TOP 10 MOMENTS IN CANADIAN GP RACING
The Canadian Grand Prix, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, has delivered more than its fair share of thrills and spills over the decades. Motorsport writer Jeff Pappone shares the memorable moments, starting from the first race in 1967.
1. 1967: The ambulance chase
The first Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ont., was part of this country’s centennial celebrations.
Reigning three-time world champion Jack Brabham almost missed the race after getting stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on his way to the circuit. The quick-thinking Australian abandoned his ride and begged an ambulance driver to help. They arrived at the track minutes before the start with lights blazing and siren blaring.
Legendary Scottish driver Jim Clark scored the first pole in Canada and battled Brabham teammate Denny Hulme in heavy rain before retiring. That allowed Brabham to take control. He passed Hulme and sprinted away to victory by more than a minute, lapping all cars but one.
Jackie Stewart was the sole driver in the field to use seat belts, which he adopted after competing in the 1966 Indianapolis 500.
The only Canadian in this country’s maiden F1 race was Eppie Wietzes, who was disqualified after getting a push start.
2. 1973: And the winner (maybe) is ...
While nobody knew it at the time, the Canadian Grand Prix ended up being the final F1 race and the scene of the last world championship points scored by Stewart, one of the sport’s most enduring icons. It also marked the first appearance of a safety car in F1, following a Lap 33 accident.
Three-time world champion Stewart arrived in Mosport already wearing the 1973 crown after clinching the title two weeks earlier in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Confusion reigned during the race when an accident near the halfway point brought out the safety car, and it failed to identify Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus as the leader. In the end, it took hours after the checkered flag to confirm McLaren driver Peter Revson as the winner.
Meanwhile, Stewart crossed the line fifth and the Canadian Grand Prix became his last F1 start after he withdrew from the season finale at Watkins Glen, N.Y., following the death of his teammate and protégé, François Cevert, in a practice accident.
To this day, Fittipaldi believes he was robbed of the win.
3. 1978: Gilles Villeneuve’s “unthinkable” feat
In a storybook finish, Quebec hero Gilles Villeneuve scored his maiden win in his first start in Montreal and in the first race on what was then called the Circuit Île Notre Dame.
The Ferrari driver inherited the lead when Jean-Pierre Jarier’s Lotus-Cosworth expired with 20 laps to go, and took the checkered flag in front of an elated crowd.
Villeneuve’s future Ferrari teammate, Jody Scheckter, was second in a Wolf, owned by Canadian entrepreneur Walter Wolf.
“This is the happiest day of my life,” Villeneuve said after the race. “To win a Grand Prix is something, but to win your first Grand Prix at home is completely unthinkable.”
The cold October day also delivered a decidedly Canadian image: Villeneuve standing on the podium in a parka, spraying spectators with beer from a magnum bottle of Labatt 50.
Previously, the best finish for a Canadian at home was 10th place by BRM driver George Eaton of Toronto, in 1970.
While Toronto’s Bill Brack crossed the line eighth in 1969, also in a BRM, he was scored as “not classified.”
4. 1980: Keeping up with Jones
Alan Jones’s victory in Montreal made him the only driver in 50 years to clinch the world driver’s championship in Canada, but it wasn’t easy.
The Williams driver arrived with a one-point lead on Brabham’s Nelson Piquet, and the pair were looking for a fight early. The title rivals collided only metres from the start, triggering a red flag after an eight-car pileup that included Villeneuve.
When Piquet retired from the lead at one-third distance, all Jones had to do was stay out front and the title was his. In the end, he crossed the line in second place — but a one-minute penalty on Didier Pironi for a jumped start handed the win and the 1980 drivers’ crown to the Australian.
5. 1994: Michael Schumacher stakes his claim
The F1 circus arrived in Montreal still reeling from the loss of its biggest star, Ayrton Senna, and rookie Roland Ratzenberger six weeks earlier during the San Marino Grand Prix weekend.
In an attempt to slow the action in the wake of the deaths, the sport’s governing Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile added a temporary tire chicane to the track on the fast straight following the hairpin at the east end of the circuit.
With four wins in the first five races, Benetton driver Michael Schumacher was threatening to run away with the championship. Schumacher finished second in Spain two weeks earlier despite being stuck in fifth gear for most of the race. In Montreal, he reasserted his dominance, winning by 33 seconds over main title rival Damon Hill of Williams.
