June 2010 Archives

McLaren/Vodafone have released another viral. This one's one of my favourites so far. JB and Da Ham give the most successful McLaren ever - the MP4/4 which won 15 out of 16 races during the 1988 season - the once over, and reminisce about their hero, Ayrton Senna.

Walking into this scene of covered cars in the MTC, it's a bit like the ending of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Just look at all that history!

It seems a bit odd to be celebrating Lotus' 500th grand prix when the team is only nine races old, but that's what we did in Valencia... and it felt right.

Lotus Racing (as it is known so as to differentiate itself from the original Team Lotus that Colin Chapman established back in 1954) have gone about their debut season in a respectably understated way. They worked miracles to get a reliable car designed and built in five months. Since then they've set achievable targets, and they've delivered. You can't ask for more than that.

Of course, being the best of the new teams is one thing when you're up against an outfit which was in financial crisis just weeks before Bahrain, and another whose car was designed on a Commodore 64. Okay, that's really mean. CFD may well be the way forward. But Lotus Racing was 1.4 seconds quicker than Virgin in Valencia qualifying.

No, it's one thing to blow Hispania and Virgin into the weeds, but it's quite another task to emulate the success of Team Lotus, a team that won 13 titles.

I asked Mike Gascoyne today if he truly believes he can one day take the fight to Ferrari and McLaren. His response: "Bring it on".

It won't happen over night, but Mike is building the blocks of a team that really could be a giant killer in the not too distant. After a recent shopping spree at Force India, he's fast assembled one of the most talented and experienced technical and aero teams in the pitlane. With the visionary Tony Fernandes keeping the coffers full, but also keeping a wisely tight reign so there's no wastage, this is a team with a real future as well as a glorious bloodline.

The name on the nose on the car is more than a nod to the past. The team is based in Norfolk, just 15 minutes from Group Lotus' base in Hethel. Several of the staff are ex-Team Lotus. And between 'Gazza' and Tony, you've got a combination of no-bullshit tech-spertise and marketing savvy that Chapman himself would have loved.

Fernandes was a Lotus fan as a kid who burnt a hole in his parents carpet playing with a model Type-49. Taking on the Lotus name made commercial sense and fulfilled a school boy dream. But essentially, Fernandes wanted to do his own thing. He could have bought Toyota and had an easier winter. But it just didn't appeal.

"I think life is about creating something of your own, and buying an existing team is not your own," he explained to me aboard his rented yacht in Monaco some weeks back. "I mean, I have bought an existing airline, but that was two planes and it was losing tonnes of money, which I was able to turn around. An existing team comes with 500 people, who already have their way of doing things. That wasn't something that really appealed to me. Everything that I do with my partners is to create something we can be proud of, and it's much easier to do that from the beginning. My talent is for bringing the right people together and giving them a working environment in which they can thrive. That's much harder to do with an existing team. That would be a battle."

He likes to do things his own way, does Tony. Old man Chapman would have approved.

"I'm prepared for the down days, and there will be some, but we're moving in the right direction and faster than I had dared to dream," says Tony.

"Not only does the car perform well, and the recent upgrades have met expectations, but the drivers are great, the whole team looks good. We deserve to be here, and we'll be here a long time yet."

Today wasn't the first time Mark Webber has gone for an unscheduled flight. Let's look back to 1999 - before Mark made his F1 debut - when he drove for Mercedes-Benz at Le Mans and ended up sitting in a tree. Twice.

I've been chatting with Brazil's favourite nephew, and asked a few pertinent questions.

How many times do you get asked about Ayrton every day?

Every 30 seconds on average! Ninety percent of the interviews I do, I get asked about Ayrton. I'm used to it. I think in a couple of years that will wear off. As much as I've answered the same questions over and over again a million times since I started racing, there are always different people reading the articles. Hopefully in a year's time I'll get some new questions.

Is F1 harder than you thought it was going to be?

Oh yes. F1 is really difficult. It's extremely competitive. But it's a friendly environment too.

Do you share hire cars with your team mate, Karun Chandkok?

Yeah quite a lot. We drove all the way from Barcelona to Monaco together actually, and I worked out how to make Karun shut up. All you have to do is go fast in the wet. When a car is aquaplaning he's very quiet.

That's a very smart watch you're wearing. What is it?

