Ressurgent Raikkonen rocks Montreal

Reversal of Fortunes

The last images that a die-hard McLaren fan would remember from Nurburgring would be the moist eyes of a dissapointed young colt, Raikkonen, who after a dramatic right-wing suspension breakage retired the Nurburgring race, thus handing the trophy to Alonso on a platter. But all that was to change and the Grand Prix du Canada at the 'Circuit Gilles Villeneuve' witnessed a reversal of fortunes for the McLaren driver.

The race started spectacularly with both Renaults shooting out of the second row of the grid in a pincer movement, rattling past the BAR of Jensen Button whose car would not take off from first gear and an unusually slow Ferrari. The smile on Briatore's face said it all. The Renault's were carrying fuel unlike the BAR and the Ferrari and a shoot out at the start only proved to him that his machines were faster. But fast that they were, they couldnt hold it for long, as Fissichella retired with a mechanical failure and Alonso made a rare mistake walling the R25 into turn four and damaging his rear suspension, leading to retirement. This makes Canada the only race where the Renault's have failed to finish, still managing to hang on to the Constructor's top slot, although McLaren are much closer than the Renault's would have anticipated them to be.

The belleagured Ferrari's would go home with their snouts held high, after seeing two of their racers in what would have been a familiar sight last season. The Ferrari's though had a lot of luck, with Schumacher able to close a thirty second gap between himself and the McLaren's; courtesy Jensen Button. The 47-th lap crash happened after Jensen Button got his tyres dirty, went into a wide swoop off the hairpin, locked his rears momentarily and understeed a tad too much at the final chicane and hit the wall off the kerb. The yellow flag was waved and the safety car came out, meaning that the precious thirty seconds that the McLaren's had gained over the others was reduced to zero. To make matters worse, race leader Montoya was just ahead of the pits, making it an advantage for Schumacher and Raikkonen who pitted like clock work. A defiant Montoya raced into the pits and out of it, not aware of the red-lights at the pits and was soon given the black flag.

Massa proved impressive, managing to come in fourth, getting much needed points for team boss Peter Sauber. The Brazilian managed to fend off Mark Webber and would have made it to the podium if the prancing horse of Barichello had not taken advantage of a wide running Webber and his own delayed Sauber.

Villeneuve, the famous son of a famous father, Gilles, after whom the scenic Montreal circuit is named made early noise with a good qualifying lap, but then found his start-line software erroneous and his race hopes died completely when he crashed into the rear of Takuma Sato damaging his own nose in the process. Peter Sauber wouldnt be happy and we could soon see Villeneuve out of a drive.

The Toyota's who have finished in the points in every race this season, found their tally a lot lower after Trulli crashed out of a potential podium position and Ralf Schumacher just managing to finish in points. The Williams combine and the Toyota's are now tied at 47 for third position, with a ressurgent Ferrari right behind them at 45.

A bad race for BAR Honda, who after a perfect pole winning lap from Button, found themselves poised for their first points this season. But unfortunately for them, neither could Button or Sato finish the race, leave alone landing in the points. Narain Karthikeyan would have to blush again in front of the Jordan bosses, not managing to finish the race, first spinning out to give his team mate a lead on lap 7 and later crashing into the wall at turn four in the same fashion that Alonso did. Albers, who seems to be having a good time in the past three races landed 11th though his team mate Friesacher could not finish the race.

Overall, a superb race for the McLarens and also the Ferrari's who finally seem to be moving in the right direction. If anything is to be noted from this race, its Raikkonen's little nugget of a comment, saying that the Montreal circuit had been a bogey for his team. Had Montoya finished the race, Indianapolis may well be witnessing a change of duty at the Contructor's castle. The Renault's must be raring to go, putting behind their backs the thought of a perfect Kimi Raikkonen who is just twenty-two points adrift of Alonso for the driver's title.

Waiting for the red lights to go off in a weeks' time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.