Report cards from the Canadian Grand Prix

Exciting race as usual at Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, which returns to the calendar after a year's absence. Second consecutive McLaren one-two, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Jenson Button and the revived Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. Only fourth and fifth were the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber, Massa disaster. Race profoundly affected by excessive tire wear. Enjoy the reading!

Jenson Button: 9nd – Relentless as a tax inspector, annoying as a toothache, solid as a reinforced concrete wall. But above all as effective as a Canadian woodcutter - while we're here... - in front of a redwood forest. He suffers in qualifying, when he closes a gap on Hamilton, but in the race he emerges by exploiting his usual proverbial vision of the race and above all his ability to drive cleanly with minimal stress on the tyres. As the laps progress he lets the race come to him and, when he understands that it is time to attack, he takes advantage of Alonso's indecision with a lapped move to make his move and climb into second place. He even catches up with Hamilton, but then they probably make him understand that there's no point in exaggerating and he finishes in second place. The usual performance all brains and concreteness. He needs to improve in qualifying, though. Concrete.

Lewis Hamilton: 10 – There are cerebral pilots, who study settings and technical solutions, who calculate all the variables and try to minimize the risks. And then there are drivers who race, always and in any case. The so-called racer. Well, Lewis is one of these, someone who always goes on the attack no matter what. The first round of pit stops sends him behind Alonso and what does he do? He passes it with malice, taking advantage of the duel with Buemi. Webber also passes - again for first place - and controls Button's attacks at the end of the race - after having held off Alonso in the first part - until the victory. A monstrous determination, a crystalline talent, a simply spectacular pole position. The Canadian performance deserves top marks. Racerin fact.

Michael Schumacher: 5 – Rejected without appeal, alas. She missed the qualification, made up for it with a strong first part of the race - the overtaking on Sutil was nice - but then ran in a dispersive yet spirited manner. He had a spectacular duel with Kubica coming out of the pits, but in the end he overdid it and got a puncture that sent him almost to the back of the group. From there he tries to recover but struggles to overtake - even if he manages one on Buemi - and puts too much strain on the tyres. The result? At the end of the race he has the covers on the canvases and has to think about defending his position from attacks from those coming from behind. With Buemi he doesn't succeed, with Massa he manages in a questionable way to say the least - almost sending him against the wall -, with Liuzzi he has to give in again following an insistent, splendid action by the Italian. He finishes eleventh, just outside the points. A lot of grit, a lot of combativeness, but -unfortunately- a lot of mistakes. Generous..

Nico Rosberg: 7th – Eat a good dose of chamomile before starting and the results are visible. In fact, at the start he lost many positions but remained calm and calm, avoiding making mistakes. A strategy that, in a race in which almost everyone made mistakes, he can only pay for. Drive on the eggs trying to contain the graining, not looking for miracles but using your head. And the sixth place finish is the best reward for an intelligent and judicious race conduct. After a couple of subdued grands prix he finds the right shine, even if from now on fighting against McLaren and Red Bull will be increasingly difficult for Mercedes. Wait.

Sebastian Vettel: 7,5st – Half a point more because from mid-race onwards he finds himself struggling with a temperamental gearbox that is on the verge of breaking. In qualifying he takes them again from Webber and finds himself on the front row only by virtue of the fragility of the gears of his teammate's Red Bull. He diversifies his strategy compared to Hamilton and the choice seems to pay off. But then after his stop he returned to the track in fourth place and from there his race was all about defence, also due to the aforementioned gearbox problems. He complains about problems with dubbing, but it smacks of a political excuse. He finished in fourth place, making up ground on Webber in the championship but still not fully convincing. Shy.

Mark Webber: 8 – Luckily he hasn't been shining lately. In Istanbul his teammate pounces on him, in Montreal he places the Red Bull on the front row but finds himself starting seventh. Let's say that at this moment his ascendant is more descendant than ever - and sorry for the terrifying joke - but he is good at making the best of a bad situation. The overtaking of Button in the early stages of the race was gritty, his second stint was great and put him in the lead. But then his tires also give out and he is powerless against Hamilton's return. Perhaps with a different strategy, anticipating the last stop, he could have obtained a better result than the fifth place finish. But he limits the damage and above all has no responsibility of any kind. Seraphic.

Felipe Massa: 5 – His race is more like a bumper car ride than a Grand Prix. And, objectively, it's not even all his fault. But he certainly isn't immune from responsibility either. At the start he goes looking for it a bit, slipping between Button and Liuzzi, especially when - in the second phase of the contact - he attacks Force India with a malice that is - if we want to be honest - frankly unjustified. Violence is fine, but well... he replaces the nose and ends up at the back of the group. He happens to be behind Tonio's Force India. He follows him like a shadow without managing to overtake him until the 49th lap, when he finally overtakes him. Then he tries with Schumacher - let's be naughty: who knows how long he will have waited for this moment - but the German pushes him against the wall without too many compliments. Another broken nose, another pit stop, another lap, another race. He finishes fifteenth. Was he unlucky? Well, a little yes. Could he have put a little more attention into it? Definitely yes. Distracted.