It's a Hublot Aerobang, and it's my favourite. I have a few Hublot watches as they're my sponsor, and this one is very hard to get off my wrist. My friends keep trying to steal it but they'll never succeed. It's the best freebie I've ever been given.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever received from a fan?

Some fans send me their own photos, and what am I supposed to do with them? They send me photos of their families, which I appreciate but if I did an autograph session a year ago I can't be expected to remember who they are. So I just get all these random photos of people I don't recognize.

What's the last tune you downloaded?

Kid Cudi with David Guetta - Memories. [sings] All the crazy shit I did last night....

What was the last film you saw?

Inglorious Basterds, though I didn't quite finish it. I was watching it on the plane and we landed early. Tarantino is really good.

What's the oldest VHS recording you own?

That would be the 1986 or 1987 F1 championship tape with Ayrton. But it's mouldy now, I can't watch it.

When was the last time you were in a fight, and what was it over?

I've never fought with my fists. But I fought with words maybe last weekend.

What's your dream car?

That's a complex question because you want different cars for different things. I think the McLaren F1 is pretty high on the list. I drove a Porsche 997 GT2 and that's a very nice car. The Porsche Carrera GT has the most lovely engine note, I love that car.

What's your fancy dress costume of choice?

I would go as a stick of chewing gum. In Brazil there's an advert for Trident chewing gum where a guy dresses up as a stick of gum.

What's your most treasured possession?

My PC.

You're allowed to invite three celebrities to dinner. Who do you invite?

Can they be girls? This is going to get me in trouble.... Sienna Miller, Scarlet Johansson, and the Victoria's Secret model Doutzen Kroes.

The nine drivers that were caught exceeding the safety car-in lap time have been punished with five second penalties. They are: Button, Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Kubica, Petrov, Sutil, Liuzzi, Buemi and de la Rosa.

The penalties mean Fernando Alonso is elevated from ninth to eighth, as he overtakes Buemi, and Nico Rosberg gets the final point from de la Rosa, 10th in the race.

In addition, Timo Glock has had 20 seconds added to his time for ignoring the blue flags.

All other positions remain unchanged.

Mark Webber's huge crash at the European Grand Prix proved how far F1 has come in terms of safety. Here are another five near misses

1.    2007 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX
Driving for BMW Sauber, Robert Kubica clipped the rear of Jarno Trulli's Toyota on lap 27, was thrown across the grass and slammed powerlessly into a wall at 180mph. He then bounced back across the track, the wrecked tub rolling over and over, until he scraped down the side of a crash barrier. Amazingly, his only injuries were a slight concussion and a twisted ankle. The following day he drove home from the hospital.



2.    1998 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
The biggest pile up in F1 history was caused when David Coulthard lost his McLaren in slippery conditions, and thwacked into the pitwall, setting off a bomb of shattered carbon fibre and smoke. Thirteen cars were involved, and four cars were so badly totaled they couldn't take the restart.


3.    1996 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
Martin Brundle's new Jordan lasted just a few corners when he hit the back of another car and, like Webber on Sunday, went airborne. As it rolled across the gravel trap the car broke in two. "I felt liquid running down my face, and I could smell oil," he tells Metro. "Turned out it was just my energy drink, but I got out quick. When I saw the red flags I thought 'that's a bit of luck', and ran back to the pits for the spare car."


4.    1989 SAN MARINO GRAND PRIX
Most drivers have pictures in their house of them winning. Gerhard Berger has photos of him crashing, and his favourite is this one. He hit the Tamburello corner with such force his Ferrari burst into flames. A marshall pulled him out of the blaze after 16 painful seconds. He suffered only minor burns. One newspaper headline cried 'You Lucky Berger'.


5.    1985 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX
Andrea de Cesaris made 208 grand prix starts, and in that time earned the nickname 'de Crasheris'. His most notable smash came at the A1 Ring. He flew off the track after misjudging a left-hander, rolled across a grassy slope and flipped end-over-end five times. Afterwards, team boss Guy Ligier declared: "I can no longer afford the services of this young man."

The British contingent are moping about the paddock at the moment after that 4-1 defeat in South Africa, while the Germans at Mercedes are celebrating. And they had something else to cheer about this afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel got his championship campaign back on track with an authoritative victory in Valencia, though it was the airborne exit of his team mate, Mark Webber, that provided the most thrilling moment of the race.

