F1 Fanatic

Button caught and passed Alonso in traffic late in the race

Ferrari’s criticism of the new teams took a twist at the Canadian Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso blamed backmarkers for losing him the race.

But Felipe Massa took advantage of the lapped cars to pull off one of the best passes of the race. It proved one of few highlights in a frustrating race for Massa.

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Felipe Massa

The collision between Massa and Vitantonio Liuzzi on the first lap was ultimately a racing incident which both of them could have done more to avoid.

Massa had to pit with a broken front wing but was at least spared having to use the super-soft tyres again having started on them.

The highlight of his comeback drive was a gutsy dive past the other Force India of Adrian Sutil, who took his time passing Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus.

But a potential eighth-placed finish was lost when he collided with Michael Schumacher late in the race, knocking his front wing off a second time. “This was a horrible race,” was his verdict afterwards.

Compare Felipe Massa’s form against his team mate in 2010

Fernando Alonso

With the F10 looking far stronger this weekend than it had two weeks ago Alonso lined up third on the grid, promoted one place by Webber’s demotion.

He mirrored Lewis Hamilton’s opening stint on the super-soft tyres, pitting on the same lap as the McLaren driver and coming out ahead thanks to some speedy Ferrari pit-work.

But an attempt to pass new leader Sebastien Buemi around the outside of L’Epingle left Alonso vulnerable to a Hamilton counter-attack and a chance to take the lead was lost.

At the second round of pit stops Alonso was poised to get back ahead of Hamilton but he lost time behind Trulli’s Lotus and came out behind the McLaren once again.

He caught Hamilton and put him under pressure but when Hamilton got past Mark Webber at the start of lap 49, Alonso spent the rest of that lap stuck behind the Red Bull until Webber pitted. He never got that close to Hamilton again.

His concern now was an advancing Jenson Button in third place. Alonso was 1.2 seconds clear as he began lap 55 but caught Chandhok at turns six and seven, allowing Button a clean run at him and through into second place.

Afterwards Alonso counted the points lost:

We overtook [Hamilton] thanks to a fantastic pit stop from our guys in the pit lane and then we lost the position with some traffic and then we lost the position with traffic again with a Hispania in front in the last laps of the race with Jenson. In both of those cases we lost 10 points from 25 to 15 but we are still there in the championship.
Fernando Alonso

Compare Fernando Alonso’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 Canadian Grand Prix

• Technical review: Canadian Grand Prix
• Canadian Grand Prix was best race since Brazil 2008, F1 Fanatic readers say
• Kubica contact cost me fifth – Sutil
• “Can’t afford to just take points” – Hamilton
• Schumacher “closed the door too much”
• Alonso had fastest pit stop in Canada
• Alonso expects improvements at Ferrari
• 2010 Canadian Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
• Hamilton wins despite more pit stop problems (McLaren race review)
• Alonso blames traffic for losing first and second places (Ferrari race review)