Poland’s Robert Kubica has won his maiden Formula One race at this weekend’s Montreal Grand Prix. His team mate Nick Heidfeld followed suit in second place, making it a first BMW one-two finish. Red Bull Racing’s David Coulthard finished third, from a well-planned pit strategy.
The race was not all picture perfect, however, when mishap happened in the pit lane. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton ran into the back of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen when the race was under the safety car. The red light at the end of the pit lane was flashing, indicating that drivers could not exit yet. Raikkonen and Kubica stopped at sight of the light, however, Hamilton did not see it and ran into the back of Raikkonen and ended the race for both.
William’s Nico Rosberg ran into the back of Hamilton, also not noticing the flashing red light. Both Hamilton and Rosberg have consequently been penalised, and both will be starting the French Grand Prix ten places down the grid. The race stewards indicate that both drivers breached article 16.1 of ‘causing a collision’.
Kubica’s win has him overtaking Hamilton in the driver’s championship standings, four points ahead of Hamilton, at 42 to 38 points. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa equals Hamilton, and Raikkonen follows at 35 points.
In Monaco, Raikkonen had a collision with Adrian Sutil, which cost Sutil five points, and Raikkonen nothing, rather, not a ten point grid penalty for the following race, which would have been this ones.
In the press conference after the race, however, Kubica hinted that he did not want his team to give him ‘100% support’, as he does not have a contract with BMW for next year.
Magny Cours, the French Grand Prix, is on 22 June.
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