid endless incidents and carnage, Hamilton stays calm and takes his first pole and victory in F1 in commanding style. A slight error on his last qualifying lap leaves Alonso second on the grid, and he drops to third after taking to the grass trying to pass Hamilton at the first corner.

He will later go off another three times and get a stop-go penalty for stopping in a closed pit, ultimately finishing seventh after being passed by Sato with three laps to go.

Kovalainen somehow turnarounds a hellish weekend to come from last to a career-best fourth in the race. He crashed in both practice two and Q1, and had a massive engine failure on Saturday morning, but some sharp overtaking, and a well-executed strategy allows him to make up 18 places in the race.

Fisichella rues errors on his final lap after qualifying ninth. He jumps to sixth at the start and races with Massa until being disqualified for ignoring a red light in the pit exit.

Not a match for McLaren again, Raikkonen and Massa qualify only fourth and fifth and then fail to achieve a podium in the race for the first time in 2007. Raikkonen damages his wing on the back of Massa's car at the start then collects debris from Kubica's accident.

He subsequently understeers his way to a low-key fifth. Massa has a shot at the podium only to be disqualified for disregarding the stop light at the end of the pit lane.

Barrichello sets top ten times in practice and is optimistic about his race chances even after qualifying 13th. He takes advantage of the cautions to run as high as third, before tumbling to 12th when forced to make his last stop under green. Button is less happy with his car and qualifies 15th, then has a gearbox failure on the grid and misses the race.

A difficult weekend precedes a race of incredible highs and lows. Kubica misses first practice with a fuel leak, then has brake problems and a spin in the afternoon, while Heidfeld brushes the wall on Friday and has hydraulic issues in the third session.

He clips the wall again in qualifying and also had a time deleted for cutting the chicane, yet reaches Q3 and qualifies a superb third. Kubica struggles with his set-up and starts eighth. He then has a massive accident in the race after clipping the back of Trulli's Toyota, but escapes without serious injury. Heidfeld holds second for most of the race and is the only man able to get near Hamilton as he gives BMW their first podium of 2007.

A scare on Friday as Trulli has two suspension failures on the Turn 8 kerbs, prompting set-up changes and a conservative approach to the chicane for the rest of the weekend. Despite this he qualifies 10th, while Schumacher blames traffic for his disastrous 18th place.

Trulli runs just outside the top ten early on, then is left shaken after Kubica clips him before flying into the wall. He pits for repairs, spins while trying to fend off Rosberg, then crashes in the pit lane exit. Schumacher stays out of trouble and uses a long first stint to run as high as third before finishing eighth.

Webber is fast in practice and takes sixth on the grid, but loses places at the start and then spins trying to pass Kubica. Makes his first stop before the first safety car and eventually ends up running third as a result, but then has to make his second pit visit just after the third yellow and consequently finishes just outside the points in ninth. Coulthard grapples with brake problems and qualifies 14th, then has a gearbox failure in the race.

Rosberg is substantially faster than Wurz throughout practice and qualifying, taking seventh on the grid compared to his teammate's unhappy 20th. But the roles are reversed in the race. Rosberg runs fifth at first but is penalised for stopping in a closed pit.

He then spins in company with Trulli while fighting back, and loses more time when his gears refuse to engage. Finishes an unrepresentative 10th. Wurz stops just once, then gets incredible mileage out of the super-soft tyres to move up as others pit and falter and earn a remarkable third place.

Speed loses hit front wing in a dust-up with Webber after the chequered flag in second practice, while Liuzzi stops with gearbox problems in both Friday sessions. Despite these disruptions, STR get two cars into Q2 for the first time ever, with Liuzzi 12th and Speed 16th. Both crash in the race - Speed breaking his suspension on Wurz's Williams when fighting for 15th, and Liuzzi hitting the chicane wall when fifth on lap 55.

Sutil beats Albers to 21st in qualifying as Spyker slump to last again, albeit within two seconds of the pace. Albers has to start from the pit lane thanks to gearbox problems, then runs mostly alone until a front wing issue contributes to several trips off the road and he tires. Sutil crashes at Turn 4 on lap 22.

Another remarkable performance from the promising team, who show real pace in practice again. Unexpected tyre graining leaves Davidson 17th on the grid, but a wise strategy helps him to run as high as third in the race before he strikes a beaver on the circuit and has to pit for repairs.

Sato is on the periphery of the top ten throughout the GP, having qualified strongly in 11th. Reverting to the soft tyres during the final caution turns out to be a masterstroke, putting Sato in a position to take on and pass Alonso for sixth at the end.

Lap-by-Lap

Pre-race: Christijan Albers does not take 21st place on the grid but remains in the pits.

Mark Webber spun his Red Bull trying to pass the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica © XPB/LAT

Lap 1: On pole position for the first time in Formula One, Lewis Hamilton is almost beaten to the first corner by team-mate Fernando Alonso but the Spaniard runs wide across the grass at Turn One and slips back to third, behind Nick Heidfeld.

