Kubica triumphs in Montreal

Eurosport - Tue, 10 Jun 17:41:00 2008

Poland's Robert Kubica, driving a BMW Sauber, won a drama-filled Canadian Grand Prix in which pre-race favourite Lewis Hamilton took himself and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen out of the race in an early pit lane collision.

FORMULA 1 2008 Canadian GP The Race (70 Laps) Robert Kubica BMW Sauber - 0

German Nick Heidfeld, also driving a BMW, claimed second place and Briton David Coulthard of the Red Bull stable finished third.

After lap 18 of the 70-lap race, Hamilton ploughed into the back of Raikkonen's car while he and Kubica were waiting for the red light at the end of the pit lane.

Kubica leapfrogged Hamilton to the top of the drivers' world championship, four points clear of the Briton, and BMW Sauber now top the constructor's title race.

The Pole's win was the first by a team other than McLaren and Ferrari since October 2006 and fulfilled the Swiss-German team's pre-season ambition to win their first Formula One race.

Toyota's German Timo Glock took fourth place, the best result of his first full Formula One season and Brazilian Ferrari driver Felipe Massa claimed an eventful fifth.

Italian Jarno Trulli completed a good day for the Toyota team with sixth place with Honda's Rubens Barrichello and Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel filling the other point-scoring places.

The race started amidst serious concerns over the state of the circuit. Patches of the track surface had crumbled badly during qualifying on Saturday and although running repairs were made overnight, many in the paddock were expecting trouble.

Those concerns translated into a generally cautious attitude amongst the drivers and the start passed without incident.

Nico Rosberg did manage to slip his Williams into fourth place around the outside of Fernando Alonso at the second corner, but it was a clean getaway for Hamilton's McLaren, Kubica and Raikkonen's Ferrari who started first, second and third respectively.

Raikkonen began to put Kubica under serious pressure, the Finn quickly setting the fastest lap of the race but Hamilton was moving well clear in front, only for his lead to be erased when the safety car was deployed after German Adrian Sutil's Force India car caught fire.

As the field bunched up, the leaders ducked into the pits to refuel. Raikkonen and Kubica emerged from the garage ahead of Hamilton, but were held up by a red-light at the end of the pit lane.

Inexplicably, Hamilton did not realise that his two rivals were stationary ahead of him and after pulling away from his garage he barrelled into the back of Raikkonen ending his own race and that of the reigning world champion.

Rosberg was also caught up in the incident and though he was able to continue after some hasty repairs to his front wing, his chances of a points finish was over.

Heidfeld was now leading the grand prix, with Honda's Rubens Barrichello and Williams' Kazuki Nakajima lying second and third.

Heidfeld, his one-stop strategy working perfectly, soon pitted and managed to emerge ahead of Kubica who had emerged unscathed from the pit lane chaos.

Kubica was now leading effectively leading the grand prix but knowing he would need one more fuel stop, the Pole pushed his BMW to the absolute limit to establish a significant lead.

With 22 laps remaining Kubica pitted for the final time, emerging safely in front of his teammate.

Scottish veteran Coulthard was now in third place with a mad scramble for points unfolding behind him.

There was no catching Kubica though and there were scenes of joy in the BMW garage as he crossed the finish line to become the first ever Polish grand prix winner.

AFP

Comment 59 - 78 of 78

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  1. ROBERT - CONGRETS!!!!!you were born to win! we will hear about Him as a W.Ch. not only once!!! just give Him Ferrari... big support from polish fans! GOOOO KUBICA GOOOOO!!!!

    From Michael R, on Wed 11 Jun 4:29PM
  2. I Hope Kimi wins the championship this year, I think that Kubica wont win any more races

    From d3vil_m4y_cry2003, on Wed 11 Jun 8:42AM
  3. GO ROBERT GO

    From piotrekgrzyb, on Mon 9 Jun 9:55PM
  4. Trying to say the sports fans site " B L A C K W H I T E K I S S .C O M ". yes, it is great. Girls there are hot and they enjoy ta lk ing sports and starts with you. Cool.