Starting second, Webber made a poor start and an early pitstop, meaning he was attacking slower cars at the back of the field as he tried to salvage points. Bearing down on the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, the Australian braked much too late on the fast approach to Turn 12. His Red Bull plowed into the back of the Lotus and somersaulted in the air, crashing down on its nose and burying itself into the tyre wall at horrendous speed. In a stunning tribute to the safety of Formula One, Webber walked away unscathed.

Click here to watch the video (before Bernie takes it down):



Meanwhile, Vettel had held onto his lead at the start, having been challenged by Lewis Hamilton through Turn 2. The pair tagged wheels, resulting in a slightly broken front wing for the McLaren.

Hamilton changed his wing on Lap 15 when the safety car came out for Webber, but was later penalized with a drive-thru for passing the safety car as it exited the pitlane. His old foe Fernando Alonso, who was behind him at the time, snitched to his Ferrari team over the radio and Hamilton was forced to take the penalty 12 laps later. By that time, he'd built a big enough gap over Sauber's hard-charging Kamui Kobayashi to return to the track still in second.

Alonso was absolutely furious after the race, saying the result had been "manipulated", because he'd respected the rules and Hamilton hadn't. "Hamilton overtook the safety car, something that I had never seen. We were a metre off each other, and he finished second and I finished ninth.

"This race was to finish second. Then with the safety car I would have finished where I finished in ninth, and Hamilton in eighth. But here, when you do the normal thing, which is respecting the rules, you finish ninth, and the one who doesn't respect them finishes second."

Jenson Button was stuck behind the Sauber until Kobayashi made his mandatory tyre change on lap 54 - an amazing distance on a single set of boots. That allowed Button three laps to "go and have fun and see what the car could do", and set the fastest lap of the race.

Kobayashi rejoined in ninth but on fresh rubber was able to attack, picking of Alonso and finally Sebastien Buemi for seventh at the final corner.

There's an ongoing investigation into whether nine cars sped under safety car conditions. Button, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg, Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Tonio Liuzzi, Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa all set a laptime faster than the allowed time when the safety car first pulled onto the track. It may result in retrospective time penalties, or possible even grid demotions at the next race at Silverstone.

Hamilton goes to his home grand prix at the top of the championship table, followed by countryman and McLaren team mate Button.

One Spanish fan had his brains blown today when he asked Lewis Hamilton for an arm-around-the-shoulder pic post-quali, and Sebastian Vettel grabbed his camera and volunteered to take it. Then Lewis did the honours, as Seb posed. Apparently the bloke was speechless.

We've had a lot of bad luck this year with travel, what with volcanic ash making life difficult getting out of Shanghai, Barcelona and Monaco for many. On Thursday the French public sector decided the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano had had far too much fun wrecking travelers lives, and got in on the act with a massive strike.

I usually travel to races on Wednesday afternoon, but decided to set off at the crack of dawn on Thursday because I had a meeting (well, if you can call watching football with a well-known fashion editor a legitimate 'meeting') on Wednesday night. Normally I would take the RER suburban train to Paris' Orly airport, but I thought wiser of it and got a cab at 7am because I'd heard the train drivers were on strike.

When I arrived at Orly I was told the air traffic controllers were on strike too. Brilliant. How long is our delay? Maybe an hour and half, maybe more, the check-in girl at Spanish no-frills carrier Vueling told me. Maybe more was right, because in total the delay was five hours long, two of which we spent sat on the plane waiting to move.


This, of course, comes just a few days after the French football team decided to go on strike because they didn't like their management, causing outrage. It reinforces a French stereotype, politicians and commentators complained. Too right, and Thursday hammered it in further. Stereotype? It's more than that. It's their national sport!

We could have flown to Dubai in the time it took us to fly the 1000km to Valencia. I was on a plane with colleagues Brad Spurgeon of the International Herald Tribune and Joe Saward, both of whom were ready to punch a French air traffic controller by the time we rolled into Valencia at 4pm.

Flights all over Europe were affected, with important F1 parts and team bosses from England arriving as late as midnight on Thursday. Heikki Kovalainen's flight from Geneva was cancelled, and at 10pm that night made the decision to drive 1200km to the race. He arrived 5am Friday. "I felt a bit tired in all the meetings," he said, "but in the car the adrenaline kicks in and it's no problem". Good attitude!

