Which year was the best Canadian Grand Prix ever?
Here's our pick, but have we got it right?
To say we were spoilt for choice when it came to choosing a shortlist of just six great Canadian Grands Prix is an understatement. We could have doubled the amount and there would still be arguments over all the ones we’d left out.
Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve almost always produces a gem of a race, you can probably count on one hand the amount of duff events here.
So, with the help of our readers on Twitter, we have whittled down to our Montreal half-dozen, but did we rank them in the right order?
P6 - 1991 – MANSELL THROWS IT AWAY
Ooops…
Ron Dennis, formerly of the parish of McLaren, liked a quote or two and one he was fond of was, "If you want to finish first, first you must finish”.
This may have been one that Nigel Mansell would have done well to remember.
At the 1991 race, our ‘Nige, in the fabulous Williams FW14, was looking simply unbeatable, having nabbed the lead from team-mate and polesitter, Riccardo Patrese before turn one and staying there for 68, unthreatened laps.
Then, on the very final tour, two things happened to enable him to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Firstly, Mansell began to wave at the crowd.
Then, in the commentary box, The Curse of Murray Walker was activated when he excitedly announced that: “Nigel Mansell has only a few corners to go, he could literally coast home!”
Before promptly adding: “Wait! He's taking the hairpin very slowly, HE'S STOPPING! HE'S STOPPING!”.
An astonished Nelson Piquet blasted past the now stationary Mansell to take a completely unexpected win. Great, not only did he lose at the death but the beneficiary was a man he hated with a passion.
The official line from the Williams team was that there had been a car failure, though the widely held belief was that in celebrating too early, Nigel had let the revs drop too low, allowing the car to stall.
Whatever the reason, this was, even on the Mansell scale of drama, one unbelievable race finish.
Trivia:
• Nigel Mansell's last-lap stoppage made him the first F1 driver in history to lose a race on the final lap after having led every single previous lap.
• This was the seventh F1 race in a row to be won by a Brazilian. Piquet won the last two Grands Prix of 1990, with Ayrton Senna winning the first four races of 1991.
P5 - 1999 – ENTER THE WALL OF CHAMPIONS
With that awful livery, stuffing it into the wall was an act of kindness.
If you like a sweepstake with your mates over a Grand Prix weekend, then a good one for the Canadian round is who will be the first to clout into the wall at the final corner, dubbed, after the 1999 edition of the race, ‘The Wall of Champions’.
The 1999 race itself, was won by Mika Häkkinen for McLaren but that is not what made this one so memorable. That honour goes to the wall at turn 13, with it’s ironic ‘Welcome to Quebec’ banner.
Four drivers, including F1 world champions Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve along with FIA GT world champion, Ricardo Zonta, all had race ending shunts there.
Since that race, another two chumps, sorry, champs, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel have also remodelled their cars there.
Who’ll be first this weekend?
Trivia:
• This was the first Grand Prix to finish behind the Safety Car. (Out due to Jordan driver, Heinz-Harald Frentzen's crash four laps from the end).
P4 - 2008 – KUBICA BOUNCES BACK
Hard to believe this would be his only F1 win. So far...
In 2007 (see P3 on our list), BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica had an absolutely monumental shunt here but with Kubica being Kubica, that wasn’t going to dent his confidence coming back.
However, as good a drive as the Pole put in, he would have been lucky to get a podium let alone the win, had it not been for a rare moment of brain-fade from Lewis Hamilton on lap 19.
Leading the race, Hamilton pitted under the Safety Car, only to then fail to notice the red light at the end of the pit lane, piling into the back of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, before Williams driver Nico Rosberg joined in the shunt-fest too.
All of this happened beside the bemused Kubica, no doubt overjoyed at watching the opposition taking each other all out for no good reason!
Robert duly lead home a 1-2 finish for Sauber. It’s a fair bet that won’t be happening this weekend.
Have you been involved in an accident that wasn’t your fault?
Trivia:
• With Nick Heidfeld in second, this was the first one-two finish for BMW Sauber.
• First win for a Polish driver.
P3 - 2007 – HAMILTON STARS WHILE KUBICA SHUNTS!
And so it begins.
Coming into the sixth round of the season, McLaren’s F1 rookie Lewis Hamilton was on something of a high, having kicked off the year with a third place followed by four consecutive second places. He was also level pegging with his double world champion team-mate, Fernando Alonso on 38 points each.
Surely it was only a matter of time before he’d get that maiden win and where better than a real drivers track, one where he’d eventually notch up six wins.
The race was one of attrition with ten cars failing to make the finish due to technical issues or accidents, the most impressive of these being Kubica’s horrible crash on lap 26.
