In terms of spectacle Montreal did not disappoint. From the first corner to the final lap, this was Formula One at its most exciting, tactical and unpredictable.
We came here not expecting to walk it – our car and its power was always going to struggle on a circuit which favoured the straight-line speed of the McLarens. But even though we leave for Valencia with solid points from our fourth and fifth place, it was far from plain sailing. Gearboxes affected both our boys: Mark suffered a five-place grid penalty when his was replaced before the start and Sebastian had to nurse his RB6 home with similar problems from mid-way through the race.
Our decision to start on the harder tyre appeared to pay off to begin with, but ultimately the McLarens were predictably more suited to Montreal and took another 1-2 with pole-sitter Hamilton taking the win.
We split our strategies from the first stop with Mark staying out on the harder tyres and Seb going out on the option. And, as Christian Horner said afterwards, these strategies and results were as good as we could have anticipated. “We shouldn’t be disappointed with fourth and fifth,” he said. “They are still valuable points in both Championships and they have been gained at a circuit that we always knew we would be exposed at.”
Elsewhere we saw Michael Schumacher bashing into both Felipe Massa and Liuzzi (who also crashed into each other), flying Saubers, drive-through penalties and Buemi securing four points for Toro Rosso. If ever we needed evidence that 2010 was going to be a classic season of characters, crashes, tactics and tyre strategies then Montreal was it: Fernando Alonso was third, Rosberg sixth, Kubica seventh, Buemi eighth with Liuzzi and Sutil completing the top 10.
We leave north America for another street circuit, another track which may not suit our car, but to another race in which both our drivers will be hungry for even more world championship points.
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