Lotus are celebrating their 500th Grand Prix this weekend, and on Thursday evening the team posed for pictures alongside the 2010 T127 and Lotus' first ever racing car. With Heikki still tapping his toes at Geneva Airport, it was Jarno Trulli who took centre stage. When he arrived he looked at the old car and said to Mike Gascoyne "That's not my new chassis is it?!"



Lotus Racing commissioned me to create a special 500th magazine, in which I've interviewed team principal Tony Fernandes and son-of-Colin Clive Chapman, plus an editorial on Lotus' glorious past and promising future. You can download it here or go to www.lotusracing.my.



I had an accommodation scare on Wednesday when my regular roomie, Speed TV's Will Buxton, called to say that the room he had booked us was a single, and single really did mean single - no chance of topping and tailing. Valencia is a bastard for hotels - high prices and high demand - so finding one last minute was going to be tricky. I called a few hotels I knew of - no rooms. So I called a sponsor who had overbooked and agreed to take a room off them at half price. A good deal, but half price was still 200 Euros a night. And they didn't have a booking for Thursday.

About five minutes after I'd agreed on that room in writing I heard of another hotel a five minute walk from the track, on the beach, that had a room for the whole weekend for 60 Euros a night. Damn!! I'm a man of my word, and had already promised the sponsor rep.

I took the cheapo place for Thursday and very decent it was too, for the price. I'm not going to name it here as I have every intention of booking the place for next season as soon as the dates are announced. However, last night I moved into my smart new digs at the Valencia Palace. Five star gaff. Turns out I'd stayed there for a test once when I worked for Red Bull. Is it worth the 140 Euros over the other place? Well, yeah it probably is...

After interviewing Jenson Button at the McLaren Brand Centre in the late afternoon I stopped by Renault, who are doing regular Friday night wine and cheese and caught up with some of the media centre's veterans. Then I was invited aboard a stunning clipper - the Stad Amsterdam - that's owned by human resources company Ranstad. Imagine that - having your own company yacht! Being on the directors' board of that company is a sweet deal, I reckon.



After drinks and tapas there, I got a call from my mate Harry from TW Steel (everybody in the paddock sports a TW Steel watch these days!) who asked if I was hungry. I lied and said yes, and joined him and his gang at the Tridente restaurant at the Hotel Neptuno. We had this massive tasting menu that must have been nine courses long - delicious and very well lubricated. On top of all that wine, cheese and tapas I was stuffed.

When I got to the Valencia Palace I found Bruno Senna propping up the bar (drinking iced tea, mind) and he said "You look happy - I've never seen you so bouncy!"

"That's because I'm drunk, mate" I told him!

Formula One says 'Ola' to Spain for the second time this season, pitching up at the port-side Valencia Street Circuit. And there's a reason this country gets two races - the popularity of Fernando Alonso.

For the past two years in which the race has been run, Alonso raced a Renault that was unable to challenge for victory. But now he's at Ferrari, the crowd expects to see him on the top step. His second place in Barcelona has whetted their appetite and now they're ready for the main course.

With the emphasis on mechanical rather than aerodynamic grip, last fortnight's Canadian GP suited the bulky Ferrari and the characteristics in Valencia are similar. Plus, the Scuderia has been studying Red Bull Racing's exhaust system and is bringing a major upgrade.

This, combined with Alonso's fevered determination in front of his home crowd, should produce a solid result, but beating Red Bull and McLaren won't be easy.

Lewis Hamilton has taken two wins on the trot now, and Canada was one of the most mature drives of his career so far. He has the benefit of momentum behind him, and McLaren's rate of development is shockingly impressive. Interestingly, Ferrari has just poached McLaren's chief mechanic Pat Fry, in a bit to jump start their own R&D.

Red Bull could have more headaches this weekend, as the team assess whether they need to change Sebastian Vettel's gearbox. If they do, he will face a five-place grid penalty just as Mark Webber did in Canada. Had that not happened, Mark might have been in contention for the win. There are a lot of 'what ifs' surrounding Red Bull this year, but the simple fact is they have thrown away at least three odds-on victories and many other points to boot. Fantastic news for McLaren and Ferrari.

With a new rear end and an on-fire Alonso, Valencia is Ferrari's chance to turn their season around.

Just going through my pics from Canada, I found this one of Sebastian Vettel's loaned M-class. There's no better way to get over a big inter-team bust up that driving to a muddy field and doing doughnuts, is there?

