A Grand Prix victory for BMW, and for Robert Kubica, had been coming a while, and in Montreal – the scene of Kubica’s horrific accident 12 months ago – it duly did. “We certainly didn’t have the quickest car,” Kubica said. “In fact, in competitive terms, this wasn’t our strongest race, although definitely our best result.”
Indeed it was. While a win for Kubica wasn’t a total surprise, his team mate Nick Heidfeld has struggled for pace throughout this season, and a starting position of eighth didn’t promise much. As it was, though, Heidfeld was aided both by a safety car period (virtually inevitable at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve) and a strategy switch to a one-stopper, and in the end he made Mario Theissen’s day complete by finishing second.
Without wishing to sound disrespectful, the fact that David Coulthard’s Red Bull finished third says much about the sort of race this was. For the accustomed front runners, Montreal was something of a disaster, Ferrari scoring only four points (from Felipe Massa’s fifth place) and McLaren none at all.
