MOTOR SPORT:WITH CAREFUL courtesy and a sense of diplomacy not necessarily associated with Lewis Hamilton, the McLaren driver said he "really likes the Canadian Grand Prix". He has a habit of saying "I really like this grand prix" at whatever raucous part of the globe he happens to hang his helmet; the difference here is he means it.
He has won two of his three races in Canada and his success in 2007 was the first of his 15 victories. On that same weekend, four years ago, Montreal’s faithful, eager with grief, bustled along the Rue de la Commune, in the old port area, to pay homage to Gilles Villeneuve, arguably the fastest driver of them all, on the 25th anniversary of his violent death.
“The track has got such a great history and Gilles Villeneuve was pretty spectacular,” Hamilton said yesterday, shaking his head with reverence.
Ayrton Senna is Hamilton’s hero, but Villeneuve, who died three years before Hamilton was born, also had the same rage to win and his ghost presides over the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve where the British driver, realistically, must win again tomorrow if he is to arrest Sebastian Vettel’s rapid acceleration towards his second successive world title.
It was here last year that Hamilton followed up his victory in Turkey with another podium-topping drive after he had deprived Red Bull of pole position for the first time in the season.
“I’m not sure why I’m generally so quick here,” he said. “I think our car is always quite good here. We’ve got reasonably high speed in the straights and you have to be close to the walls here, which I particularly like. But not too close.
“I know why I’m quick in Monaco and it’s pretty much the same here, the same tyres, same set-up, similar characteristics. The track is tight, with no run-off areas. You’re up against the wall, which is a barrier in Monaco, so it is very similar.
“It’s a bit like a street circuit and street circuits are my preferred circuits. They are the riskiest and the trickiest to race on. It’s a great place to drive. It’s one of those circuits where downforce is not the most important thing. It’s a combination of high speed, straight speed, as well. So you can overtake. It’s got that massively long back straight, which you don’t have at a lot of circuits.”
But Montreal’s appeal for Hamilton goes beyond its historic track. The city’s effervescence, together with its tumultuous enthusiasm for Formula One, has restored something of Hamilton’s zest after his harrowing weekend in Monaco, where he was lucky not to be given a race ban after some ill-chosen remarks following his two drive-through penalties.
“I’ve never been here when the grandstands have not been packed. I’ve been to circuits where there are just a couple of thousand people. Here is a huge buzz because you see all these passionate people in the crowds. It’s spectacular.”
But even after Monaco, where some of his overtaking manoeuvres were criticised by drivers past and present, Hamilton will not be making any fundamental changes to his driving style.
When asked whether he expected to be hauled before the stewards again, he shrugged: “There is every chance. It’s racing. Being one of the drivers that does more of the overtaking – I’ve done a lot of overtaking in the past couple of years, particularly – it’s inevitable there will be some that will be questioned. I will continue to race my heart out the way I do. But I will try to be smarter and better with the manoeuvres that I make.”
Hamilton must draw on his success here last year – and maybe hope for a little help from the spirit of the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 143pts
2 Lewis Hamilton (Brit) McLaren 85
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 79
4 Jenson Button (Brit) McLaren 76
5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 69
6 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 29
7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 26
8 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 24
9 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 21
10 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber 19
11 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes 14
12 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 8
