Rate the race: 2012 Canadian Grand Prix

2012 Canadian Grand Prix

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What did you think of the Canadian Grand Prix? Share your verdict on today’s race.

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought were the best and worst races during a season.

Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (18%)
  • 9 (28%)
  • 8 (30%)
  • 7 (15%)
  • 6 (4%)
  • 5 (2%)
  • 4 (1%)
  • 3 (1%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (1%)

Total Voters: 797

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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223 comments on “Rate the race: 2012 Canadian Grand Prix”

  1. It took a while to get going, but when it did, what a race! 8/10

    1. Agreed

    2. Same here, 8/10 from me.

    3. Really happy for Lewis. Well overdue. Was really excited to see whether vettel & alonso would fall off the cliff. Remarkable that vettel could pit and pass alonso within so few laps! Really pleased also for grosean and Perez. Rosbergust be gutted at missing alonso by 0.4 seconds!

      Jacques Vilneauve said before qualifying that he feels that jenson is a more complete driver that Lewis. I like jenson buy completely disagree. Lewis not only proves he has speed, but also seems to be more adaptable. We have more often seen jenson being more unhappy if the setup isn’t to his liking, far more often than that with Lewis. 

      1. I couldn’t agree with you more regarding Jenson vs Lewis. I think most of us will readily admit that Lewis is hands down the quicker driver. At times (last season especially) Jenson was more consistent… my biggest criticism of him (and with Vettel to an extent) is that his performance window… ie: the range where he’s able to get get the most out of the package… is extremely narrow. If the setup isn’t spot on, there’s not a damn thing he can do with it. On the other hand Lewis has proven time & time again that he can wring the neck of an unruly car & force it to produce a decent result (him & Alonso both… especially Alonso)

        Jenson beat Lewis last year because Hamilton basically imploded midway through the season. He was consistent & picked up points when Lewis retired & got in trouble, & was more instrumental in deciding his own strategy, but he was never visibly quicker than Hamilton. Fast forward to this year, and Lewis has shown up with a boat load of consistency & tire management that has proven to be superior to Jenson so far. The communication between LH & his engineers has improved… I’m sure others have noticed this as well. He’s driving with his head, managing the gaps & tire wear (HUGE improvement here), as well as continually asking about what other drivers are doing. All these improvements as well as retaining the speed advantage definitely has Hamilton looking like the more complete driver this season for sure. It’ll be between him & Alonso in the end, IMO.

        1. Lewis has proven time & time again that he can wring the neck of an unruly car & force it to produce a decent result (him & Alonso both… especially Alonso)

          Totally agree. Alonso has been the epitome of that this season, which is why he’s so high in the championship standings, despite the difficulties with the car early on in the season. Wouldn’t have believed anyone that he’d be where be is now of someone had have said in following Oz

        2. the range where he’s able to get get the most out of the package… is extremely narrow

          Agree. We’ve seen Jenson struggle with the car way too often in his career. Heck, even in his championship winning season he was terrible in the 2nd half of the season.

          I was shocked to see Jenson perform the way he did in 2011.. maybe it was because he adapted to the tyres quicker while the other drivers were still getting to grips with it. Either ways, it looks like his hot streak has come to an end, and I expect him to get hammered by Lewis this season and every other season he stays at Mclaren.

          1. Nigelstash (@)
            11th June 2012, 19:36

            Jenson won his WDC with a double diffuser. His best season since was the year of EBD. It seems that if he can stick the back end to the ground he’s happy. If not…

    4. Dzi (@dzaci214sid)
      10th June 2012, 22:05

      8 from me too.

      1. I’m jumping in the 8 bandwagon also.

      2. Jayfreese (@)
        11th June 2012, 11:46

        8 out of 10, maybe once again DRS is long to come in Lap 2 and the zone of activation is too long aswell, every overtake was mid-straight ones, a shame. Amazing job from Lewis, Romain and Checo!
        Congrats to Ferrari for their strategy crew, who do not react when they lose 4 seconds a lap! Kobayashi was close to make a pass on Alonso’s car.

        1. Jayfreese (@)
          11th June 2012, 19:47

          Rosberg not Kobayashi

    5. Yes, I liked it all! those less entertaining laps were a build up for the last 20 but anyways all battles were ruined by DRS ruined it, let’s hope for a ban or new no restriciton rule.

    6. yes but 5 interesting laps after 65 processional laps are not enough to be more than average for F1.

  2. 10. Great race except Alonso’s disappointing slipping away.

    1. 10. So the whole race was amazing?

      People appear to be voting based on the end just like last year. Realistically only 15 laps of a 70 lap race were good.

      8/10

      1. Peedy Slimmz
        10th June 2012, 21:00

        Come on! First 20 laps where great and the last 20 epic. 9/10

        1. Still leaves 30 laps, based on your reasoning that makes it 6/10…

          1. I loved every lap.

            Does because there isn’t a pass happening RIGHT NOW, doesn’t mean it isn’t fascinating.

      2. I thought the same. 8 based on me becoming a bit disinterested in the middle. I felt like I was just waiting until the last pit stops to see how the race developed. Luckily, it developed brilliantly. However, if wasn’t desperate to see Hamilton win I might have appreciated a non-DRS pass on Vettel.

        1. I felt the same, middle 40 laps were quite boring, almost all passes were done via DRS. That is NOT what I call great or even epic. Also the result is very disappointing to me but I tried not to consider that. So much for “we understand the tires” by the way.

          1. What I did get a kick from was after the first stop seeing Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton running nose-to-tail. Almost certainly the 3 best in the sport, and in 3 different cars, all competitive (and more equal than the last few years), all fighting it out on track for the top 3 places. Spectacular image!

          2. Although I’d argue that generally most do understand the tyres. It’s just that Ferrari and Red Bull were stupid with their strategy. They were behind Hamilton, but tried to keep to his pace, despite surely knowing that his pace relied on an extra pit stop. And then when they started losing out they still didn’t pit, despite it being clear it was only getting worse. So Vettel did pit, too late, having lost too much time, and Alonso still didn’t despite his drop-off only getting worse. Ferrari and Red Bull played themselves into a corner the second Hamilton had his first great lap following his final stop, and then they just exacerbated it.

          3. Even though me personally, I would have preferred taiking a second place by pitting after they saw Hamiltons pace, I do ‘admire’ that they decided they want to try and go for the win instead of a safe podium. Once they saw Massas tyres were done after about 45 laps they should have considered pitting once again but they tried to hold onto the win. And lost (but who can blame them for thinking Alonso might have done better at preserving the tyres). Sad about the podium and WDC lead being thrown away but thats life I guess.

            About the race, I feel DRS took a lot away from it. In contrast to german commentators and many people here I did absolutely not get excited by the passes on the long straight today, most of them being finished way before the braking point. But it was intended to allow faster cars to get past slower ones and that worked so I don’t want to whine about it.

          4. @bananarama the DRS detection zone was in the wrong place being set after the hairpin. You could see it with Schumacher and (I think) Kobayashi where if you made a good non-DRS pass into the hairpin, the other driver can then get you with the DRS down the straight. It should have been before the hairpin.

      3. Who defined a 10 as the whole race being amazing?

        If you feel that the wholesome product resulted in a great show, why not a 10? We saw varying strategies, people trying to make one stoppers and some passing.

        Lewis’ pass on Fernando with both on fresh tires was fun! For me at least….

        1. I did a 9, really was a great race. Lots of different strategies and a few surprise outcomes :D

        2. artificial racer
          11th June 2012, 18:34

          A 10 race should be among the best ever races, not merely a race you enjoyed watching.

        3. If you dont need the whole race to be amazing for 10, what do you give a race that IS exciting every lap? there is no 11.

