2010 Montreal GP, ey?

After last weekend's exciting romp across Montreal, I think the FIA would do well to propose that at least half of next year's F1 races be held on freshly-paved track. The 'green' surface of the Giles Villeneuve circuit provided for one of the most exciting races ever, with drivers struggling for grip on the high-speed, low-downforce track and wearing down even the notoriously durable Bridgestone "hard" prime tires down in just over a dozen laps.

It was a sweet victory for Lewis Hamilton, his maiden win and McLaren's first 1-2 of the season. He did it all last weekend, setting a blistering pace in qualifying that the other front-runners struggled to match, and performing a "hero lap" to clinch pole after his early time was eclipsed late in the third session of qualifying as the track rubbered in... on a car running on fumes and on the wrong end of the wear curve on the "soft" option tires.

The race didn't always go his way. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was on his tailbone for almost the entire race. Those option tires wore down very quickly, and he saw the lead cushion he built up over the Red Bull Racing cars evaporate as Mark Webber overtook him down the main straight... As Mark Webber's Red Bull Racing car zoomed past, Lewis dived into the pits and changed onto the prime tires, and Alonso did the same.

Alonso beat Lewis out of the pits by fractions, and Lewis raced him to the line. He eventually had to settle behind the Spaniard as they chased down the Red Bulls. It soon became evident that the hard tires on the Red Bulls were wearing out incredibly quickly, and they also had to pit. When the dust settled and all the pits had worked themselves out, Mark Webber was in the lead on a long stint in the hards, having made up places all the way to first after a gearbox penalty dropped him from P2 to P7 on raceday; Vettel's RBR had fallen afoul of Jenson Button's Mclaren, the Brit making up time for graining his tires early on in the race; and Lewis Hamilton had overtaken Alonso on a daring dive behind Sebastian Buemi, who was actually racing them for position (Indeed, the Torro Rosso's performance in this race would be headline material if it weren't for all the other drama going on).

Mark Webber had built up a thirteen second gap, but unfortunately would be forced to go onto the soft tires at his next pit stop. He heroically tried to preserve his tires, but it soon became apparent that nothing of the sort would be possible. They were cut to ribbons. Hamilton and Alonso zoomed past him, and after his pits, he had to settle for a distant fourth place. Button, through canny tire conservation, caught up with Alonso and Hamilton, and through backmarker traffic, in which the Spaniard struggled to keep up with Lewis, Button pounced, taking second place from Alonso.

With Hamilton and Button sewing up first and second and Alonso in third, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel had to settle for fourth and fifth. Vettel, in frustration, asked if he could at least go for "fastest lap", but was informed that his gearbox was on the brink of failure, and that he'd have to take it easy to the checkered flag.

Elsewhere in the order, chaos reigned. Renault's Vitaly Petrov suffered two drive-through penalties, one from a jump-start and one from a collision. Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari fell afoul of a Force India sandwich. Renault's Robert Kubica and Mercedes GP's Michael Schumacher traded paint as Kubica tried to overtake Michael, who was coming out of the pits. Both Saubers failed, and a lot of nose-cones were replaced in frantic pitstops.

After a disastrous start, and an even more disastrous collision with Schumacher, Massa managed to earn some distinction for performing perhaps the best overtake of the day, going three abreast into a chicane. The Force Indias, after falling back down in the order, with Liuzzi replacing his nosecone twice, managed to clinch ninth and tenth by passing a struggling Schumacher... whose many battles and collisions earned him the nickname "Dick Dastardly". I think it'll stick.

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Red Bull Racing downplayed the loss, as many both inside and outside the organization are aware that Montreal is perhaps the track least suited to an RBR that relies on good aerodynamics. In fact, going by the slow motion replays showing relative tire wear, the Ferrari appears to be the car best suited to the high-speed circuit. And yet, McLaren has been pushing them hard for the last few races, and in Turkey, was able to push Vettel to the edge. In this race, McLaren's performance was utterly dominant, with the car a clear two to three-tenths faster than anything else given the same track conditions in qualifying. Whether that results in absolute parity on tracks which favor the RBR is unknown, but the signs are surely pointing in that direction.

2010 Monaco GP, Formula 1

An eventful GP this weekend, and for a lot of reasons.

Red Bull Racing went into Monaco on a high after having won at Spain, and they continue their streak of pole positions here with an impressive dominating performance in qualifying, with only Robert Kubica's Renault on the same pace. Fernando Alonso could only watch passively during qualifying, as his ultra-quick Ferrari, which was the only other car as quick as the leaders, bit the dust in the last practice session. He would be starting from the pits.