    From hzhberg, on Mon 9 Jun 9:23PM
  5. OK all of you, what happend was a massive mistake by both Hamilton & Rosberg as both failed to notice the red light - We should all note this doesn't happen all the time but it should be noted as only recently Barichelo was demoted from his 7th place finish to gain 0pts for jumping the red light. Those comparing Raikonnen shunt 2 weeks ago with this are off the mark. The incident last race was in wet conditions & behind the saftey car whereas this was Hami & Ros trying to jump a red light & with cars in front of them. Driving a normal vehicle would take you to court & points on your licence as well as a fine. So, considering that, the two of them got off lightly (just as I was thinking it was a fair punishmnet).

    Well done to BMW & Red Bull for their podium finishes in light of the incidents & I'm sure Coulthard will be thriled to be back on the podium. At one point I was wondering if we were racing in 2003 again with Coulthard, Trulli & Barichello all riding high. It was good to see the oldies still got it in them & justyfying their wages.

    Alonso seemed to be very impatient (again) & Renault really need to sort reailabilty if they want to keep Alonso & challenge again. They have it in them as we've seen in qualifying but it's the same old story.

    Well done to Toyata as well. Honda will be s lot happier than last year too.

    Until the next race, a lot can change....

    From Yiannaki Y, on Mon 9 Jun 12:24PM
  6. IN response to that comment from joeblogs, I am a big Hamilton fan but it was not his rightful place- teams have to be prepared for the event of a saftey car at Montreal, as Mclaren were last year on Lewis' drive to his maiden victory. Ferrari and BMW both got their cars out of the pits faster than Mclaren, although Mclaren Mercedes appeared to fuel lewis heavier than his rivals which would have allowed Lewis to leapfrog them at the next round of pitstops and reclaim the lead. Kimi and Robert rightly stopped at the end of the pitlane, the saftey car/pitlane rules clearly state that the red light will be on at the end of the pitlane untill the last of the cars behind the saftey car has passed the entrance to the pitlane so that the cars are not rejoining into traffic creating a potentially dangerous situtation. It is particularly necessary at a track like Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve where the pitlane exits into the slippery low grip off-line section of turn two. If cars were rejoining into traffic there then it would be a serious accident risk. The rules have created a potentially dangerous situation but have prevented a more dangerous one.
    AS for the loss of Lewis' 6 second lead at the next group test the teams will be experimenting with a new system using the standard ecu which will give the drivers minimum sector times so that they maintain a consistent relative pace and therefore maintain the gaps between them, effectively freezing the gaps at the pre yellow flag state.
    THE reason that Lewis did not protest the result is that he has no grounds to whatsoever. He may well have been the fastest man on the track but the collision ending his and Kimi's race was entirely his fault. Lewis committed the racing driver equivalent to ploughing into someone stopped at an intersection. It was a serious lapse of concentration and judgment by both Lewis and Mclaren Mercedes. He and Rosberg were rightly given a 10 place grid penalty for the next race.
    Congrats BMW!

    From sam98m, on Mon 9 Jun 10:06AM
  7. Well, I don't know about you lot, but I can't understand this 'safety car' @#$% anyway - there was no real need for it, as Sutil's car was extinguished and at the side of the track, no debris - and it's a penalty for Hamilton already, 6 secs up and giving the others a chance to catch up! (Can't they allow for this in the times or something - what are the RULES for saftey car interventions???!). Then they swan around for a lap or two, Hamilton's garage is behind Kimi poo's etc., so they get out ahead of him, banging off and then suddenly stop because of a mysterious flashing red light (there must be lots to watch - flags, noises, engine, tyres etc etc etc eh?!) and Hamilton's 'unfortunately' in the back of them, cos trying to keep up and gain his RIGHTFUL place at the front?!? How can you blame him for this? How could he have wanted to crash when he was cruising way in the lead? If you ask me, the officials and the 'safety' (didn't seem too safe in the pit lane, did it. eh??) clots need examining and suing - I'm surprised LH didn't protest angrily! Why WAS there a RED LIGHT on?????
    Answer us that, clots!

    From joeblogs, on Mon 9 Jun 9:26AM
  8. It's Heidfeld on pic, not Kubica;)
    Wonderful Kubi!