Kubica appeared to be squeezed onto the grass by Jarno Trulli’s Toyota as they stormed down towards the chicane at around 300 kph. The Pole’s Sauber was utterly destroyed and how he came out of it with just a sore ankle was nothing short of miraculous.
Lewis duly converted his pole position into a win, while his illustrious team-mate wound up seventh, 22 seconds down and having had the ignominy of Super Aguri’s Takuma Sato overtake him with three laps to go.
Trivia:
• The safety car was deployed a (then) record four times during the race.
• With Nick Heidfeld (Sauber) second and Alexander Wurz (Williams) a brilliant third, having started 19th, this was the first Grand Prix of the season where drivers from teams other than Ferrari and McLaren achieved podiums.
• Driver of the Day, as voted for by viewers of then UK F1 broadcaster was surprisingly not Lewis but Sato!
Kubica was lucky. This time.
P2 - 1995 – THE HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS FOR ALESI
If you are going to hitch a lift with anybody then it may as well be this guy…
Jean Alesi was without any doubt, the unluckiest driver of his generation. If anybody was going to retire from a race-winning position, then it would be him.
He’d made some pretty awful, Alonso-type career choices too, having turned down a plum drive with Williams for 1991, to follow his heart to Ferrari, who promptly entered one of their traditional periods of decline.
Alesi was however, with his no-holds-barred driving style, head leaning into the corners, a fan favourite and adored by the Tifosi.
Jean had racked up a fair few podiums in his career to this point but that maiden win just never looked like coming.
But here, on his 31st birthday, Alesi finally got a bit of good luck for once as race leader, Michael Schumacher had to pit on lap 57 for a new steering wheel, giving second place Alesi the lead, all he had to do was keep it on the road and pray for no car failure for 11 laps.
And win he did, sealing one of the most popular victories anywhere, let alone Canada.
Schumacher, his electrical glitch now fixed was on hand to give his friend, out of fuel on the slow down lap, a lift home.
One win for such an incredible driver is a travesty. How things may have been, had he gone to Williams. A world championship would have been a certainty…
Trivia:
• The race was over 69 laps but results had to be declared on lap 68 as a crowd invasion following Alesi crossing the line meant some cars could not complete the last lap.
• Schumacher and Benetton’s pole position was the 100th for a Renault powered car.
• This was the first double podium for the Jordan team.
A win for Alesi and a double podium for Jordan, the beers would have flowed well that night…
WINNER! – 2011 –BUTTON WINS AN EPIC!
Yup, it was a tad damp out there…
The epic, record-breaking four hour saga that was the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, got by far and away the most nominations for your best ever Montreal moment.
In wet conditions, the race started behind the Safety Car, which stayed out for five laps before racing, or for most, just staying on the track, began.
Of course, we could not have known it at the time but this was to be, quite possibly, the best drive of Jenson Button’s entire career as he had everything thrown at him bar the kitchen sink.
Firstly, he had a coming together with McLaren team-mate Hamilton, which saw the Safety Car back out again. It was not to be the last time Bernd Maylander would be called upon that afternoon.
Forty minutes in and a torrential rain storm engulfed the circuit, forcing it to be red flagged. More than two hours would elapse before the race would resume.
On the restart, things started to get difficult for Button, as he was given a stop-go penalty for a yellow flag infringement, this was soon followed by another collision, this time with the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and then a puncture which put him dead last.
With the track starting to dry quickly, Sebastian Vettel out front for Red Bull, who had so far avoided the chaos around him, looked set for an easy win.
Button though was driving a stormer (no pun intended) of a race, picking off others at ease, overtaking more cars in one race than others would manage all year.
Catching Vettel was one thing but passing him, with just one lap to go?
Too busy watching his mirrors, the German ran wide on the very last lap, giving Button, this most incredible of wins, in the longest ever F1 race.
Crazy!
Trivia:
• At more than four hours (including the stoppage) the race set the record as the longest in F1 history.
• Jenson Button pitted six times, the most pit stops by a winning driver in a single race.
• The Safety Car made a record six appearances.
Did we get it right? Vote below and add YOUR suggestion in the comments box!
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Comments (9)
Button for sure.
I’d say the winner was predictable but 2011 was such a blinding race that it just has to win. Epic stuff from JB.
The Alesi win wasn't far away though, my personal favourite...
Jean deserved so much more than 1 win
By far the best track on the calendar. As a vettel fan I dislike the one you chose to be best of course, but I each and everyone of those on the list is a classic.
Jensen Button 👋👋 Absolutely Brilliant
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