      4. Agree 100%

        First few laps ok, last 15 pretty exciting, but honestly – it was a pretty boring race. This was even echoed by Brundle and Croft during the commentary.

        China has been by far and away the best race this season!

        1. Maybe some don’t measure their opinion based on sky’s commentary.

    2. agree. This was a 10/10 race.

    3. Alonso will keep any driver on their toes.

    4. Certainly, after the race Alonso defended the strategy, blaming the tire degradation, but what were they expecting from such old tires?

      I happened to co-host the commentary studio for the local national TV (lovely experience), so I’ve had all the resources needed to see that the tactic was wrong.

      Nevertheless, I voted 7. The race built up properly and the podium was certainly unexpected.

      1. Grosjean used the exact same strategy and he came 2nd.

        1. I doubt he was running at the same pace as Alonso was in the second stint to keep in touch with Hamilton though.

  3. 8 from me. drs took the edge off it, twice for the lead. otherwise, good race :)

    1. I agree. I’m giving it 9. It could have been a 10 if not for DRS denying us much real overtaking.

    2. It strikes me that the next technical move should be to halve DRS’s effectiveness. We’ve gone from overtaking being too difficult to too easy. So surely we should just modulate the rule?

      1. artificial racer
        11th June 2012, 18:39

        DRS was the worst part of the race… not only making passing on the straight too easy, but penalizing passing somewhere else (e.g. Schumacher vs. Kobayashi).

        I enjoyed the race but the battling was mostly strategic in nature. I probably shouldn’t be too negative though.

    3. To be fair I think the tyres were what made Lewis’s return to the front particularly easy. Alonso and Vettel just had no traction out of the hairpin. Hamilton was more-o-less alongside Alonso before the DRS flap opened anyway. The overtake by Roman Grojean on Alonso showed this as well.

      I gave it 10. For a dry race to kick up such a tense atmosphere was brilliant. And the added factor of Roman and Sergio making a comeback out of nowhere towards the end was the icing on the cake.

      I hope Valencia can kick up something at least half as good as that!… but not holding out…

    4. I don’t think DRS made a huge difference when it comes to results, but the passes look cheaper with this system. I think that without DRS we would see exactly the same outcome, with one exception: Schumacher would probably finish the race.

      Other that it was a real thriller: 9/10.

      1. I agree completely with this comment. The DRS didn’t make much difference. Alonso’s tyres were so worn out that he had no traction. Hamilton, Grosjean and maybe even Perez would have passed him anyway. Maybe he would be able to fend off Vettel, but I doubt it.

        Good race though, 8/10. Glad for Hamilton. 7th winner out of 7 races, how amazing is that? Maybe next race we get a Lotus or maybe even Schumacher getting a win, but I think the next race is going to be someone who already won one this year. But it’s getting ridiculously umpredictable.

        1. There were a couple of occasions when I thought a driver was going to pass someone going into the final hairpin, but inevitably they decided to do it the easy way by waiting for DRS on the subsequent straight. That’s why I don’t like it. Instead of overtaking happening all over the place and being a skill, drivers know they can wait to use DRS and pass without much effort. Hamilton would have got past Alonso and Vettel anyway, but that’s exactly the point: without DRS he would have had to work a little bit harder, and pull off his manoeuvres somewhere unexpected, which would have made it all the more exciting to watch.

    5. Come on, Hamilton’s first pass on Alonso was much more than just DRS. Superb maneouvring and real bravery were needed to make that. It was exceptional, I thought. Also he would almost certainly have got past both without DRS in the final stint because of the tyre differences.

      1. As another said above, DRS didn’t really change the development of the race but made it look cheaper.

    6. I disagree. My opinion is that first of all, assuming two cars are similarly quick, either can counter DRS by staying within one second the next go around. Second of all, Alonso and Vettel’s tires went off, which is why Lewis’s passes looked so dramatic.

    7. 7 for me. dont understand how it could be higher than 8 anyway. DRS ruined two potentially crucial overtakes by hamilton.

      people shouldn’t vote 10s just because a 7th driver finally won.

    8. i’m making a steward’s decision and correcting my vote from 8 to 7. good race, but not spectacular. you guys are way too extreme with your scores, usually too generous imho :P

  4. 9 for me..
    Good first couple laps – very clean..
    Bit slow then for a bit, but picked up massivelly arould the first pit stop window.
    Not a great deal excitement then for a few laps.. But the last 30 ish laps were amazing..

  5. 9. The start was uneventful, not a great deal of first corner passes. Fanatastic after that seeing two stops competing with one stops, and the perfect length of DRS in my opinion.

  6. DRS Sucks!!!!!!!

    I want to see drivers racing, drivers defending & really fighting. Watching drivers push a button & cruise past with the car been past able to do nothing isn’t racing, isn’t entertaining & just made me turn the TV off with 2 laps still to go.

    1. I don’t feel DRS made much effect to be honest..
      The passes that were made by it would of been made anyway in my opinion, due to tyre’s etc.. There wasn’t a massive amount of DRS overtaking either i didn’t think.. (ie compared to some races last year, and was easier to defend that this time last year too)

      1. If they would have happened anyway then why have DRS?

        What was so exciting about watching boring DRS passes?
        It sucks, I hate it & im starting to lose intrestin F1 because of it!

        I want to watch good racing & that wasn’t good racing it was dead boring, unexciting & totally ruined the race.

        1. I cannot agree more, it was just horrible.

        2. “If they would have happened anyway then why have DRS?”

          So it can create oppertunities where there sometimes wouldnt be… Yes it wasnt needed for a few of the overtakes this afternoon, but for some it helped/created an oppertunity (and very often the oppertunity didn’t translate into a certain overtake)

          “…it was dead boring, unexciting & totally ruined the race.”

          I fail to see how it was boring, or ruined the race.. The overtakes that were made by DRS were generally made by cars that were significantly faster, and would of passed anyway.. Between very even cars, it often wasn’t that effective..

          1. I fail to see how it was boring

            whats so exciting about drs passes?
            there is nothing exciting about watching any of them.

            watching a driver sail easily past another thanks to drs is dead boring to watch for a fan of RACING!

            Im sick of watching boring, easy & uncontested drs drive by passing, not exciting to watch at all!

          2. whats so exciting about drs passes?

            It’s not easy at all however, When Hamilton passed Alonso near the end Alonso’s tyres were shot, so of course it was easy, Alonso had no grip left.

    2. Precisely, and cause Hamilton was the one who activated the DRS, no much dismay was given. All cheers for a good pass by the British.

      1. DRS made no difference in the final laps. Alonso lost his positions because his tyres were dying and opponents were couple of seconds per lap faster.

        1. Spot on, DRS made no difference at all here. Can’t remember who but someone caught Alonso at a rate of 3 secs a lap.

          1. Sergio Perez caught Alonso at 3 secs a lap. Vettel caught Alonso at nearly 5 secs a lap.

    3. What is wrong for an overtaken driver to get back and retake a the next lap at DRS zone?? Unless he is slow or on a different strategy! DRS adds a bit of UMPH for the races.

      Races used to be very monotonous & boring with little overtaking. Atleast now the drivers can have a wee assist to pass slow cars.

      1. Exactly.. If the cars are that even and the drivers are both on it and fighting, then surely they’d just DRS the driver they just got overtaken by the next lap.. Very rarely do you see that, if you do get a DRS overtake it is generally because the guy overtaking has the pace that the other driver hasn’t.

        1. Totally agree. Without DRS, the only other way to get the current F1 cars overtake by slipstreaming is to change the circiuits itself to have longer straights and wider tracks unfortunately or some real change in the rules to change the way the cars driving in the front disturb the air.