Fernando Alonso: 8,5th – There is a lot of its own in Ferrari's newfound competitiveness in Canada. Very good in qualifying, he was lucky in the race when the mechanics allowed him to overtake Hamilton after the first stop. He attacks Buemi for first position but gets fooled by Lewis, who is good at exploiting the situation. At the end of the race practically the same thing happens, but instead of Buemi there is a lapped driver and instead of Hamilton there is Button. Making mistakes - if we can speak of making mistakes - is human, persevering... But when you fight with cars with 10 km/h more top speed, it's actually hard to resist. Doubly threaded, therefore, but with reservations. He finishes in third place, a good podium for the standings but - above all - for the morale of the team. And now we go to his house, in Spain. Tough.

Rubens Barrichello: 5 – At the start he sprints like a turtle and loses positions, then he gets into a fight with Algersuari - a 2g impact, he declares. It seems a bit much to us, but who knows - and it loses the wing and above all the functionality of the brakes, which overheat and lose efficiency. In these conditions it is difficult to do well, and in fact it doesn't happen. It's a shame, because all in all the Williams wasn't doing too badly on the Montreal walls and could have taken home a few points. But whoever is the cause of his pain, says a proverb, should cry for himself. And from a pilot with his experience, certain contacts seem frankly unacceptable to us. Unrestrained (in the original meaning).

Nico Hulkenberg: 4,5 – It is always said that in modern Formula 1 the car counts more than the driver. Well, go explain that to Patrick Head after the Canadian Grand Prix. If Rubens wastes, Nico literally throws away the possibility of taking home some points. First when he shows too much interest in the rear of Sutil's Force India, literally getting into him, then when he exceeds the speed limit in the pits and gets a drive through. If we wanted to be generous, it could have been better. He also manages to keep up with his teammate, an insignificant detail if we consider that we are talking about 14th and 15th positions, but not negligible if we consider that Barrichello also had his own problems. We are not. Voyeur.

Robert Kubica: 8 – More than a race, it is a battle, or rather a war. With the tyres, with the car, with the opponents. And he wins it, much more than the seventh place finish suggests. He runs out of tires almost immediately, and coming out of the first stop he rotates with Michael Schumacher - not just any - coming out with his bones intact and indeed keeping the German behind with determination. Similar situation after the second stop, this time with another German, Sutil, but same result: another strong move from the opponent - with an entry into the pits that to define as dangerous is euphemistic - and again a good defensive manoeuvre. He catches up to Rosberg but can't pass him, but all in all it's more than good. The vote is perhaps excessive, but in a race in which almost everyone made mistakes Robert managed not to make any mistakes despite having run with a knife between his teeth. Warrior.

Vitaly Petrov: 4 – «His race is still positive and - we're going out of our way - it could be the surprise of the Canadian GP». We wrote this fifteen days ago. We definitely didn't get it. Let's go from memory: at the start he collides with a BMW and ends up going out, damaging the front wing. He returns to the pits to change it and, in the meantime, gets a drive through for an early start. And, since misfortunes are like the Carabinieri and always travel in pairs, he also gets a further penalty for speeding in the pits. He finishes 17th after two laps. Anything else to add? He would shoot on the red cross. It just wasn't there in my head. Terrifying.

Adrian Sutil: 7 – Score a point, which is better than nothing. But there are many regrets, because Force India was definitely worth more. He starts well and fights close to the top five. Then his path crosses with that of Kubica, resulting in a great duel - indeed a decidedly dangerous one - in which he comes out on top and finds himself with a flat tyre. He has to go one lap before returning to the pits and loses a lot of time. He fights like a lion with Hulkenberg, he also touches the German but manages to pass him and, at the last corner, he also gets the better of Michael Schumacher. He wasted an opportunity, but he still made us have fun and that's why we are generous. Generous.

Vitantonio Liuzzi: 8 – Mythological in qualifying, when he climbs up to sixth place, he sees everything in vain when Massa crashes into him and, above all, he attacks his Force India with unusual violence, sending him into a spin. The pit stop to repair the damage sends him to the rear of the group and recovering from there is tough. He slowly climbs up positions and then, on the last lap, he gives himself a stunning overtaking move against Michael Schumacher. An action that we liked for its determination, imagination and stubbornness. And, given that he has little responsibility in the contact at the start, the vote is all there. Rocky.