    From djoshia, on Mon 9 Jun 9:10AM
  9. Fine drive Bob and great work by team Sauber/BMW! Lou just made a rookie mistake. so please stop with the evil intensions B,S, What a great season, keep it up boys

    From ray l, on Mon 9 Jun 6:14AM
  10. The team should have been on the radio to Hamilton in pit lane, but fairplay to Kubica he may have needed that incident to win but he's always there or thereabouts at the end of a race. Most consistent driver this year by a mile!

    From The DOC, on Mon 9 Jun 1:29AM
  11. Lewis Hamilton, during an interview about his father's recent accident, quite amused said that he found almost impossible to wreck a car at 30mph. Well, today he managed to improve on that wrecking Kimi's car too! Very overrated pilot imho...

    From goldpibe, on Mon 9 Jun 12:26AM
  12. That pit lane incident was likely the end of Hamilton's race either way because even with him failing to stop short of Raikonnen, Roseberg STILL bumped Lewis. Imagine if he had managed to stop short! POW!!!

    From havoc485, on Mon 9 Jun 12:23AM
  13. i guess the way kimi acted in the grand prix of monaco when he threw out suttil turned back on him..it was kind of a revenge i think..i don't believe in coincindeces but this was to similar to the previous race..anyway...i'm glad for Kubica and Heidfeld..great race..congrats

    From Horia C, on Mon 9 Jun 12:22AM
  14. Kimi brake tested Hamilton just as did Alonso a few races ago!.....

    From Peter c, on Sun 8 Jun 11:38PM
  15. Great race! I hope Kubica will be world Champion this year! Kubica scored historical win for BMW, and another Pole-of-Birth Podolski scored for Germany football team...

    From mariusz2006, on Sun 8 Jun 11:08PM
  16. Your long point is well grounded. We inded cannot know what hamilton intention was.
    BUT
    if I take a look at the replay, I see actually Hamiltons driving line was exactly behind Kubica's car. In a sudden movement the car change direction behind kimi's car.
    I know thats by no means a definite evidence of his ill intention. BUT you cannot stop people to think of that way. After all, in the long run, Kubica + BMW is a less a threat than Kimi + Ferrari.

    Anyway, I posted Kubica's comment not to prrof Hamiltons intention. Its just to show how what that "change of direction" had made 10 points difference.

    From sahaieuteh, on Sun 8 Jun 10:55PM
  17. This talk of Hamilton directing his car in to Raikonnen is silly! Here's a question; sensing he couldn't stop in time why not direct his car between Raikonnen AND Kubica to take out BOTH his rivals??? A more likely scenario is he instinctively veered left because there was room to the left of Raikonnen. Kubica was next to the pit wall so going to the right obviously wasn't an option! lol

    Oh, btw... the person that said "the great Senna" never purposely took out a rival?!! Lol, you don't know your F1 history very well. He took Prost, who was on pole, out in the first turn of a season ending race because he knew he could match Prost's pace.... Years later during an interview, Senna essentially admitted to the fact!

    From havoc485, on Sun 8 Jun 10:37PM
  18. This is unbelievable.

    How come anyone can wonder about Hamilton's intentions there, in the pitlane? He saw it too late and tried to go round Kimi's car on his left side, the only side that provided room for such a manoeuvre. God, what is it with you people? I'm not Hamilton's fan, but let's just be objective, he didn't mean it.

    By the way, I can't grasp the fairness in penalizing Lewis for this incident while Kimi got away with his own mistake in Monte Carlo. I'm not saying the Finn should have been penalized then, but how on Earth is this sanction that Lewis just received justified? Formula 1 is truly becoming a circus act. There's just so much politics in it, and I hate it.

    Well done, Robert, keep up the brilliant work! BMW might not be the best car in the field, but this particular driver proved incredibly mature, cool and able. All credit to that. His maiden victory is nothing but well-deserved.

    From silviu.encica, on Sun 8 Jun 10:35PM
  19. A quote from Kubica :

    "I have to thank him that he shunts Kimi and not me."

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/74430 89.stm

    From sahaieuteh, on Sun 8 Jun 10:28PM
  20. it's a shame now tho that the race is being remembered for this incident, Kubica won his first race and the attention shud b on him, but thats not how it works i suppose, people like to look for a bad guy!!!

    From wendy s, on Sun 8 Jun 10:25PM
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