A look back at Canada: 2007

With this weekend marking the 34th running of the Canadian Grand Prix around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, F1Today will be looking back at some of the most memorable races around the track. Today, we look at the incident-filled race of 2007.

2007 Canadian Grand Prix

Going into the 2007 race following the Monaco Grand Prix, the standings in the Drivers’ Championship were very close, with Fernando Alonso and his teammate Lewis Hamilton tied for first place with 38 points to their names. Felipe Massa was also close behind in third place with 33 points for Ferrari and could take the championship lead if he won the race and both McLaren drivers had a poor finish.

For the race, Lewis Hamilton claimed the first pole position of his career for McLaren, while his teammate, the reigning two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso, started alongside him in second. Nick Heidfeld impressively qualified in third place for BMW Sauber, and started ahead of the two Ferrari drivers of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa.

When the lights went out, Lewis Hamilton maintained his lead going into the first corner while Alonso ran wide, allowing Heidfeld to overtake and move into second place. Jenson Button became the first retirement of the race after having a gearbox failure which meant that he stalled on the grid from 15th place.

On lap 8, Scott Speed’s difficult 2007 Season for Toro Rosso would continue when the American driver clipped the rear of Alexander Wurz’ Williams, forcing himself out of the race with suspension damage.

In the subsequent laps, Hamilton continued to extend his lead from Alonso who was struggling out on track, having multiple offs due to the damage he sustained in the first corner after the lights went out, handing third place to Felipe Massa.

Hamilton pitted from the lead on lap 22 and rejoined in third place, just before the safety car would be deployed to clear up Adrian Sutil’s crashed Spyker, meaning the pit lane was closed. This saw both Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg be slapped with 10-second stop-go penalties when they were forced to pit because they were running out of fuel. Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella were also disqualified from the race for leaving the pit lane when the red light was on, removing them from contention.

When the safety car peeled into the pits on lap 26, it was deployed again one lap later following a spectacular accident involving Robert Kubica. In the accident, the Polish driver clipped the rear end of Jarno Trulli, promoting Kubica’s car to launch into the air and into the inside wall before the hairpin at 186 mph. The crash saw Kubica’s BMW Sauber car destroyed as it flipped multiple times after the initial impact, coming to rest on the other side of the track with only one wheel attached. Kubica only suffered a concussion and a sprained ankle which meant that he would miss the next race at Indianapolis.

This would not be the last time that the safety car would be deployed in the race, being deployed once again on lap 50 to clear up debris after Christijan Albers hit the wall and on lap 55 when Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed into the Wall of Champions. Jarno Trulli would then retire three laps later on lap 58 after crashing with track rod damage after previously having a spin earlier in the race.

The safety car peeled into the pits for the final time on lap 60, leaving ten laps to go and all 12 remaining cars on the lead lap. Although a sprint to the finish line was shaping up, Lewis Hamilton held onto his lead and crossed the finish line on lap 70, converting his first Formula 1 pole position into his first ever F1 win.

Nick Heidfeld crossed the line in second place and Alexander Wurz finished in third. This marked the first time in 2007 that a car other than a McLaren or a Ferrari had finished on the podium while Hamilton took the lead in the Drivers’ Championship, eight points clear of Alonso before heading to the next race in America.

Chris Soulsby