        2. What I tried to say up there. Well said.

        3. So, DRS is doing what it was designed to do? Wow :S

    4. sid_prasher (@)
      10th June 2012, 21:06

      I dont think DRS made all that of a difference….when your tires are already 2 sec off the pace…

      1. All these people that keep on having a cry about DRS need to smarten up. All the teams are in the same boat! You think Webber enjoyed any help from DRS today? His race was ruined when he got stuck behind Perez and Raikkonen. Red Bull not smart enough to focus on the race instead of one lap pace is what cost Webber some good points today.

  7. 9 from me. Drama at the end, shame it wasn’t battle for the first place.

  8. Excellent race. Well done GRO and PER. Very enjoyable race indeed. DRS worked perfectly, I think. Pirelli Tyres were good as well. 8/10

  9. Only 5 from me.

    Race was OK but DRS took a lot of the fun out of it. Had there been more real overtakes I’d have given it a higher mark but there was far too many easy DRS passes going on.

    1. See above. You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of drivers who would have passed Alonso as Hamilton did. He knew full well he had just the lap to catch Alonso while his tyres were warming. Alonso stalled him well going onto the straight and left a tiny window of opportunity even with the DRS available. As he drew near, Alonso blocked Hamilton on the right and it took superb reactions to switch to make the pass on the left in time.

      It wasn’t just DRS.

      1. It wasn’t just DRS.

        But it was.

        Lewis was 3-4 car lengths back when he opened DRS & DRS drove him clean past alonso before they got anywhere near the braking zone.

        1. Lewis has so much more grip he would have driven clean passed anyway!

        2. Nonsense, Hamilton was already on his way past before the DRS activation line as a result of his superb driving as accurately described by David BR2.

          1. Hamilton was already on his way past before the DRS activation line

            lewis was alongside alonsos rear wheels when they got to the drs activation line but the speed difference wasnt massive & without DRS we would have seen a good side by side fight down the straght & lewis would have had to finish the job in the braking zone.

            thats the issue with drs, it takes away good racing & instead just drives people clean past.

            alonso tyres may have been finished, however al least without drs he would have had a chance to at least try & defend. drs just made him a sitting duck & to me that isnt racing & isnt exciting.

            i want good racing, i want to see some good battling with some good, exciting overtaking & drs does not do this.

          2. clive’s comment is spot on. even with badly worn tyres, alonso could have still kept side by side with lewis in a straight line.

          3. @sato113….can’t agree with that. alonso’s tyres were shot, which means he a) couldn’t carry the same speed as hamilton through the hairpin and b) couldn’t get on the power as soon or as aggressively as hamilton out of the hairpin. he was dead in the water without going anywhere near newton’s laws of motion. drs made no difference on the result of that overtake.

          4. @spankythewondermonkey yes under acceleration ALO was very poor coz of his tyres, but alonso could maintain a constant speed similar to hamilton’s when HAM pulled up alongside him on the straight. only with DRS then activated, could HAM blast past. watch a replay and you’ll see.

          5. @sato113
            yes, but to get to vmax, you need to accelerate. if you can’t get the power down, the acceleration is slower, then the distance (& time) to vmax is longer. v²=u²+2as
            i may be wrong, but i thought hamilton’s speed compared to alonso meant the overtake was well under way before the DRS activation point.

          6. @spankythewondermonkey yes you are right hamilton was in a good position to overtake anyway without DRS, that would have been a more thrilling spectacle though. DRS made it too easy. HAM’s acceleration was far superior, so he caught up. but worn tyres or not, there speed would have been very similar from the point they were side by side. (HAM wouldnt have had much of a slipstream because he was side by side so early down the straight.) ALO could have tucked back under Hamilton and used slipstream to retake the position. but DRS negates that too.

          7. @jerseff1 i dont think he was well past before the drs line. see this video from 0.29 secs in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvtKvleah38

            and @spankythewondermonkey the video haleps explain my arguement.

          8. sorry that should be @jerseyf1

          9. The point is good drivers will maximize what they have available to them. DRS in my view just meant Lewis could get past without risk of an incident. But the car handling required to make that manoeuvre was still exceptional and brave, as I saw it and numerous journalists I’ve read saw it. I really don’t understand the blasé attitude from people on this site at times.

            As for DRS, ironically I’ve always been against, precisely because it seems to me a way of ensuring that the talent of the best drivers is blunted ‘for the show.’ Remember before DRS? The only ones doing much overtaking were Hamilton and a handful of others. It’s weird how this has suddenly become an issue in this race, particularly from a lot of people who’ve been backing the use of DRS the whole time! Presumably just because Alonso and Vettel were passed.

          10. I’m certainly no fan of DRS and I wouldn’t support it staying in F1, but my point is that I disagree with the comments that say DRS made the race dull (and in particular that it significantly changed the final overtake for the lead which was in fact all about tyres).

            Not only would Hamilton have made the pass with or without DRS it would have been like taking candy from a baby either way too. Regardless of the fact that Alonso’s ultimate top speed may have been as high or higher (but achieved later) – his lack of rubber meant that Hamilton could have out-braked him by a country mile. If he’d remained stuck on the inside line he would have had to brake even earlier as we saw just how wide he had to take the hairpin to make it round at any speed at all. That would have been no more a show of great driver skill than the overtake we saw. DRS clearly changed the nature of the pass but as David BR2 says he simply maximised the tools available to keep the pass simple and safe. Alonso is no doubt a great driver and did put up a bit of a fight, but no amount of driver skill was going to keep that McLaren behind him.

  10. 9 for me there was no saftycar and the over taking was fantastic .

  11. 7, and only that hight because of the winners.

  12. That was the most exciting artificial race ever. 8

  13. Great race. Again proves the point that we should be racing at the classic tracks that we know provide great races, and not go to tracks with big investors. Bring back imola!

  14. Pretty enjoyable. Not too silly with tyres going off and DRS passes by the dozen. A well-judged DRS zone I think.

    Tyres/Strategies worked very well though!

  15. DRS was too much. Nothing happened till lap 50.

    But boy, the last 20 laps after HAM’s 2nd pitstop were brilliant! A 9 from me.

  16. 7/10. There were quite a few boring spells during the race. When the real racing got going, it wasn’t that exciting to watch as most of the passes were motorway passes, either because of DRS or because the defending driver was defenseless because of their tyres.

    1. totally agree.

    2. yeah 7 or 6 seems legit.

  17. 8, too much DRSing. Hamilton’s win is not enough to automatically call it a great race.

    1. @cyclops_pl I think it is when he had to fight back from two pretty shody pit-stops and a blunder from the McLaren strategy folk regarding how many times RBR and Ferrari were going to stop. They pitted Hamilton assuming that he would adopt 1st when Alonso and Vettel pitted but instead he caught them and passed them.

      1. Don’t get me wrong here, Hamilton earned this victory in every bit and this is definitely a plus for the spectacle, since this win was so close and yet so far in couple of previous races, but except for the action around him the race was pretty mediocre for what Montreal got us used to.

  18. Only 4 from me purely because the DRS passing was far, far too easy.
    DRS hurt the racing today far more than it helped it, did nothing but produce dull & ridiculously easy artifial passing.

  19. All virtual. Slowly fading into position, with easy as pie passing. Reckless choice by Alonso and Vettel doesn’t mean great racing.

    6+.

  20. 9. The first half was a bit tame and DRS was probably a little too effective, but I agree the passes would probably have happened anyway, so I won’t take any points off. Good to see Grosjean and Perez up there, proving that a one-stop could work.

  21. It was a brilliant race. Very strategical, and very unpredictable even during the race. I’d have never thought Grosjean or Perez could get so far ahead. And when Hamilton was 15 secs behind Alonso after his 2nd stop, I thought it was game over for him. But no… brilliant. A bit 9.

