F1 in Canada: Well, that crash was bound to happen
Rivals are starting to get under each others' skin as F1 races in Montreal.
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal has long been home to the Canadian Grand Prix. The artificial island was originally built for Expo 67 but was later remodeled for the 1976 Olympics; a race track was then constructed out of the roads on the island in 1978. F1 has come and gone in the US and Mexico in that time, but Canada has been a near-constant, missing just 2009.
Many of those races have been classics. 2007 saw Lewis Hamilton's first win, when he was a rookie with McLaren. (Takuma Sato's sixth place in the Super Aguri made that day even better.) 2010 had such extreme tire degradation that then-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone had Pirelli build that into its tires from 2011 as a feature, one that at times had a highly deleterious effect on racing.
Yesterday's race in Montreal will not be remembered as one of the all-time great Canadian F1 races. Well, perhaps it will by the Mercedes team, which scored its first win of the year with George Russell, and rookie Kimi Antonelli finished third, claiming his first podium. Montreal lacks the long-duration corners that overheat the Mercedes' tires past their best. Instead, it rewards good traction and good braking, both attributes that the silver arrows' car possesses.