Last week I continued my North American road trip, heading back down to New York in the Lotus Evora I'd got my hands on. US highways being as they are - fairly straight and with 65mph limits - there weren't too many opportunities to see what Lotus chassis engineers had come up with until I got off Route 30 and threw the Evora around the rhythmic green lanes of the Adirondacks.

The verdict is 10/10.

I spent the night after the Canadian Grand Prix at a place I'd always wanted to stay - The Point. It was once a retreat belonging to the Rockerfellers, and now it's an uber-exclusive hotel with just 11 bedrooms. I had 'The Weatherwatch', a large cabin all to myself with panoramic views across Lake Saranac, where you can see the weather roll in - hence the name. This was the Rockerfellers guest house, and features a four-poster bed so high off the ground I could barely climb on.


Plus William Rockerfeller was an enthusiastic photographer. My bathroom had once been a dark room, and thus had three sinks.

In true Great Camp tradition the guests all dine together in black tie, and then huddle round a camp fire which has an unlocked bar that the local kids have found out about. They kayak ashore and help themselves to 21 year-old Scotch, the cheeky blighters.

An endless supply of booze seemed to feature heavily in my 24hr stay. They had bars in every room, the boathouse, the garden, etc... I went for a walk, came across a rustic cabin, and they obviously knew I was coming because there were bottles of bubbly chilling in an ice bucket while the fire roared. Now that is hospitality!


Before dinner we took a boat out onto the lake for cocktails. Awfully civilized. There are also wooden electric boats that guests can take out onto the lake themselves and rip it up (at 10mph!). Also, the Rockerfeller's garage has been turned into a private pub, with pool, darts, board games, a jukebox, and lots more booze.

As you can imagine, many interesting characters come and stay here, and live elsewhere on the lake - old money and new money. One of the most attractive houses nearby was owned by Stamford White, noted architect and in possession of a comedy moustache. He was murdered by some bloke when he had an affair with his wife. Apparently it was all anyone could talk about round here, 100 years ago!


This is exactly the kind of spot, away from prying eyes, that Formula One's powerbrokers might use to decide on important stuff. But it's so hush-hush they've probably never heard of it. I hear, however, that Bill and Hillary were regulars to The Point when he was in office.

I was sad to leave, but had to get back to New York City and race chequer cabs wheel-to-wheel. Here are some pics of the Lotus in Times Square.

Disappointing news emanating from Jenson Button's camp this weekend - Mercedes tried to renege on a deal JB had struck with his former employers, that he would inherit his world championship-winning Brawn.

Jenson has an enviable car collection, and a champagne-soaked BGP-001 would be a mighty and well deserved addition.

This is the man, lest we forget, who took a very big salary cut so he could keep Brawn alive. It was written into his contract that "in the event that the driver wins the championship at any time during the term, the company shall transfer...ownership of one chassis of the type driven by the driver during that winning season."

Sounds fair enough to me. For winning the title, it's the least Brawn could do.

However, the team - now majority-owned by Mercedes - emailed their illustrious alumnus in January with some bad news.  "We have no spare 2009 chassis, as limited quantities were manufactured for the 2009 season for cost reasons."

Six chassis were manufactured last year. Button has been offered a replica, which would be a poor substitute, says JB.

Button filed a legal action in April, and Mercedes has now grudgingly located one of those six chassis and ear marked it for the champ. It's being touted as an "amicable solution" but it doesn't sound very friendly behaviour, does it?

Prior to 2009, if you had presented Jenson Button with a plate of wild mushrooms, I'll bet you a fiver he'd have picked the poisonous one.

But Jenson has won over the gods, and for the past 18 months everything has gone his way. Well, everything except losing the delightful Jessica. I'm still not sure what happened there.

But when he signed for McLaren we all thought he was mad. I rate Jenson, I respect his modest determination, and figured his smooth style would suit the new rules, but I didn't predict he would be in the position he is now.

Lewis Hamilton has started to convert the gutsy but ultimately unrewarding drives of the early races into victories, but JB is still right up there with two consecutive second places and is just three points adrift of the championship lead.

McLaren's rate of development has been astounding. At the start of the season they were a long way off Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, and Nico Rosberg's Mercedes - the car Jenson would be driving were it not for his latest gamble. That gamble is paying off big time because the McLarens were pretty much equal with Red Bull in Turkey, and a step ahead in Canada. There's no reason to think it won't be as close in Valencia, and momentum has swung Woking's way.