    Couple of things do: I’ve always said this but it’s still showing. Who choses the DRS zones? why put the DRS in the easiest place to overtake?! You could see Hamilton having a look at Alonso, as Alonso was struggling a lot for grip. Hamilton could’ve got him anywhere, but he didn’t, he waited until the DRS zone. That’s rubbish and needs to be changed.

    1. Agreed, the DRS zone was silly. Quite a few of those passes would have happened anyway, but they would be more exciting without the DRS as they would be battiling till the braking zone for position, but no, they just storm past 400 meters before the corner.

      I bet it would be much better if the zone was in the pit straight or in the run for the final hairpin.

      While we’re talking about DRS, didn’t they all say last year that, if the DRS failed while opened, then it would be shut down automatically purely form the aerodynamic pressure on the wing? I guess Schumacher must be wondering that too…

      1. Pretty much agree as well. DRS really was not needed this race, or it should have been shorter. That would have made some of the battles last a lap or 2 longer. But it still was a very nice race with real fights for the lead (great defense from Alonso on those shot tyres).

        1. @bascb it’s time now they try to do a race without DRS. They tried with 2 zones, 1 zone, now NO zone… Spa anyone?

      2. @guilherme Don’t remember what you’re saying about the DRS. As it’s a mechanical-hydraulic system, I think once it deploys (as it’s an hidraulic piston that pushes the flap open), it’d not really close because of aerodynamic pressure. 3 mechanics couldn’t even close it.

        Plus, there’s hardly any aerodynamic pressure, is there? the wing is flat open… I think this is the first ever DRS problem since they implemented the system, right? Glad they told Michael about it in time… imagine if it happened while racing someone in the backstraight…

        1. @fer-no65 I don’t remember who said it but I remember someone saying when they introduced it that should the system fail while open, it would shut back down – although I was skeptical on that for the reason you described. Although I believe that at such speeds, if there is no hidraulic pressure holding the thing up, there surely is enough aero pressure to bring it back down :P

          By the looks of it it was either a hydraulic problem with the mechanism of with the eletronics controlling it. Still, not a very safe thing. This time the corner after the zone was a slow one, but if it was at, say, Suzuka, Schumacher would have had a very nasty crash!

          1. @guilherme Yeah, well, if it was the hydraulics had failed, yeah, the wing probably would’ve closed… specially after those 3 guys in the pits pushed hard down to get it closed xD.

            It probably was, as you say, the mechanism that activates it rather than the hydraulic system itself. I thought about that when they were trying to close it down… and yeah, hope FIA looks at it alongside Mercedes because it’s a real worry if that happens again… specially at high-downforce tracks…

        2. Mercedes does something with their flap others don’t as we know. Maybe the FIA should take a look. An essential safety feature of the system is that it does not stick open.

  22. 4
    Had potential, but utterly ruined by stupid DRS. Actually angry after watching that. Waste of an evening.
    DRS is killing my love of the sport.

  23. 10!
    I was glued to screen just before the first stops to the end!

  24. i have supported drs in the past but after today think it should be banned.

    im a fan of hamilton so am glad to see him win today, however i would have prefered to see him really have to fight his way by vettel & alonso. watching him take the lead really easily twice just by pushing a button takes away a lot of joy from seeing my favorite driver win today.

    im only giving it a 4.

  25. 6 from me. The end was thrilling, the start was mildly interesting but nothing really happened in the middle.

    1. @dan-thorn The first pit-stops provided some early excitement but yes, it went quiet after that. However, at least the drivers were close to each other.

  26. Best race so far this year, well worth a 6.

  27. Good, good race. 9/10 from me. Brilliantly close racing throughout, which was evident when the top 9 finished within 25s of each other. The right driver won and two other excellent performances resulted in Grosjean and Perez ending up on the podium.

    DRS unfortunately robbed us of Red Bull’s pit-stop strategy of getting Vettel out in front of Alonso for the long-haul but that’s only a minor criticism.

    Shame for Schumacher, he really is having a nightmare :(

  28. I thought it was a great race, so gave it a 9. Everyone drove well with no stupid manouvers, the DRS helped overtaking, but most of the moves at the would have been done on the straight anyway due to Alonso and Vettel’s tyres disappearing, so I don’t think it made overtaking too easy. It’s also great to see Grosjean and Perez on the podium, they both held onto their tyres brilliantly. It’s also nice for the run of different winners to continue, making it 7 out of 7.

  29. Its a 9 from me, very close racing, very strategic and very interesting, DRS made things relatively straightforward to pass but I don’t mind that, it meant that those with pace were able to use it. Enjoyed every minute.

  30. 10. Great first few laps; tense, tactical mid-section; then a hectic and epic last 20 laps.
    It was like Hockenheim 08 all over again. Amazing.

  31. This one is a 10 for me because:
    a) I am Canadian 
    b) Good amount of passing
    c) Varying strategies & seeing those tires fall of the cliff
    d) Surprising looking podium finishers
    e) History making 7th winner out of 7 races.

    Having said that, could it have gone any better for Hamilton? The race win would have been handy enough but to see Gosjean and Perez take places from his main rivals to propel him into the championship lead….. wow!

  32. The final laps had me screaming, especially when Vettel passed Alonso, but the rest was…****.

    7/10. I really don’t like these “procession until the end when the tyres get messed up” races. Yes, I’d very much rather have complete processions.

  33. I am a die-hard Lewis fan but I gave it a 9!! I dont think anything can ever be perfect and warrant a 10 but today was definitely great. We had all the cars on the track for an extended period, no safety cars, and we also saw some very good drives like Perez from 15th. Cant ask for more, I dont car what you say but that was a race, my heart was beating so fast towards the end; unlike Monaco I feel like we actually saw some driving and guys battling to get everything they can out of the cars. Brilliant!!!!!

  34. 9, He’s back! :)

  35. Hamilton passing Vettel and Alonso to win in the final laps of the Canadian Grand Prix should be thrilling. Actually, it was dishwater dull.

    In short, the formula has become a dumbed down joke with lots of glittery attractions to enthrall those with the attention span of a goldfish. One mistake – visiting a crap circuit like Abu Dhabi for the final race of the 2010 season – has garnered support for a much more vitiating set of debasements.

    Like Pepsi, DRS and candy tyres taste sweet in the afterglow of the sup, but the sensation swiftly fades and in the long run it’ll only give you toothache. I wouldn’t swap my Laphroaig for a Pepsi, and neither should have Bernie. Count me disinterested in F1 until it grows its balls back and stops catering to the lowest common denominator. If that means losing a few TV bucks in the short-to-medium term, so be it.

    1. HAM’s last passes were ‘dull’ because they couldn’t put up a fight due to badly worn tires. Not because of DRS.

      1. That clearly wasn’t the case: Alonso defended from Hamilton through turns seven, eight, nine and ten – then he was zapped in the DRS zone.

        1. Didn’t looke like defending to me; looked more like Hamilton being carefull not to run off his front wing and Alonso really struggling with his tyres. Because of that Alonso had very bad traction out of the hairpin. Hamilton was already alongside Alonso before Hamilton was allowed to use DRS. He would have passed Alonso anyhow; DRS only made it quicker.

      2. As I said, the DRS and the bizarre tyre performance combine to bring about lots of passing, but the contribution of this plenitude of cheap overtaking to F1 as entertainment and as a sport is tawdry, and at the same time these changes to the formula have reduced the amount of driver skill involved, reduced the occurrence of genuinely exciting, meaningful duels (like the one between Hamilton and Alonso in Canada 2010), robbed us of an entertaining battle between Button (whose terrible form surely isn’t attributable to his inherent capacity to drive a normal F1 car with sensibly designed tyres) and the other title contenders, and reduced the gravitas of the whole thing.