RBR's Mark Webber ran a wonderful race from the start, putting his stamp on the race by pulling away from his team-mate Vettel, who outdragged Robert Kubica into the first corner. Massa's Ferrari and Hamilton's McLaren pulled up the rear of the front-running pack at the start. Schumacher, Rosberg, Button and Hulkenberg lost out in the scuffle, but the pack was away from the first corner safely. Unfortunately, chaos ensued as Nico Hulkenberg, experiencing problems with his wing and clutch, shredded his Williams along the barriers in the tunnel. Fernando Alonso took this opportunity to pit on the very first lap, from 24th, to change from the soft option tires to the harder prime tires, which would get him all the way to the checkered flag.

Jenson Button's championship lead went up in a puff of smoke behind the first safety car, his McLaren burning itself out in the sluggish air and heat behind the safety car, McLaren's first engine failure of the season.

As soon as the green flags came out, Alonso began cutting up backmarkers, doing daring overtakes on less experienced F1 drivers into the downhill chicane out of the tunnel, sometimes on successive laps, making his way up to 16th. Alonso's pace prompted all the mid-pack drivers to change strategies, as they realized that they might not have enough time to pit and stay out in front of Alonso. A flurry of early pitstops ensued, but it was all for naught, Alonso was back in the top ten after the first round of pits, then up to P6 when everything sorted itself out.

This would trouble the top five little, however, as after the pittops for the front-runners worked themselves out, status quo remained, with Webber comfortably in the lead and piling on lap after blistering lap in front of Vettel. Perhaps he was trying to prove something.

And we would see Mark do this over and over again, as the race was punctuated by safety cars. While some of the backmarkers and lower-midfileders had to park their cars in the runoff or in the pits with mechanical problems, there were a number of spectacular failures. Barrichelo, en route to a fine result in the other Williams, having worked his way to 6th in the first lap scuffle, had his rear suspension disintegrate on him, bringing out another safety. He's sure to be docked some money on his paycheck, as he threw his steering wheel out into the track on disgust, where it was picked up by a passing HRT car.

By the 40th lap, everyone was comfortably where they would be till the end of the race, and the results seemed set in stone, but a loose drain cover forced another safety car. By this point of the race, Mercedes executives must have been jumping for joy. The sonorous exhaust note of the new gullwing Mercedes SLS AMG is sure to have sold at least a few dozen cars. After the third restart, Webber again pulled out a lead, and Vettel came under attack from Kubica. Alonso was also trying to put pressure on Hamilton, who was suffering from a brake issue (and quibbling with his pit wall about it). Yet near the end of the race, it became apparent that none of these battles would pan out. Vettel started picking up pace and despite Hamilton dropping pace from Massa due to his braking issues, Alonso didn't have the tires to take him on.

And then, with four laps to go, an incident between Trulli and Chandok almost ruined Mark Webber's race. Right at Rascasse, with Webber pulling up behind them, Chandok ran slightly wide, and Jarno made a move to pass the HRT on the inside line, which just happened to be several inches narrower than his Lotus. Wheels touched, and Jarno's car went over Chandok's head, taking a few layers of paint off of Chandok's helmet in the process. A horrified Mark Webber later stated that he thought that Trulli's car had taken Chandok's head off, since he couldn't see it. As it turns out, Chandok had seen the Lotus jump into the air, and ducked just in the nick of time.

The safety car finally came in at the end of the very last lap (selling a dozen more SLSs...), allowing the runners to cross the finish line at racing speed. Alonso's tired Ferrari moved a few millimeters too wide crossing the safety car line and Michael Schumacher took a bold lunge up the inside to just steal sixth place from him.

A place that he had to return, as despite new ruling allowing racing after the safety car line at the pit entrance, the old rule enforcing the "no racing until the finish line" was still in force in the event that the safety car comes in on the last lap. The 20 second penalty demotes Schumacher to 12th. Mercedes is appealing the decision right now.

But the big headline is Mark Webber's dominating performance at Monaco, and both Red Bull drivers now have a joint share of the driver's championship lead. Red Bull Racing is also now leading the constructor's championship by a healthy margin, taking over from McLaren. Ferrari's strong showing, despite Alonso's misfortune, puts them ahead of Mclaren by five points. Alonso is also now third in the driver's championship, overtaking Jenson Button, whose unfortunate turn puts him in fourth.