Vodafone have produced a new viral video that's on You Tube now. It shows the McLaren duo left alone by their mechanics to put their car together. Of course it's staged, but the chemistry between Jenson and Lewis - two very different personalities - seems genuine. They both eagerly want to beat the other, of course, and Turkey was a bit too close for comfort, but thus far they are collaborating well. This, at a time when RBR is in meltdown behind the scenes.

I talked to Jenson on the phone a few days before we flew to Istanbul. He didn't sound defeated after Monaco, but he did say Red Bull's pace was terrifying. We talked about the battle at the top of the points table between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. "That's great for us because they do take points off each other," he said, with reinforced optimism. "If there was just one guy winning all the races, there would be a massive margin in the championship."

That seems so prophetic now, but Jenson and Lewis need to be aware - as I'm sure they are - that they are now in that precarious position. McLaren is managing them admirably so far, but the team's record in this area is not good. See Hamilton v Alonso. See Senna v Prost.

On camera chemistry and on message press conferences mean naff all. It all changes when the visors come down.

Jenson is calm and mature. Lewis is less predictable, more mercurial, and Jenson knows this.

It's McLaren form (and more than a little irritating, actually) to always thank the team at every opportunity. But at this time, it's crucial to mean it. Only so much of the radio messages during the race are broadcast, and as FOM has no bleep button, anything with swearing is cut.

When Vettel retired from the Turkish Grand Prix, he told his team: "I'm going home now. F**k you."

Button and Hamilton need to keep it friendly all the way through to Abu Dhabi. And with a title to play for, that's easier said than done.

One of the paddock traditions in Canada is the mechanics raft race. Behind the paddock is an Olympic rowing basin, left over from the '76 games. This year just two fun-loving teams entered, Lotus and Williams.

The Williams berth was a conventional looking kayak, but was in fact constructed from front-wing travel cases.

The Lotus raft was shorter and wider, with front and rear F1-style wings. Unfortunately the weight distribution was totally out of whack and it seemed in capable of going forwards.

The course was around 400m long, the crews having to paddle, turn around, and come back. Lotus weren't even half way before the Williams crew were on the home stretch, so sabotage was the Norfolk boys only chance - they jumped on the Williams kayak and capsized it.

In a stroke of genius forethought, the Willys boys had written 'HELP!' on the bottom.

Lewis Hamilton led the second McLaren one-two on the trot at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after an inspired tyre strategy. The Englishman's 13th career victory came at the track where he recorded his first, in 2007. "I can dial my car right in here," he said, "I love this place."

It's fitting that a circuit named after Quebec's favourite son, Villeneuve, should have a reputation for thrilling, crazy races and Sunday delivered, though the safety car never made an appearance.

Lewis started in pole position, but the lead changed five times thanks to different tyre strategies. "It was a tremendous weekend. One of the toughest races so far this year."

Canada's tarmac was a killer for tyres, the soft compound graining after just five laps. Teams must use at least one set of softs and one set of hards during the race. "It wasn't a race about being flat out every lap, we had to really think about it," said smooth-driving Jenson Button. Both McLarens chose to start on the soft option, which meant Button was in the pits on lap five and Hamilton the lap after. Then they had to fight back.



Fernando Alonso had the same strategy. He and Hamilton pitted and exited side-by-side, Alonso taking position as the pair came onto the track. "It was lap seven and there was still a long way to go," said Alonso who relished this wheel-to-wheel fight, but was ultimately bitter that heavy traffic would cost him victory. Both McLarens squeezed past his Ferrari when he was wrong-footed by backmarkers, dropping him to third. "Everybody saw we had the pace to win. Traffic can help you, and it can hurt you," he said stoically. "The backmarkers cost us ten points today."

Sebastian Vettel, whose tyre choice was hard-soft-hard was plagued with gearbox problems during the race but still managed fourth. In the closing laps he radioed his engineer to ask what the fastest lap was. "Don't even ask," came the reply.

Webber charged hard on his prime compound tyres, but his strategy was outfoxed by the opposition. Taking a late third stop for soft tyres slid him down to fifth.

The Australian has been toppled from the top of the leaderboard for now, with McLaren posting their third one-two of the season. Hamilton now leads on 109 points, ahead of Button on 106 and Webber on 103. And with Alonso and Vettel just a whisker away, the championship is wide open.