        I’m glad to see Lewis back to his best, but I can’t say I’m enamored of this race nor of the 2011 and 2012 seasons in general.

        1. I am also critical about the tyres, but clearly Alonso and Vettel should have pitted. I find it very normal that one can overtake cars that drive on 30 laps older tyres. Norging bizarre about that, just logic.

    2. I think it’s totally unfair to criticize the two DRS passes for the lead. It’s almost as if some of us are trying to ignore the fact that prior to catching both Vettel & Alonso, Lewis was reeling them in steadily to the tune of over a second a lap. The real travesty would’ve been if after that we were forced to watch him trundle around behind them on their worn tires. When LH took Alonso, he was alongside him even before he opened his DRS. It definitely made the passes easier, but Ham drove his ass off to get back in touch with them & deserved the win.

      I notice that there seems to be a school of thought that says a race can’t be exciting without a slew of overtaking, but much like Monaco last week, there was a lot more to enjoy from this weeks race than just the number of overtakes. I suppose it’s because I always keep one eye on the live timing while I watch the race: there’s ALWAYS something worth paying attention to that you won’t see on the world feed. Watching how the times stack up from sector to sector, seeing who’s gaining or losing time & where exactly it’s happening, trying to work out tire wear & strategy based on pit stops & lap times… there’s so much to take in! I’m sorry, but it is my opinion that if all you’re doing is watching the broadcast on TV, then you’re not really watching F1.

  36. 8
    Very impressive start from the 24 drivers in turn 1

    Only 15 laps in the middle where it went quiet but a brilliant battle with the top 5 at the end with all the different strategys coming together

    1. @mrgrieves Good point about the start, very clean indeed.

  37. A 9 for me, great action on the track but DRS was just to much. And to think they cut it down from last year. What happend to Schumacher was verry weird, No one’s seen that one yet! I was amazed he made it around the lap to return to the pits that fast. Great race from Hamilton phew!

    When he made his last pit-stop and the two guys in front didn’t come in i thought it to be a huge mistake. If he had stayed out with the other two Grosjean and Perez would have on them! What a sight that could have been.

    Great race, cant wait for Valencia. Hey never thought i’d say that. Lets hope the 2012 formlula can finally spice up this race

  38. Well done to Hamilton been a long time coming this season ….Hopefully the first of many

  39. I gave it a 4.

    Up until the last 15 laps or so not a whole lot happened; I even went down stairs to put the kettle on without fear of missing anything.

    Massa’s start was interesting (until he spun it), would have been nice to see him keep that pace up.

    From then on it was pretty dead until Schumacher makes that impressive divebomb on a Sauber… only for DRS to whomp him on the next straight. Then he had the failure which kicked him out of the race.

    The only redeeming factor in the race for me was Lewis’ pace on his final stint. It was nice to see him drive all out to catch those ahead of him, but once he got there it was basically a case of a faster car on better tyres with DRS to breeze past those ahead of him.

    I’m happy that Perez and Grosjean made their strategies work, but overall the race felt a little too artificial in terms of where people ended up.

    It wasn’t a race that I’d be interested in re-watching on the highlights reel, but at least it wasn’t a Valencia either.

    1. How is it artificial? By saying it was artificial I get the feeling you are implying the result would not have been the same had there been no drs or the unpredictable tires. The way I see it is that everyone is on equal footing as every driver has access to the drs systems and is driving on the same tires. In the end the winner is determined by how the driver manages these systems. This was dry race with no safety cars, it was just 24 drivers who all had the same tools racing.

      1. @img343

        Yep, but it’s rate the race, not rate the result. The result may have been the same without DRS, but at least those overtaking would’ve had to work for it! In my eyes bad racing makes a bad race..

      2. @img343

        Regarding equality, DRS is not an equal system (KERS and Tyres are for the most part, everybody has an opportunity to make them work), it’s designed to benefit the driver behind. With it in F1 the art of defending is fading away fast.

        I’m not taking anything away from Lewis’ win (far from it, he drove it very well) but in terms of excitement (which is how I rated the race), it’d have scored a lot higher if he was forced to “properly” overtake those ahead of him instead of being given a free pass.

  40. really fed up of watching these crap & unexciting drs passes.

    seeing a car overtake another car, especially for the lead & in the closing laps shoudl be exciting yet today it was ridiculously dull.

    drs is robbing us of good racing.

  41. Loving these 3+ way battles for the lead

  42. 10. What a race!!!
    This is why we love F1 so much :D

  43. sid_prasher (@)
    10th June 2012, 21:09

    On days like this I miss a bit of the old defensive drive…one thing for sure is that the teams are still not very sure of when the tire performance will drop off.

  44. 7 for me – I found it really pretty dull until the last 20 laps or so. Glad to see Lewis win but agree with others that the passing felt very artificial.

  45. 7 for me…… again, thanks to Mercedes for producing a error free racing.

  46. 8. I would’ve said 9 if it wasn’t for the mid-race procession. And this was probably the most quiet Canadian Grand Prix in ages…seemed a bit odd to me, to be honest. However the mixed strategies made for an good, enjoyable race. End of the race in particular.

    Hamilton rewriting history – well done! Those 2 glitches in the pits again are forgiven…-ish. And what a race for Perez! 3rd from 15th! A couple more and Sauber could very well be in the position to tackle Mercedes’ 5th place in the standings. Grosjean – deserved 2nd this time. Well deserved! Put on a strong, consistent and clean performance, how it should be done. Hopefully it’s gonna start happening more often.

    As for Alonso, I wouldn’t rate his gamble as disappointing. It was a bit of a bet he took with the tires there. Might have worked if Vettel would have posed more of a problem to Hamilton and if the spaniard would have hit the cliff a couple of laps later.

    As for the rest of the field:
    – mixed feelings for Rosberg’s maneouver on Massa, in front of Perez. Legal but not fair play if you ask me. And Rosberg has precedent for there kind of things…
    – Button is in a bad-bad place at the moment, and I guess the same could go for Senna – stayed more than 1/4 of the race behind the two Caterhams. Sub-par to say the least.
    – What in god’s name happened to Di Resta?! He looked very quick at the start of the race only to fade after the first pit stop… Too bad. Would have credited Force India with a good chance for a points finish here.
    – Massa, throwing some of what might have been a top 6 finish (even a top 5 and in front of Alonso) away again…
    – Raikkonen, saved as much as it could have been saved after quali…
    – Schumacher, I can’t even be bothered to try and understand what’s happening between him and his Mercedes. Either he’s beating that car like a horse and it simply can’t take it or…I don’t know. Frustrating is a kind word to describe his situation this season, and the worst thing…nothing even shows it could get better.
    – Too bad for HRT, a finish in front of the Marussias seemed like a sure thing for them yesterday.
    – Torro Rossos – completely invisible except for Ricciardo’s small mistake towards the end of the race.

    Anyway, let’s brace ourselves for a boring Valencian procession. At least we have LeMans till then…

  47. Is this the 1st all GP2 graduate podium?

  48. I gave it a 9, it was a superb race with my favourite driver winning it. I think this race the tyres behaved very well and I don’t understand the criticism, If some drivers didnt do a one stopper i think that people whould not be mad at pirelli and drs, In Canada you should know that the rears tend to go off because of the tracks nature. About the DRS i only can say that if the drivers didnt choose to pull a long stint on the tyres they would have been able to defend with kers I think.

  49. so I gave it a 6. Was thinking about 7 but just decided to vote HAM for the driver of the weekend instead.

  50. Superb race, but the DRS was still way too powerful. All the late duels, except Vettel on Alonso was ruined completely by it. And because of the DRS, the winner was given by the time Hamilton was catching Alonso and Vettel by over a second a lap. Other then that, really exciting!

