F1 - Canadian GP: Raikkonen & McLaren again

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F1 - Canadian GP: Raikkonen & McLaren again

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The Safety Car came in on lap 51 as it was announced that an incident involving Montoya was under investigation by the Stewards. Montoya was then black flagged for exiting the pit lane when the red light was on.

This meant the order was now Raikkonen, M Schumacher, Trulli, Barrichello, Massa, Webber, R Schumacher, Coulthard, Klien, Villeneuve, Monteiro and Albers.

On lap 56, M Schumacher trailed Raikkonen by 2.3, with Trulli just over 8 seconds further back in third, being chased by Barrichello. At the start of lap 63, Barrichello inherited third spot when Trulli pulled off to retire the Toyota. The gap at the front still hovered around the two and a half second mark. But then on lap 64, Schumacher had reduced the gap to Raikkonen to just 1.3 seconds with six laps remaining. It grew to 1.6 on lap 65 and 1.7 on 66. Kimi gradually eased the gap to almost 2 seconds and crossed the line to take the fifth win of his F1 career.

Behind him came Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa, Mark Webber, Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard, with Christian Klien the last of the points scorers.

Kimi Raikkonen, West McLaren Mercedes, first : "I have gained what I lost at the last race and my Championship battle is back on. I came here to get ten points and we got them and I'm really pleased. Just after my first pitstop my steering developed a problem which meant that whenever I was driving straight it was pulling to the left. After the race I learnt that the team was monitoring the situation carefully but I had to do the best I could and we made it. The team told me to take it easy but I still had to push, so it was all about finding the right balance. Towards the end Michael was catching up but it was not too much of a problem. I can't wait for the race in Indianapolis next week where I think, once again, we should be in with a good chance of winning."

Ron Dennis, Team Principal, West McLaren Mercedes: "Throughout the race we had to take some difficult decisions which only increased the pressure on the pitwall. Against this backdrop the mistake was made of not calling Juan Pablo in immediately after the deployment of the Safety Car which, of course, was only compounded by him driving through the red light. This shadow should not detract from a fantastic race by both Kimi and Juan Pablo. A one-two was possible and would have most likely seen Juan Pablo take his first victory for the team. However, there are many more races this season and as always as a team we will bear the consequences of our actions whether they are positive or negative. Our strategy for the remaining races remains unchanged. We will attack with a clear intention of winning with a firm and continuing commitment to equality for the drivers."

Norbert Haug, Mercedes Benz Motorsport: "A great race and a good performance from Kimi, Juan Pablo and everybody in the team. Juan Pablo was disqualified because he exited the pit lane under red lights after his second stop. Sorry for him, he drove a great race and would have deserved a win, which hopefully he will achieve very soon; he showed today that he can do it. I would like to thank everybody for the efforts displayed at McLaren in Woking, Mercedes-Ilmor in Brixworth and at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart and we are all now looking forward to the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis in seven days."

Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, second place: “We can be happy with this result, particularly with Rubens coming from last to third. We developed the car well over the weekend, but now we have to work on the package more to make it good in all track conditions. At the start, me and Jenson went backwards! I just had no grip. In the closing stages, I was able to close on Kimi, my pace was as good or a little bit better than his, but it was not enough to pass. He almost gave me a present when he ran wide at Turn 4, but he did not stay there long enough.”

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