Felipe Massa slots into fourth ahead of Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen, Giancarlo Fisichella, Robert Kubica, Mark Webber, Takuma Sato, Jarno Trulli, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Alexander Wurz, Scott Speed, Anthony Davidson, Heikki Kovalainen, Ralf Schumacher, Adrian Sutil and the late-starting Albers.

Jenson Button is left on the grid and pushed to the pits.

Lap 2: Hamilton extends his lead to 2.1s. Alonso is still tucked behind Heidfeld.

Lap 3: Kovalainen passes Davidson for 17th.

Lap 4: Webber spins at Turn One and drops to 15th.

Lap 5: Hamilton leads by 3.2s. Albers clips a wall but continues.

Lap 6: Webber breezes past Coulthard.

Lap 7: Hamilton posts a 1:16.744 to extend his lead to 4.6s.

Lap 8: Webber passes Barrichello.

Lap 9: Speed hits Wurz and pulls off with bent front-left suspension.

Lap 10: Hamilton leads by 7.7s.

Lap 12: Kovalainen passes Wurz for 15th.

Lap 15: Alonso runs onto the grass at Turn One.

Lap 19: Alonso again runs wide at Turn One and slips to fourth, behind Massa.

Lap 20: Heidfeld makes the race's first scheduled stop.

Lap 21: Hamilton pits, as does Webber. The lapped Sutil crashes and stops by the edge of the track. The Safety Car is subsequently deployed.

Scott Speed clashed with Alex Wurz and retired soon after © XPB/LAT

Lap 23: Alonso and Rosberg pit.

Lap 25: Massa, Fisichella, Kubica, Trulli, Raikkonen, Liuzzi, Sato and Albers pit.

Lap 27: Race restarts, with Hamilton leading Heidfeld, Alonso, Rosberg, Barrichello, Coulthard, Kovalainen, Wurz, Davidson, Schumacher, Webber and Massa. Kubica crashes heavily on the run to the hairpin. The Safety Car is deployed again. Coulthard and Fisichella pit.

Lap 28: Alonso and Rosberg are handed penalties for stopping before the pit lane opened during the first Safety Car period.

Lap 29: Trulli pits as the field continues behind the Safety Car.

Lap 30: On the road, Hamilton leads from Heidfeld, Alonso, Rosberg, Davidson, Schumacher, Webber, Massa, Fisichella, Raikkonen, Sato, Albers and Kovalainen. Barrichello, Wurz, Coulthard, Liuzzi and Trulli pit.

Lap 31: Coulthard pits again.

Lap 32: Liuzzi pits again.

Lap 34: Restart. Hamilton pulls 3.1s clear. Raikkonen runs wide at the hairpin and loses 10th to Sato.

Lap 36: Hamilton posts a 1:16.543 to lead by 4.4s. Alonso and Rosberg serve their penalty stops. Coulthard and Liuzzi pass Trulli.

Lap 37: Davidson pits but the team isn't ready. Coulthard pits to retire.

Lap 38: Trulli and Rosberg spin together at Turn One.

Lap 39: Davidson pits again.

Lap 40: Schumacher is the last driver to make his first stop.

Lap 42: Alonso passes Kovalainen for eighth. Barrichello passes Albers for 10th.

Takuma Sato passed both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso late in the race © XPB/LAT

Lap 44: Kovalainen pits.

Lap 45: Chasing after Raikkonen, Alonso posts a 1:16.395s. Schumacher passes Albers.

Lap 46: Alonso laps in 1:16.367.

Lap 47: Heidfeld pits.

Lap 48: Hamilton pits, as do Fisichella and Albers, who has lost his nose after running across the grass. The Dutchman retires.

Lap 49: Rosberg pits.

Lap 50: Sato pits. Safety Car deployed to allow Albers's debris to be cleared.

Lap 51: Fisichella and Massa are black-flagged for having earlier jumped a red light in the pit lane.

Lap 52: Massa and Fisichella pit.

Lap 53: Alonso, Raikkonen, Schumacher and Sato pit. Alonso and Raikkonen exit as one - and the Spaniard gets ahead.

Lap 54: Webber pits.

Lap 55: Restart. Hamilton pulls 2.2s clear of Heidfeld. Liuzzi slides off at the final chicane.

Lap 56: Alonso revisits the grass at Turn One and loses a couple of places. The Safety Car comes out for the fourth time because of Liuzzi's accident.

Lap 57: Hamilton leads Heidfeld, Barrichello, Wurz, Kovalainen, Trulli, Raikkonen, Schumacher, Alonso, Sato, Webber, Rosberg and Davidson.

Alex Wurz was on the podium at the circuit where he made his Formula One debut 10 years ago © XPB/LAT

Lap 58: Trulli pits then crashes almost as soon as he rejoins.

Lap 61: Restart. Hamilton leads by 1.3s, Alonso passes Schumacher for seventh.

Lap 63: Barrichello pits.

Lap 66: Sato passes Schumacher for seventh. He is now catching Alonso, whose pace has dropped significantly.

Lap 68: Sato passes Alonso for sixth.

Lap 70: Hamilton scores his maiden Formula One victory at the sixth attempt. He beats Heidfeld by 4.3s. Wurz is a distant third from Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Sato, Alonso and Schumacher.