  51. The criticism on DRS is fully understandible and correct but why do I get the feeling without it the current form of F1 wouldn’t give us any. Difficult to say!

    1. correction: why do i get the feeling without it the current form of f1 wouldn’t give us any overtaking . da** *t

  52. Not a classic by any means, but a good race! I gave it an 8!

    Thing is… it’s probably the worst canadian gp in the last 3 years, but it was still bloody good!

  53. Great race! 9/10 Anything better than a win and being first in the championship for Lewis? :)

    Though, McLaren messed up Hamilton’s pit stop again! They must correct these mistakes because it WILL be costly for Lewis. Ferrari and RBR throw away valuable points!

    Grosjean and Perez fantastic “silent stalkers” hahaha
    They suddenly appeared when I almost forgot them!

    1. His strategy was on par, if he had stayed out till the end he would have finished 4th or below instead he won the race,hows that messing up the strategy?

      1. nothing to do with strategy, Allan is talking about pitstop mess up (taking around 2 seconds more than Alonso’s for example)

  54. Being a massive Hamilton fan makes my oppinion on this massively bias and thus I gave my first 10. For me this race was truly epic and by the end I was in tears, such a relief that he’s won this year, all my friends telling me he’s rubbish and this just proves all the haters wrong. If anyone ever tells me Hamilton is rubbish ever again my response will simply be “Canada 2012”

  55. I went for 9.
    The start was steady, then the stops and strategies really stoked the fire, and the second half of the race just got better and better.
    I was slightly disappointed with DRS. Hamilton would have undoubtedly have got the passes done without DRS, but you could see him holding back and not going for a risky pass somewhere other than the DRS zone, which to me is not the ideal situation.

  56. 9 for sherzinger slamming her hand down on the table after Hamilton’s stop. Great cinema. But seriously let her have a go at the left rear. Cant hurt. But seriously for real actually it was pretty exciting for a while. I say 7.5, and round up. Honestly the whole dramatic set up was due to RBR and Terrain making a stupid strategy. Alonso probably had this. After seeing Hamilton’s poor stop they should have covered. Probably Hamilton storming those first laps out changed their minds though. Still not smart for them to stay out.

    1. Ferrari not Terrain. Autocorrect is a scourge.

    2. I’d swear she said ***

      1. And I would have replied “yes, please”

  57. 5/10 for me. The DRS completely ruined it, similar to last year. And it’s a real shame because that aside, it was a really great race.

    For all those saying the DRS didn’t make a difference, well it clearly did. There was a great fight shaping up between Hamilton and Alonso, and with DRS he just sailed by. Yep, he may have done anyway, but at least we’d have seen some fighting.

    Too many times and in too many fights drivers just hit the button and flew by. It’s pathetic; it isn’t racing. When it first came in I was in favour of it, but now I’m sick. If back in 2000 someone told me that in 12 years time there would be a DRS “zone”, where you get an extra speed boost over the driver in front, then I would have laughed. Sadly, it’s no laughing matter.

    1. Completly agree, it hasn’t been such a big feature in the races this year but today it was just to much.

  58. This race had a lot of potential, but it didn’t live up to that. We had different strategies at the front, but the moment you saw Hamilton closing in on Vettel and Alonso at a second a lap you knew he was going to breeze past easily and take the win. Very much like Monaco where we had a lot of excitement because of potential rain that eventually didn’t fall.
    Then there was little to no real overtaking because of DRS, just like there was little to no overtaking in Monaco.
    And just like Monaco this is just a great track and setting, probably one of the best on the calendar.
    Yet Monaco got a 5.4 average, while this (if I judge it right now very roughly) will probably get around a 8.5 average.
    This was undeniably better than a 5.4, but nowhere near a 8.5. More like a 6.5, so i guess I’d give it a 7.

  59. Great race!! Only thing that ruined it for me was jaques vielnerd.. What a negative a-hole!! Bitter much!??

    1. +1. He was negative wasn’t he? I thought I was the only one to think this. Whoa, get him from infront of the camera plz.

  60. I can understand why a lot are highly rating the race, but to me it was pretty much normal. Too much passes because of tyre difference and DRS, while strategy was the deciding factor. And what is going on with Schumacher? I can’t believe how much bad luck he has upon him this year. So a 5 for me.

  61. I can’t understand how people say the DRS ruined it….

    Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel spent the whole first stint close to one another, 2 of them had DRS, but there were no passes, why? Because they weren’t that much faster then the guy infront, that is why!
    DRS is an overtaking tool for cars that are A LOT faster then the cars in front of them, but would otherwise still be unable to overtake beause of the disturbed air comming from the slower car in front.

    Look at Webber, he was at one point quicker then Gorsean and Perez, but spent several laps behing them, with DRS, but not passing, why? Because he was not THAT much quicker. I say DRS worked exactly as it should have today, not making passes possible where cars of equal or near equal speed were involved, but giving that extra boost for overtaking someone who is simply a lot slower.

    8/10 for me btw the middle part was a bit boring, but 7 out of 7, the early stages with 3 contenders in 3 different cars close together, and grosean and perez awesome drives made it a solid 8 for me

    1. Also, DRS exists to give the gremlins in Schumacher’s Mercedes one more thing to play with :P

  62. 8/10 – could have been higher if I could have watched it in decent quality on tv..

    Excellent drive by Hamilton, I admit I’d rate it a helll of a lot lower if Lewis hand’t been able to overtake vettel and alonso

    1. Also would have voted 10/10 if I’d followed my heart and bet alot on Hamilton..After Vettel scored pole I thought the race was his, Vettel won too much last year for me to ever hope he wins from pole again!

  63. I am not quite sure why we are seeing the backlash from various ‘fans’ with regards to high tyre degradation. F1 has always been about maintaing the car throughout the race and getting it to the checkered flag. Nowadays drivers do not have to worry about looking after their engines, gearboxes etc. I for one am glad the drivers do still have to worry about their tyres. I think back to the Bridgestone refuelling era where two sprint processional races were the norm, and wonder how people can can say the current state of affairs are undesirable.

    Vettel and Alonso were passed because the wrong call was made on the pitwall. They tried to steal an extra 14 seconds in the race and so should be disadvantaged accordingly when they are unable to make the strategy work.

    I understand to some degree the comments regarding DRS, especially when drivers are playing cat and mouse on the approach to the activation zone. However, I would have to say they times when driver aids such as traction control, launch control and reactive ride heights were common were truly artificial.

    I liked the race, the initial laps until the first pitstop window were interesting, and then the endurance section in the middle of the race built into a fantastic finish.

    8/10

    1. “Vettel and Alonso were passed because the wrong call was made on the pitwall” — absolutely correct, so I’m happy to see the Constructors’ points reflecting that.

      But for the Drivers’ points (WDC) would you agree that they both drove great races? Did their absolute best? Were on top of their form? Why should they be penalized when their pitwall, computerized strategists obviously didn’t know their lower bowel extremities from their elbows?

      1. F1 teams race, win and loose as a team. They were unable to pass Hamilton on the track and so took the call to stay out, one stop, and try to win the race that way. If it doesn’t work they shouldn’t get the points. In my humble opinion it is as simple as that.

        1. “teams?” OK that means constructors. “took the call”? Can’t drivers respect the intelligence of maybe a dozen or more strategists sitting in air conditioned luxury in front of computer screens answering the “what if” questions? “they [shouldn’t get the points]?” Who is they? Drivers or teams? I’ m happy to see teams (Constructors’ Championship) lose points for their faults. But not the drivers – the WDC is supposed (in my mind at least) to reflect driver qualities.

          Bottom line: in front of my TV screen (watching half the race, thank you Fox for your advertizing interrupts) I said immediately after Hamilton’s last tyre change that Vettel and Alonso must do the same. Losing 4 secs a lap with more than five laps to go is worse than a stop for fresh rubber – and that’s not rocket science.