Sebastien Buemi: 8,5 – He leaves Montreal with four points in his pocket, with one lap leading the race and with a nice overtaking on Michael Schumacher in mind. This would be enough to describe his race. The team gets the strategy right and he drives with determination without making any mistakes, allowing himself to resist Alonso and Hamilton in a tough but correct manner. And in the final stages of the race, even with the tires not in perfect working order, he overtook the 7-time world champion to secure the eighth final place. Very good, also because in a race like the Canadian one, experience counted a lot and he - although young - put on a performance like a consummate professional. Mature.

Jaime Alguersuari: 5,5 – Unlike his teammate, he doesn't impress, keeping a safe distance from the positions that count and trying above all not to cause damage. And in fact it takes him a long time to find the ideal race pace - he sets his best lap on the penultimate lap - and when he wakes up it is too late to climb higher than twelfth place. He is only included in the picture when he was overtaken by Michael Schumacher. But at least he brings the car home without even a scratch and accumulates km that will come in handy. Insufficient, but not by much. Prudent.

Jarno Trulli: 6 – Enough encouragement after yet another troubled weekend for the Abruzzo native. In practice he didn't run much, always plagued by problems of various kinds, but in the race he was among the first to stop to change tyres, using an overall aggressive strategy. However, every effort was thwarted by his retirement on lap 47, which as usual prevented him from completing a race. He is putting together a series of bad luck that would make Chris Amon pale. Let's hope they don't demotivate him. The sufficiency - plus a pat on the back - is above all to cheer him up. Courage!

Heikki Kovalainen: 7 – Sixteenth at the finish line, between Massa's Ferrari and Petrov's Renault. Not bad. If we then add that at a certain point he even sails in seventh position and allows himself to resist Jenson Button for more than one lap, well the applause - applause, let's go... - it all goes away. He puts practically everything he has into it, the determination, the desire to do well, the inventiveness, everything. Then of course, Lotus is what it is, but certain exploits must be rewarded. Also because the move from McLaren to Lotus would knock out a bull, but he doesn't feel the slightest drop in motivation, on the contrary. Stainless.

Karun Chandhok: 6 – Nice last in qualifying, in the race he takes away the challenge - if we can say so - of keeping both Virgins behind. And if you please. Of course, upon closer inspection we discover that both rivals have suffered various types of problems, so everything is reduced a bit. But he does it, or at least he tries, he doesn't break anything and diligently brings the car to the finish line - in a race full of dangers of all kinds - while also lapping faster than Di Grassi in the race. Expecting more would be objectively unrealistic. Modest.

Bruno Senna: sv – His race lasts just 26 laps, until the gearbox decides that second gear is not needed and that it can be done without. Obviously this is not the case, and withdrawal is the only solution. The only other news item is the contact with Glock at the start, which damages the rear axle. Unjustifiable (but with a virtual pinch of ear...).

Pedro De La Rosa: 6 – At the start he was the innocent victim of the acrobatic maneuvers of Petrov's Renault, which forced him to spin and stop to replace the front wing. He throws himself back into the fray, passes Trulli, recovers ground but on lap 32 the Ferrari engine says enough and he is forced to pull over to the right and get out, like an examinee who has failed the practical test for his driving licence. Impossible to rage after this umpteenth withdrawal. Jelly.

Kamui Kobayashi: 4,5 – Not happy with all the premature retirements accumulated due to mechanical failures, this time he decides to do his bit by smearing himself on the champions' wall - a few meters before, to be honest - and thus putting an end to his race after not even one lap. In a Grand Prix like the Canadian one, where surprises are the order of the day and anything can happen, finishing out shortly after the start is an unforgivable sin. Villainous.

Timo Glock: 6 – Sufficiency is based on trust. He was in fact rear-ended at the start by Senna and said that the car, in doing so, lost a lot of downforce for the rest of the race. If this is the case, it is impossible to accuse him. He even makes five (!!!) pit stops, but by doing so his race doesn't suddenly take a positive direction. On lap 50 he abandons the company due to a steering failure. We don't believe he cried bitter tears over this. Let alone us. But we don't feel like rejecting it. Centered (rear).

Lucas Di Grassi: 5 – Less effective than Glock in qualifying, less fast than him in the race, last at the finish line. It's true that he drives a Virgin, sure, but he could have done a little better, right? At the end of the race he suffered a loss of hydraulic pressure which forced him - in his words - to slow down in order to finish the race. We don't think the story would have been that different, actually, but oh well. In any case, he brings the car to the finish line without causing any damage, accumulating km and experience. You always have to look on the bright side of things, right? Also because if we only looked at the negative ones... The rating is the average of these two souls. Slow.

Manuel Codignoni
www.f1grandprix.it