By Phil Giles
June 25 2006

The Canadian Grand prix gets underway with the teams drivers Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers lining up in 18th and 19th places respectively. David Coulthard has an engine penalty starting from the back.

Parade Lap.
No problems through the parade lap. We can perhaps expect a few problems with engines and certainly brakes this afternoon.

Lap 1
Alonso sitting for a while waiting for the pack to form up.

First corner
No problems, but we lost out again to the Super Aguri's launch control system. Sato looks to have got in front.
There's been a spinner at Casino corner. Dagnabit... Both Midlands have come together at the hairpin. Looks like one of our boys won't be finishing the first lap.
Tiago's back in the pit lane for a nose change. Did we trip over each other? Albers is out.

Lap2
Safety car's out. Nico Rosberg has come together with Montoya and as a result has hit the wall. He's out and he may have taken Montoya with him.
Blimey what a lap. A long stop for Tiago but he's back out on track. No doubt there will be a few questions in the motor home about how that one happened.

Lap 4
Montagny's Honda has gone foom! Montoya's still in. Fisichella may get a jump start penalty. Sato has also pitted.

Lap 5.
Johnny Herbert: "Couldn't see what happened. Only saw what you did." The replay shows that Tiago thumped the rear of Christijan who was ahead at the hairpin. Christijan spun and the front end of the car may have damaged Tiago's suspension. Was that a bit of payback for Monte Carlo? Doubt it.

Lap 7
Fisi takes his drive through penalty. Alonso still leads but not by much from Kimi. Sato going very slowly.

Lap 9
Tiago is closing in on TS by nearly 4s per lap.

Lap 11
Gap to Takuma Sato is 12.3 seconds.

Lap 13
Barichello retires from 13th place. Montoya out. He may have thumped the wall of champions. Replay shows that he does. Tiago up to 17th with one thing or another and we are only on lap 15

Lap 19
Tiago 7 seconds behind Sato. Did James Allen just call himself a "neutral"?

Lap 24
Tiago is past Sato who pits for the second time. Ralf looks to be having problems.

Lap 26
Ralf stops at the hairpin. He's kept the engine running and will get back to the pit to retire? No, he pits and gets back out.

Lap 27
Alonso still leads. Button pits.

Lap29
Schumacher grazes the wall but doesn't appear to have damage the car. Webber seems to be slowing. Ralf takes a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Lap 32.
Half way through. Tiago having a very slow lap. 1.23 compared to Sato 1.22 and Ralf 1.21

Lap 36.
Button may have a problem. Tiago has another slow lap and actually pits on lap 37. He's straight back out so it's a scheduled stop.

Lap 38.
Speed and Liuzzi shown in the top 5 fastest cars through the speed trap. Restricted V10 my @rse.

Lap 41
Tiago is dropping further behind Sato with a 1.23 He's running 17th. Sato puts in his fastest lap so far a 1.20.490. Tiago is nearly 2 seconds slower. There must have been more damage than originally thought in the first lap incident.

Lap 47
Sato pits but Tiago unable to capitalise on it.

Lap 49
Alonso Pits for the last time. He must be able to run to the finish now. Ralf spins at the hairpin.

Lap 51
Scott speed pits. Fisi takes to the grass at turn 2. Tiago still dropping further behind Sato

Lap 53
Kimi Raikonnen stalls at the pit stop. Slow stop allows Schumacher to close the gap.

Lap 54
Ralf pits again (4th time)

Lap 56
Looks like the team are losing lots of time in the last very long straight sector.

Lap 59
Villeneuve hits the wall. Looks like he was trying to pass Ralf. His car gets on the dirt and ends up minus a front nose and left front wheel. Safety car out. This should make for an interesting end to the GP.

Lap 60
Ralf spins again at the hairpin. Tiago pits for the third time.

Lap 63
Safety car comes back in and ITV are still on a flaming ad break. Do we get to see if Alonso keeps 1st place? Only in a re-run. Ralf pits again and does retire. Alonso gets a good leap on Raikonnen. Trulli apparently held up Raikonnen at the re-start.

Lap 65
Safety car has brought Tiago within 1 second of Sato. Can he do anything to get past him by the end of the race? DC and Klien have an issue at the hairpin where there is so much tyre debris.

Lap 68
DC takes the last points paying place from Jenson Button.

Lap 69
Raikonnen has a nightmare at the hairpin. Loosing time and giving Schumacher another point. Sato has stuffed the car into the wall somewhere.

Lap 70
Fernando Wins. Schumacher 2nd and Raikonnen must be kicking himself in 3rd.

A cracking race as usual. Such a shame to see the Midland boys still arguing between themselves at the start. They need to keep an eye on this one.