Grand Prix Du Canada

[Schumikonen 2]

Stevenson highly critical of Canada driving standards

Force India's team manager Andy Stevenson has hit out at Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica's 'ridiculous' and 'crazy' driving in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, after his drivers' races were ruined by them in two separate incidents. Despite the two setbacks in the first 30 laps, Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil recovered to ninth and tenth places respectively to record their second double points finish of the season.

At the beginning of the race, sixth-place Liuzzi was pushed onto the grass at the first corner by the fast-starting Felipe Massa, before the pair made further contact at the second corner, requiring both to pit on the following lap for repairs. Then at the end of lap 26, Robert Kubica caused Sutil a right-rear puncture after making a dangerous lunge into the pitlane, with Sutil narrowly avoiding a high-speed shunt.

Speaking on the team's official podcast, Stevenson was less than impressed at the standard of driving. “I'm personally very disappointed at the standard of driving I've seen today because it did ruin what could have happened to us,” said Stevenson. “You only have to go down to the stewards' room now - there's a few drivers in there having to explain away their actions.”

Although Massa wasn't called in front of the stewards for the first-lap dramas, Kubica had to appear at a post-race hearing. Although he wasn't penalised, he was given an official reprimand by the four-man panel, meaning he kept his seventh place finish ahead of both Liuzzi and Sutil.

Stevenson describes in detail what happened to Liuzzi at the first two corners: “At the start of the race, Tonio got a pretty good start, he was making ground on Jenson [button], but Massa on the inside of him had a very good start. He was very unfair into the first corner and left no room at all for Tonio, actually pushed him onto the grass, and all Tonio was trying to do was keep on track and go around turns 1 and 2.

“I've only see the incident once on the TV but it looks like Massa had another couple of bites at him as well and if you see the car, it looks like the shark has attacked it. It's ridiculous, there's little bits and pieces missing all over the place,” continued Andy.

“Eventually it led to Tonio spinning out and he was basically at the back of the field. He came in, we changed the nose, gave him a fresh set of tyres but the car was pretty damaged so he was always going to be on the back foot which is why it is an incredible result.”

Having been 23rd at the end of the first lap, Liuzzi fought hard and rose to ninth on the final lap after overtaking Michael Schumacher. He was followed home by team-mate Sutil who had endured a similarly disappointing race after suffering a puncture following contact with Kubica.

Stevenson explains: “He was, from ninth, having a great battle with Kubica. We knew he was making a pitstop because we could see his pitcrew already in the pitlane with the tyres out and when Adrian started to challenge him down the back straight Kubica seemed to want to fight him off, for some reason, and I just don't understand what he was trying to do.

“He then decided to pull in behind Adrian and then coming into the pitlane - you can brake a lot later - he pulled out across in front of Adrian again and shot straight across him into the last corner. It was one of the most ridiculous moves I've ever seen and if it hadn't been for Adrian's sharpness, that would have been a huge accident going into the last corner.

“It was crazy and it ruined Adrian's race because it also caused him a puncture on his right rear where Robert caught him. So Adrian came onto the radio going down the start/finish straight saying that he'd picked up a puncture, and unfortunately had to do a whole lap before he could get to us and we could change it which caused a hell of a lot of damage to the car and again compromised his race.”

Had Kubica not tangled with Sutil, the German would likely have finished in sixth place, ahead of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg and Kubica himself.

[JHS 1]

Another very good race. I just laugh at the things I heard after Bahrain where everybody was basically counting F1 out and saying it was going to be the most boring year since time began, etc, etc. But look at that, we've been treated to some really great races so far this year. Long may it continue! Well, it won't continue for Valencia of course, but....

[Pucky the Whale 0]

The Grand Prix du Canada drew a .9 in the United States, meaning an estimated 2,763,000 U.S. viewers tuned in to watch the race. Good? Not even close, but consider that IndyCar draws around a .3 in the U.S. (921,000 viewers). In previous years, F1 on national TV drew around a .4 (1,228,000 viewers), so a .9 is a huge gain for the sport. Progress for F1 in regards to the U.S. market, then. Perhaps the combination of being on national TV, the announcement of the Austin Grand Prix, and to an extremely lesser extent the talk about Parris Mullins buying Sauber have generated some interest. Either that or NASCAR fans didn't realize NASCAR's moved to TNT for the summer and put FOX on expecting their rodeo

Another very good race. I just laugh at the things I heard after Bahrain where everybody was basically counting F1 out and saying it was going to be the most boring year since time began, etc, etc. But look at that, we've been treated to some really great races so far this year. Long may it continue! Well, it won't continue for Valencia of course, but....

As bad as I expected? Nope. But I've still found this season to be missing something to the point I just don't feel like watching any of the races (so I don't, with Montréal being the exception). I can't quite figure out what, though. Maybe it's just me and not the sport; it just feels like the worst season I've watched. That said, it was a good race and I'm glad I watched.

Glad the sport's true fans are enjoying it, though.

[Rainmaster 7]

The Grand Prix du Canada drew a .9 in the United States, meaning an estimated 2,763,000 U.S. viewers tuned in to watch the race. Good? Not even close, but consider that IndyCar draws around a .3 in the U.S. (921,000 viewers). In previous years, F1 on national TV drew around a .4 (1,228,000 viewers), so a .9 is a huge gain for the sport. Progress for F1 in regards to the U.S. market, then. Perhaps the combination of being on national TV, the announcement of the Austin Grand Prix, and to an extremely lesser extent the talk about Parris Mullins buying Sauber have generated some interest. Either that or NASCAR fans didn't realize NASCAR's moved to TNT for the summer and put FOX on expecting their rodeo

As bad as I expected? Nope. But I've still found this season to be missing something to the point I just don't feel like watching any of the races (so I don't, with Montréal being the exception). I can't quite figure out what, though. Maybe it's just me and not the sport; it just feels like the worst season I've watched. That said, it was a good race and I'm glad I watched.

Glad the sport's true fans are enjoying it, though.

Maybe watching more than a couple of races would help you figure what the season is missing Seriously, this season has been extremely good so far imo, much better than last year already, and probably better than 2008 too.