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Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber F1 Team) has achieved his first ever Grand Prix
victory after using a soft - soft - super soft Bridgestone Potenza tyre
strategy in the seventh round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the
Canadian Grand Prix.
Kubica started from the front row and maintained his second position in the
early stages of the race. He gained an advantage when early race leader
Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) made a mistake and drove into the
back of Kimi Raikkonen (Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro), who had stopped at a red
light at the pit exit. Both drivers retired from the race.
Kubica faced a battle for the race win with team-mate Nick Heidfeld, who
used a different tyre strategy of soft - super soft, making just one pit
stop to Kubica's two. Kubica prevailed and led his team-mate across the line
by 16.4seconds at the chequered flag.
David Coulthard (Red Bull Racing) finished in third place, making his first
podium appearance since the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006. Timo Glock (Panasonic
Toyota Racing) scored his first points since his Formula One race debut, in
Canada in 2004. Felipe Massa made three pit stops on his way to fifth
position, whilst Jarno Trulli (Panasonic Toyota Racing) finished sixth.
Rubens Barrichello (Honda Racing F1 Team) finished seventh, and Sebastian
Vettel (Scuderia Toro Rosso) scored the final championship point.
Drivers faced a challenging afternoon, and an eventful race. After track
surface problems on Saturday, sections of the circuit were resurfaced that
evening. However, there were continuing issues in the race, with the track
breaking up. Despite this, tyre performance from the soft and super soft
compound Bridgestone Potenzas was strong. The race's fastest lap, a 1min
17.387secs, was set by Kimi Raikkonen (Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro) on lap 14,
using the super soft compound.
Leaving Montreal, Kubica leads the drivers' championship with 42 points,
ahead of Hamilton in second on 38 points, with Massa in third on the same
points tally. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro continue to lead the constructors'
championship with 73 points, ahead of the BMW Sauber F1 Team on 70. Vodafone
McLaren Mercedes are in third place on 53. Formula One will next be in
action on June 20-22 with the Grand Prix du France at Magny Cours, where
Bridgestone's medium and soft compound Potenza tyres will be used.
Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development,
said:
"Congratulations to Robert Kubica and BMW Sauber on their first win.
Bridgestone have a big factory in Poland, and Robert's win today was a very
good present for our employees there. It was a fantastic drive, especially
at the track where he had such a big accident last year. For BMW Sauber,
achieving the win and second place was a perfect result. Despite the
difficult track conditions, tyre performance was good and we did not see any
of the issues we experienced here last year. The track breaking-up made
matters difficult for drivers, and at turn 10 in particular, we saw a number
of mistakes because of this." |