          Could a driver “over-ride” his team advice? I really don’t know. But Vettel and Alonso for no reason to do with their abilities have both been penalized.

          1. @paul-a, Horner said they were already at that point aware they were not far enough ahead of Grosjean that if they pitted they could clear him so that might lose them the podium anyway; thus they decided to just try and pray. I think a similar reasoning applies for Alonso. I also still think that Ferrari could have seen from how Massa fared that it wouldn’t work (Webber wasn’t a useful benchmark for VET, too many stops), and had they stopped they might have at least still been ahead of VET and/or Perez.

          2. By your logic @paul-a we should have taken some points away from Vettel last year, just because his team made a faster car for him (thereby making it “unfair” in the drivers championship). And how would you even out the botched pitstops for Hamilton, Button and especially the technical problems for Schumacher this year?

            Its a sport where the team develop a car, build it and race it together. If they get the car right, choose a good setup, have a good driver who does not make critical mistake and execute their strategy, and its the rigth one sucess is the reward. If one of those things fails, it might still be a good result, but if several let them down, they just don’t get the points.

          3. Oh, and to answer your question,

            Could a driver “over-ride” his team advice?

            @paul-a – yes they can. We saw it with some of the nice race from Button last year. And with Alonso several times as well. Vettel also at times ignores what the team tells him to do, its really up to the driver in the car (off course its harder for a rookie or inexperienced driver to do so)

  64. They have learned the Pirellis and races are becoming pure and simple tyre management. The race was good but the last two races have depended too much on tyre management

    1. Not really.

      I would agree with that if the race winner was one of the one stoppers, but it was the guy who stopped who won (and vettel/alonso would have finished higher had they did the same strat as Ham, they missed out precicly because of tryin to tyre manage) therefore not a tyre-managing-race-win

  65. 8/10 – Great race overall, it started to intensify immensely in the latter stages with the tyre-strategy combination producing the goods when it certainly needed it around Canada. Who would have thought Sauber was actually going to meet their expectations with a podium this weekend by the end of qualifying in Perez finishing in P3, Grosjean was another that came out of the dark. Hamilton was superlative & purely fast throughout the weekend let alone the race, Ferrari are back as a front-runners in the form of Alonso & Vettel, did not run away as the majority of us probably expected & got sucked into the clutches of Hamilton & Alonso at the end of the first stint. Canada has not let us down once more! I wouldn’t say amazing but surely one that kept us on our toes & entertained.

  66. That was a fun race. With about 10 or so laps left, I was on the edge of my seat. It soon became obvious though, that Vettel and Alonso would be totally helpless to hold off Hamilton, so any drama pretty well melted away. I have to wonder “what if” Alonso had pitted for fresh tires with maybe 20 or so laps left to go. Might have made the podium, but never mind. Well done to Lewis and McLaren, and also Grosjean and Perez. I gave the race an 8.

  67. 10/10 for me. Good first few laps. Great around the 1st pit stops, bit of a lull then, but what a finish. Last 10 laps were epic.

  68. 7. Could have been a 10 but DRS ruined things again. Can’t remember a great overtake all race. Pleased for Ham though, reminded me of Hockenheim 2008.

  69. 9 from me, fantastic result, exciting and unpredictable with the different gambles on strategy.

  70. How many passes would we’ve seen without DRS? I get the feeling that some of you has forgot how few passes it used to be in F1 in the past. Granted that tyres nowdays makes for passing but after the summer break the teams will have learned this years tyres, as they did last year, and the argument against DRS will not be that strong anymore.

    1. I get the feeling that some of you has forgot how few passes it used to be in F1 in the past

      at least the overtaking we did see back then was actually exciting to watch though.

      all the drs related passing is dead boring to watch, im fed up of watching cars push a button & cruise past with the other car having nothing to defend with.

      i fail to see why anyone can defend drs & say it produces excitement because it just doesnt, its artificial & produces crap racing.

      1. Exactly.
        F1 isn’t about the number of overtakes. Its like a football match. Not many, but very exciting overtakes. Look at NASCAR, a million overtakes in each oval race but are any of them really exciting?
        I think it is more exciting to see drivers stuck behind each other for half a race, then to see them just push-to-pass and fly by.
        With DRS the duels are now noticeably shorter then they used to be, and with the many pitstops one driver will eventually get the edge on the other, either due to deg. or the under/over cut in the pitstop rounds anyway and I don’t think that a duel lasting 20 laps with no change in position is a bad thing. Its just 20 laps of excitement, instead of 3 laps of excitement and highway style overtake which in no way will get me up from my seat unless the championship depends on it.

        Also, the DRS has proven good defending skills worthless, because there is nothing the drivers can do, or is allowed to do, to stop the overtake from happening down the straight.

  71. Tyre-lottery and drs ruining yet another potentially great race..

  72. Low score from me. Even the commentators said it was boring in the middle of the race. Last laps were pretty good and I finally picked a winner in the championship.

  73. Very enjoyable race, with a lot of interesting plots.

    Hamilton was superb, despite MORE pit mistakes from the team, at least they had a smart strategy. Good to see aggressive strategy/driving win out. Button though needs to have a serious re-think, must be regretting not attending the Mugello test now.

    Ferrari/Red Bull, a bit mystifying. I could understand them not pitting right after Ham, but there was a point about three laps after where Ham was going a second a lap quicker (so he’d easily catch them) whilst Grosjean was 25s back and Perez looked out of the picture. Had they pitted there, second and third would have been guaranteed. At least Red Bull were smart enough to look at the data and see they could beat Alonso.

    All that Friday running on the SS paid off for Lotus, as their race pace was pretty remarkable.

    As for Perez, great to see that performance and make LdM eat his words. For him to have two podiums this year, and Massa be on only 11 points is super embarrassing. Needless to point out, if he drove for Ferrari in the WDC instead of Sauber they’d be in a close third, on 123 points.

    Rosberg should have done better, likewise Kimi and Schumachers run of bad luck is unbelievable! But an solid race, especially after the Monaco bore-fest. 8/10.

  74. This is exactly what the high deg Pirelli tyres combined with the two different compounds was designed to produce. Top drivers taking significantly different strategies with one on fresh tyres chasing down another (or in this case 2) on old and slower rubber. It’s exactly what we used to see in the early 1990s and earlier. DRS really didn’t materially impact on the racing we saw today. And it wasn’t just exciting in the final laps, the whole race was shaping up for that grandstand finish with Perez looking good from fairly early on.

    Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso all had huge grins on their faces at the end, they clearly enjoyed the race and so did I. Hard to decide whether to give it a full 10 or ‘only’ a 9.

  75. It was a good race. I think it deserves a 6. It’s 5 points really, 1 extra for nice win from Lewis :)

  76. In no way was that a 9 or a 10. Most of the race was uneventful, it was only the last 5 or so laps where it was a little more exciting. 6 from me this year.

    1. Seriously? We had a boatload if changes for the lead and different strategies. What more excitement do you expect?

  77. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    11th June 2012, 2:27

    A great race, considering what a procession Monaco was 14 days ago.
    10/10 – Because HAMILTON WON!! YEEEEESSSSS!!!
    So happy for him! The first stint was so exciting, hunting down Vettel, and then taking him with DRS, then his final 12 laps were just amazing, hunting down a struggling (1 stopping) Alonso so quickly.
    He really proved that the 2 stop was faster.

    1. Maybe Grosjeon proved the one stop was equally good. Considering Grosjeon was running at a reasonable pace, McLaren were lucky not to drop back behind him after a botched stop.

  78. I’m giving the race 7/10. It was exciting by Formula 1 standards, but not by the precedent set by the Grand Prix in previous years.

