Track: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Ile de Notre Dame, Montreal
Circuit Length: 4.395 km
Number of laps: 70
Race distance: 307.664 km
Lap record: Rubens Barrichello, 2004 (1min13.622s)
Built on an island in the St Lawrence seaway, which was used as an
Olympic rowing basin, the track was named after the legendary
Ferrari ace who lost his life in 1982. He was the first Canadian to
win on home turf back in 1978.
His son Jacques, world champion in 1997, never attained similar
success here. His best finish was second place in 1996, and that
was followed by a string of retirements in successive visits.
Villeneuve Jr will not be racing there in 2007, having been
replaced at BMW by Poland's Robert Kubica.
The race has seen many other memorable moments. They include Nigel
Mansell (allegedly) throwing away victory in 1991 by stalling while
waving to the crowd on the final lap, then crashing while trying to
pass Ayrton Senna a year later.
Jean Alesi took his first and only Grand Prix victory here in 1995
for Ferrari. The Frenchman parked his car on the lap of honour and
sat on the back of Michael Schumacher's Benetton.
Alex Wurz provided the fireworks in 1998 when he rolled
spectacularly at the first corner then hopped into the spare car
for the restart and came from last to fourth!
1999's race was the first ever to end under the safety car. Mika
Häkkinen won that dramatic race, which saw Villeneuve, Schumacher
and Damon Hill crash into the Wall Of Champions.
The race is a high-speed, low-downforce affair. Save for Sector 1,
which has several sweeping S-bends, the track consists of long
'straights' punctuated by chicanes.
The brakes take the most punishment here due to the stop-start
nature, as do the rear tyres of the cars. These leave rubber
marbles off the racing line, which subsequently make overtaking
tricky, though not impossible. Due to these tyre issues, 2-pitstop
strategies are the norm here.
2006 winner Fernando Alonso heads into this race as leader in the
driver's World Championship, ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton
only on victories. The pair dominated the race in Monaco, but other
teams have vowed to bounce back, including Ferrari. Given the
latter's form in high-speed testing at Paul Ricard, they should be
taken seriously.
You won't want to miss this early-morning affair come qualifying
and race day!