It was the first of Schumacher’s seven Canadian GP triumphs, the most victories for a single driver at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
6. 1995: Jean Alesi’s happiest birthday
Although the story of 1995 was the two-man title fight between Schumacher and Hill, Montreal served up a wild-card winner this time around.
Schumacher dominated all weekend and looked to be cruising to the win when he dove into the pit lane to change his faulty steering wheel. Schumacher’s misfortune handed the lead to Jean Alesi, driving the No. 27 Ferrari made famous by Villeneuve.
The crowd’s anticipation boiled over with one lap to go, and fans began to pour onto the circuit with cars still racing.
With tears making it difficult to see, Alesi took a massively popular maiden — and only — F1 victory on his 31st birthday.
“I feel fantastic,” the Frenchman said after the race. “I waited a long time for this win. To have this victory with Ferrari is unbelievable.”
The race marked the final Grand Prix win for a V-12 powered car and served up the first double podium for the Jordan team.
7. 1999: Welcome to the wall
The main protagonist here was not a driver but the concrete barrier at the exit of the final corner before the finish line, which earned the nickname Wall of Champions.
It took only three laps for the barrier to claim its first victim, BAR’s Ricardo Zonta. Next was 1996 world champion Hill, losing control and smashing his Jordan into the wall on Lap 15.
Second-placed Mika Häkkinen pressured Schumacher into a mistake 15 laps later, and the Ferrari of the then two-time champion was swallowed by the barrier.
The last victim was Jacques Villeneuve, son of Gilles and 1997 champion, who crashed his BAR in the same spot at the halfway point of the race.
Häkkinen emerged as only world champion in the field not to fall victim to the concrete wall at Turn 13, and the McLaren driver took his only career win in Montreal.
In subsequent races, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button added their names to the Wall of Champions, which also became known for its ironic greeting in large, painted letters: “Bienvenue au Québec.”
8. 2007: Lewis Hamilton makes history
The F1 circus arrived with an increasingly bitter rivalry between McLaren teammates Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton emerging as the story of the season.
The pair were tied in points and looking for an advantage at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Hamilton put his foot down in qualifying, started on the pole and never looked back — becoming the first black driver to win an F1 race.
“This is history,” Hamilton said later. “I wanted to stop the car (on the final lap) and jump out and just do, I don’t know, cartwheels or something.”
The young Briton’s victory in only his sixth F1 start also made him the first and only rookie to win the Canadian Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, a hush fell over the circuit on Lap 26 when the BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica got squeezed off the track at about 300 km/h and slammed into a concrete barrier on the run to the hairpin. His car disintegrated as it cartwheeled down the tarmac before coming to rest alongside the Armco barrier near the hairpin. Kubica emerged with only a sore ankle and a concussion.
9. 2008: Robert Kubica bounces back
A year after his terrifying crash that tested the safety of modern F1 cars, Kubica returned to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve looking for better luck in Canada.
As it turned out, his luck pulled a quick Montreal-style U-turn.
In one of F1’s strangest and most comical moments, race leader Hamilton steamed into the back of Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari as it waited at a red light at the pit exit during a safety car period. The crash put both contenders out of the race.
That opened the door for Kubica, who took an unlikely maiden F1 victory — the first by a Polish driver, and also for the BMW-Sauber team.
“It’s a great atmosphere here in Canada and there are many Polish fans, there are many fans who are cheering for our team, for me,” he said. “It’s always fantastic to win here, especially after what happened here last year.”
10. 2011: Winning in the rain
“I really don’t know what to say,” was the first thing out of the mouth of an astonished Button — and who could blame him?
The 2009 world champion packed more adventure into one race than some drivers experience in an entire F1 season.
There was an early collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton that knocked the sister McLaren out of the race. Next there was a drive-thru penalty for speeding behind the safety car.
After a two-hour-plus rain delay, Button’s escapade continued when he punted Alonso’s Ferrari in Turn 3 and suffered a puncture. That put him 21st and last with 30 laps to go.
Then, with 19 laps left, Button boldly swapped his wet tires for slicks in his sixth and final pit stop and quickly began to climb the timesheets.
After another safety car — the sixth of the afternoon — Button moved into second place with leader Sebastian Vettel clearly in his sights.
Under pressure, Vettel’s Red Bull went wide after putting a wheel onto wet pavement in Turn 6 on the last lap, and Button eagerly stepped through the open door to take the win.
The race went into the books as the longest Grand Prix on record at four hours, four minutes and 39.537 seconds.