  79. i gave 8 because hamilton win

  80. “Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.”

  81. Two overtakes for the lead. How often do we see that. that is worth at least a 9.

    1. but they were both boring because they were both made stupidly easy thanks to drs.

      the fact that what should have been exciting passes for the lead were made totally soul-less & disintresting because of drs should actually see a lower rating & not a higher one.

      thats why even as a hamilton/mclaren fan i only gave it a 4.

  82. I don’t get the complaints about DRS. The reason some overtakes we’re so easy was because of the tyres. Not DRS.

    With two cars on the same tyres (compound and number of laps used) DRS was perfectly balanced.

    But of course when the overtaking car is already a second and a half faster due to tyre differences they will breeze past.

  83. Don’t understand people complaining about DRS, so far, DRS is getting a faster driver in front of the slower driver.

    Remind me of a back overtake after a DRS overtake?

    With DRS whole field kept bit tighter by allowing faster cars move up. Though there are still trains that slow faster cars and let leaders get away.

  84. An 8 out of 10 from me.

    Close racing at the front for most of the race and the possibility of overtaking made the race interesting and exciting, a complete contrast from 2 weeks ago. It was also interesting to see Perez and Grojean make their one stop strategies work when Alonso and Vettel in normally faster cars couldn’t.

  85. 7/10
    We saw different strategies, drivers taking risks both with their strategy and driving, but too many passes happened in the DRS zone, spoiling the race for drivers like Alonso who could only rely on their defensive driving.

  86. 4 at best, dull race. I worry for F1 because even when a car fights up from 3rd to 1st all the overtakes are simple and boring, where is the excitement coming from in 2012?

  87. I gave it a 7 out of 10. I really enjoyed it for the most part but there were some dull moments in the race where there weren’t any overtakes or any pit stops etc. The action this year happens towards the end of a stint when the tyres are beginning to fall off and it makes for great viewing. The last few laps were fantastic and some of the best I’ve seen for a while. Perez and Grosjean made a 1 stop work whilst Vettel and Alonso failed. So great to see those two on the podium and I really hope they continue to succeed this year.

  88. i voted 8 as it was an entertaining, enjoyable race. watching the strategies play out was interesting.

    i don’t get all the complaints about DRS. people moaned that it was a bore-fest when overtaking was nigh on impossible, now they moan that it’s a bore-fest because overtaking is artificial. make your minds up peeps!!
    canada played out different due to tyres. if all the front runners (with 15 laps to go) were 2 stopping, then DRS would’ve been the decider and would probably have given a close finish. remember, that to use DRS you still need to be within 1 sec of the driver in front, if you’re slow, that’s not going to happen. remember also that DRS is virtually impotent at certain circuits – monaco for instance – so it’s not the great spoiler that some would have you believe.
    in an ideal world, it’d be 1 set of tyres for the race with balls-to-the-wall racing deciding who wins. with aero intolerant modern f1 cars, it was processional and not much fun to watch. this is the reason we have DRS, cliff edge tyres and KERS. like it or loathe it, f1 now has the chess element, and that was what brought this race alive for the last 15 or so laps.

  89. antonyob (@)
    11th June 2012, 12:59

    Broadly im a fan of DRS, you can see at some tracks it does its job in allowing the car behind to continue to reel in the guy in front despite hitting the dirty air but in Canada it sucked. The differentials seemed to be huge. Its nearly as bad as overtaking on the undercut, at least thats a natural aspect of F1. The race itself was no classic but with the walls and oversteery cars it was still a spectacle to enjoy.

    I wonder what the story wouldve been if Button had won and Lewis finished 16th after 4 bad races in a row.?

  90. I would’ve given it 8/10, but that stupid DRS ruined so many battles that I gave it 6/10 instead.

  91. Great race, the Canadian Grand Prix is still probably my favourite overall on the calendar and the most likely to provide an entertaining race.

    The difference in strategies really made the race with Hamilton using his fresher tyres to catch and overtake the one-stoppers but I was surprised Grosjean was able to make a one stop work better than both Alonso and Vettel.

    I found it a tough decision whether to give it an 8 or 9 rating. As I only saw the BBC highlights rather than the full race live it hampered my overall enjoyment of the race. I was set to give it an 8 but if I had seen it live I think I would have rated it higher possibly an 8.5 rounded up to a 9, so I did give it a 9 in the end.

    1. if you’d seen it live you would have been comatose with boredom for 40 laps.

  92. 7/10, the race picked up massively within the last 10 or so laps.

  93. On the DRS thing you know its shocking that’s the whole scope of comments here, practically. I hate DRS too. And frankly, it took the stuffing out of the final laps. But lets remember than as far back into antiquity as 2008 we saw dominant cars blow by other cars for position. Hockenheim 2008 was not boring because Hamiilton passed Piquet for the win like he was chained to a post. Or when Kimi mowed down Fisi in Japan in 2005. It’s just a dynamic of the racing under the current rules. It’s just a particularly obvious dynamic now. In this race, without DRS, what would have been the story? Hamilton maybe does not get by Alonso after the first stop. Then of course he stops again and the race turns out the same way—Alonso would have still be helpless at the end without DRS. So maybe the battle down the straight until the braking zone, when Alonso has to brake like 50m earlier anyway. It makes no difference in the end one whit. The real issue, if you want to talk about lousy easy passing is the tires. So here, DRS, the usual suspect, has to walk because it only threw a match on an inferno that the tires started.

  94. I give it a 7 as I was hoping for much more entertainment in this race. Things only started to spice up on the last 10 or 15 laps. Before this stage of the race it kind of remembered Monza a track wich seems good for overtaking but when the races come we hardly see any.
    I honestly think that this race is being over-rated because the winner was Hamilton, had it been Vettel or Alonso doing what Hamilton did it would be rated with a 6 or 7! :-)
    Clearly we the “fanatics” vote more with the heart that with the mind!

  95. Shane (@shane-pinnell)
    11th June 2012, 21:40

    4 – Could have been double that if they removed DRS. I don’t see the need for it. Too many drivers were left all but defenseless as a result of DRS & tire degradation. Alonso falling back for instance, no need for DRS there, his tires provided all the performance differential needed. At least without DRS it would have been a legitimate overtaking maneuver and maybe he could have defended to some degree. It is a shame to see a “push to pass” button at this level of racing, especially when it clearly isn’t needed.

  96. 6 out of 10.

    DRS was awful. Alonso couldn’t even defend against Hamilton (first pass, not the second one where Alonso was on 25 year old tyres).

    Also, nothing really happened. Once Hamilton got passed Alonso I knew it was over. The McLaren was the fastest car on track. Then Ferrari and Red Bull decided to make it even less exciting by trying to do over 50 laps on the softs which was basically them putting a nice ribbon around Hamilton’s victory.
    There were a few scraps here and there but nothing as exciting as China or Bahrain.

  97. I have no idea where the 8, 9, & 10’s are coming from for this race. 90% of it was utterly drab, the tension over “will Hamilton do it?” lasted 3 laps while his times stayed stable , and the final few laps was all about tyres, not driving. Nowhere near as good as last year’s. You could have skipped laps 1 – 50 and missed nothing at all.

  98. I haven’t seen much of the races this season. Not too interested in F1 since the tyre lottery was introduced. This was the first race I watched the whole race. I’m really glad I did, because this looked like the racing I loved from before. Perhaps it would have been better if Alonso and Vettel actually had gone on the same strategy as Hamilton, but in this case even some tyre based “entertainment” was exciting in it’s own way.

    Personally I liked the “boring” bit before that better. The suspense of how the race will unfold with the top 3 continuously that close to each other interests me a whole lot more than all the fake “overtaking” that has been introduced.

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