Champ Car champion unable to cope with crumbling Montreal track.

While Scuderia Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastian Vettel was making his way through the field from pit-lane to points, the Canadian Grand Prix was not such a happy 'homecoming' for Sebastien Bourdais, the only finisher to take the chequered flag a lap down.

While it could be claimed that the four-time Champ Car champion's problems started on Saturday morning, when he glanced the wall at the first chicane and then struggled in qualifying, going out at the first hurdle when Friday had suggested better, he insisted that race day was a nightmare all of its own.

Bourdais was no stranger to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, as he has been at some others this season, but never got into a rhythm in the 70-lap encounter, complaining more than most about the track surface. The tarmac, as has become almost a tradition at the Canadian Grand Prix, began to break up during qualifying on Saturday, but overnight repairs appeared to have limited the problem in the race.

Bourdais, however, did not appear to think so, as he struggled with the STR3.

"The race went much as I expected it, because of the really bad track conditions from the mid-point - or even earlier," he grumbled, "In these conditions, some guys did really well, like Sebastian, but I could not do anything with the car.

"I went slightly off the line and got the gravel [and], if this happens once or twice, you are concerned it can happen again, which is not good, especially when you're running last. It was a complete disaster for me, so I just forgot about the possibility of trying to drive fast, just trying to bring the car home… and even doing this was a challenge."

The Frenchman's displeasure was evident at his second pit-stop, where he was caught on camera gesticulating at his crew, and he is keen to banish Montreal to the book of bad memories.

"This was the worst race ever for me, the worst weekend of my entire career," he fumed, "I have never experienced anything like it. It's just been a bad weekend all round.

"I'm looking forward now to the next race, my home race - at a circuit where the track doesn't break up!"