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2001 Winner
Ralf Schumacher
Lap Distance
2.747miles/4.421km
Lap Record
Ralf Schumacher Williams BMW FW23 1m17.205s
Race Distance
189.543miles/305.049km
Number of Laps
69

Little history of the track from itv-f1.com


Built on an Island in the St Lawrence seaway, The Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve has hosted the Canadian Grand Prix since 1977. The circuit is named after legendary Ferrari ace Gilles Villeneuve who created history by becoming the first Canadian to win a world championship grand prix at his home track in 1978. Two years later Frank Williams won his first word championship as hard-charging Aussie Alan Jones took the spoils for Williams Grand Prix Engineering.

The circuit has also witnessed some embarrassing failures. Nigel Mansell was waving to the crowd while leading the final lap of the 1991 race when his gearbox packed up. Nelson Piquet came through to take the final victory of his illustrious career. Mansell again blew it a year later after proving too impatient when trying to pass Ayrton Senna. The 1995 race was a red-letter day for Jean Alesi who took an emotional first grand prix win after Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher faltered.

Sadly, Jacques Villeneuve has never had the best of luck at the track named after his father, with second place on his first visit back in 1996 remaining his best result.

Last year?s race saw a titanic battle between the Schumacher brothers for the spoils. The first time Michael and Ralf had fought it out in a wheel-to-wheel battle for victory, with Schuey junior coming out on top after some smart strategy from Williams.


David Coultard was 1st in Friday's practice, the Mercedes engine did not seem to be underpowered as most have been saying recently.


Friday practice times from Montreal

1 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1m15.407s
2 MONTOYA Williams BMW 1m15.543s
3 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m15.788s
4 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes 1m15.946s
5 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1m16.018s
6 SALO Toyota 1m16.259s
7 PANIS BAR Honda 1m16.333s
8 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m16.440s
9 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda 1m16.448s
10 FRENTZEN Arrows Cosworth 1m16.793s
11 DE LA ROSA Jaguar 1m16.801s
12 FISICHELLA Jordan Honda 1m16.989s
13 BERNOLDI Arrows Cosworth 1m17.018s
14 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1m17.250s
15 BUTTON Renault 1m17.473s
16 MASSA Sauber Petronas 1m17.489s
17 IRVINE Jaguar 1m17.765s
18 WEBBER Minardi Asiatech 1m18.034s
19 SATO Jordan Honda 1m18.143s
20 MCNISH Toyota 1m18.311s
21 TRULLI Renault 1m18.465s
22 YOONG Minardi Asiatech 1m19.050s

It is going to be a very interesting race tomorrow. If Montoya gets away clean he has a good chance of winning this race. May be he can make up for the crash he had last year in Montreal.

I still support Ferrari, I hope MS wins this one fair and square, go Ferrari!

Final qualifying times from Montreal

1 MONTOYA Williams BMW 1m12.836s
2 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m13.018s
3 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m13.280s
4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1m13.301s
5 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes 1m13.898s
6 FISICHELLA Jordan Honda 1m14.132s
7 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1m14.139s
8 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1m14.385s
9 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda 1m14.564s
10 TRULLI Renault 1m14.688s
11 PANIS BAR Honda 1m14.713s
12 MASSA Sauber Petronas 1m14.823s
13 BUTTON Renault 1m14.854s
14 IRVINE Jaguar 1m14.882s
15 SATO Jordan Honda 1m14.940s
16 DE LA ROSA Jaguar 1m15.089s
17 BERNOLDI Arrows Cosworth 1m15.102s
18 SALO Toyota 1m15.111s
19 FRENTZEN Arrows Cosworth 1m15.115s
20 MCNISH Toyota 1m15.321s
21 WEBBER Minardi Asiatech 1m15.508s
22 YOONG Minardi Asiatech 1m17.347s

they drive much faster on this track this year.....almost everyone beats the Ralf's fastest lap time last year :clap:

I'm getting weary of Shumi and BMW needs to work on JPM's reliablity. BMW failures are occuring way too much. At any rate. I loved the european TV coverage that ABC provided. The extra camera shots are pretty cool. Even an in-car camera of the pace car. Love those AMG's (w/ leather covered race seats...mmm).

Christ, I nearly started breaking stuff around here ... ugh. And he was really
crankin' it, too ... but AGAIN ... oy.

But man, the BernieVision feed is really sweet!

Originally posted by TiAg ///M3/4
Christ, I nearly started breaking stuff around here ... ugh. And he was really
crankin' it, too ... but AGAIN ... oy.

But man, the BernieVision feed is really sweet!

I am a Ferrari supporter but what happened to Juan was really bad. Apparently he left the track soon after he retired from the race. If he could go on I think he was going to challange MS, it would have been a much more exciting finish.

[edit: the ABC coverage is very good, how about the team radios? Did you guys hear Alan McNish cursing after his gearbox failed?]

I was looking forward to a clash of the titans starting at around lap 5 or so, myself ... think JPM will be driving hard this week? Man, I almost wept ...

The team radios are some of my favorite bits ... McNish would have been really funny if I hadn't felt so bad for the guy.

Originally posted by JetBlack330Ci


I am a Ferrari supporter but what happened to Juan was really bad. Apparently he left the track soon after he retired from the race. If he could go on I think he was going to challange MS, it would have been a much more exciting finish.

[edit: the ABC coverage is very good, how about the team radios? Did you guys hear Alan McNish cursing after his gearbox failed?]

McNish has horrible luck this year so far. At times he seems as good if not better than Salo, but never finishes. I'm really rooting for the guy considering him coming from Audi in ALMS to F1.

When Montoya's engine blew, my wife turned to me and asked, "Can we leave, now?" Of course, we stayed for the end. There was some expectation among the spectators we were sitting around that Michael Schumacher was running a two stop strategy and that Montoya would win, as he had completed two stops already. Of course, it turns out the Michael was running a one stop strategy, so I'm not at all convinced Montoya would have caught him. Regardless, would have been a more interesting race if his engine hadn't blown.

In qualifying, the F2002 was incredibly fast. On Michael's last run, he was about 0.8 sec behind Montoya going through the first two sections of the circuit, and then along the final straight, made up 0.6 seconds, which to me indicates just how fast the F2002 is relative to the Williams BWM . . . bummer.