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What an afternoon! The Canadian
Grand Prix must have made good television because there was lots going on
the whole time. Early in the race I thought I was set for a good result
because I was running fifth and the car felt really good, but then the
Safety Car came out on lap 21...
 I
had to stop for fuel on lap 23, which meant I missed the re-fuelling window
by 13 seconds and that effectively ended my race. New rules punish people
who pit immediately after the Safety Car comes out, so I was given a 10s
stop-go penalty and all I could manage after that was 10th place.
On a positive note, Montreal was a good race for AT&T Williams because Alex
[Wurz] finished third. He proved that the FW29 was a quick race car around
the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and he contributed six valuable points to the
Constructors Championship.
Away from the track I enjoyed my time in Canada. I flew to Montreal via
Ottawa in order to take in an NHL game, which was great fun. I've been a
hockey fan since I used to play it as a kid and it was great to see the
professional game live. I then met Vincent Lecavalier, the captain of the
Tampa Bay Lightning NHL team, on race day, and we had fun chatting about our
respective sports.
Montreal is a great place and I'm told it's the second biggest
French-speaking city in the world, after Paris. That's as maybe, but the
French accent that the locals have is really weird! It just sounds very
funny, and is very different to the French that is spoken in France.
I didn't get much of a chance to explore the city because I had a lot of PR
functions to attend in the evenings, starting on Wednesday with the Canadian
launch of my Nico Rosberg limited edition Oris watch. PR is part of my job,
but it was a pity that I couldn't explore a little because the shopping’s
great. I want to return to Europe with a really nice present for my
girlfriend Vivienne, and I've now got to rely on the American mid-west to
get what I need…
While in Montreal, I also watched a lot of the tennis from Roland Garros.
The victories of Justine Henin and Raphael Nadal were stunning and they
reminded me why I love the game so much. I used to play it very seriously,
but I wasn't tall enough to progress higher up the ladder and now it's just
part of my training regime. The hand-eye coordination that you need in
tennis is useful for driving. |