Michael Schumacher finished 11th after a dramatic race which saw him cut across the grass and trade paint with other cars on several occasions, including last lap contact with Tonio Liuzzi and a move which dislodged Felipe Massa's front wing, which led to an investigation by FIA stewards. We just received notice that no action has been taken. "The back end of Michael's car is like the back end of a donkey," joked one commentator.

Everyone's very excited to be back in Montreal. Having had no race in North America last year we were starved of huge portions, big wildlife and 200 channels on TV. It's good to be back.

Montreal's a terrific city with some cool architecture both old and new, street parties, dancing girls and some of the best restaurants I've ever been to. I draw your attention to the famous Au Pied du Cochon where you can have foie gras on a burger, on a pizza, on pancakes or simply with chips. Or go for 'Duck in a Can' which does, indeed, come with a can opener.

As you know, I'm a bit of a pro when it comes to blagging 5* hotel rooms. Not so in Canada, at least so far... I am working on some kind of upgrade, if my friend in a high place can help, but at the moment I am staying in what would be best described as modest dwellings. My room is about 2m x 2m and probably hasn't been given a proper clean since 1972. Stray electrical wires poking through the wall, that kind of thing. But it is only $50 a night.

The city has put a huge tax on hotel rooms on GP week which means getting anything for less than $200 a night is very difficult and that would still be no frills. A four star will set you back $500 a night plus, which is a lot when you're here for five nights like I am. Not quite Monaco prices, but still...

My photographer chum who booked our hotel managed to get one over the owner who, when he realized we'd booked on GP week, tried to weedle out of the standard rate he'd given us, but with no luck. We stood firm.

Still, there's a goth bar in front of the hotel which kept us entertained last night, with it's Pirate-themed house beer called 'Arrrgghhh'

The lodgings may be low on wow factor, but what is more glam is my mode of transport. Behold:

Yes, that's a Lotus Evora. Very rare in these parts. I drove it up here from New York City where I've been on an assignment for the past ten days. It's been getting a lot of attention - people try to overtake with their camera phones thrust through their car windows. At the petrol station, people would stop and come and ask what it was. I had a policeman in New Hampshire pull me over simply so he could have a closer look at it.


Parking it outside my flea pit on the Rue St Denis is the most striking thing of all. Sleeping in the car could be a better option.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber sat down with the press this morning looking tired after what has been pretty much a 12 day interrogation. "What happened happened, let's move on..." Vettel must have said a dozen times. But he and Mark still agree to disagree over who was at fault.

Helmut Marko aside, most people who have seen the footage agree that Mark Webber did nothing wrong and the accident was caused by Vettel moving right too early. But Vettel denies he did anything wrong, and refuses to apologise.

"Looking back, I wouldn't have done anything differently," he told the damp media. "You can look at [the crash] many times, from every angle, and everyone has their own opinion."

"So do you blame Mark for it?" asked one reporter. "I didn't say that, did I?" came the tetchy response. "I did what I did and it didn't work."

"I'm cool. Totally over it," shrugs Webber in his interview session. He will get over it, but I'm not sure he is yet. But by collecting 15 points with third at Istanbul Park, things could have been worse for the Australian. "I've certainly had tougher days than Turkey. The next day I woke up feeling sore for the team rather than myself," says Mark.

Contact between Vettel and Webber certainly added excitement to this year's already riveting campaign. It also gave McLaren a taste for blood.

They were on pace with Red Bull in Istanbul Park and Montreal will suit them. The long straights and tight turns will play into the hands of the F-Duct-packing McLaren, while the Red Bull RB6's superior downforce will have little chance to show its worth.

The Canadian Grand Prix is pretty much guaranteed to provide a thrilling, unpredictable race. Its canyon of wall and barrier-lined corners and high brake wear see many a champion-elect tear a side off their car with the concrete, and safety car periods are guaranteed, bunching the field up and leaving victory in sight of the underdogs. The result in Canada is so often a surprise.

With five different winners from seven races, this season is utterly unpredictable and it could well be we see a sixth winner on Sunday: Felipe Massa's Ferrari has the ability to win here, as does Robert Kubica who took his single win here in 2008 for BMW and has brought Renault to within a sniff of victory already. And then there are the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

The last race showed how critical fuel consumption is, as some drivers - Webber and Lewis Hamilton in particular - were forced to back off to save fuel, letting their team mate nip at their heels. Canada's stop-start nature is particularly punishing on fuel economy.  

So we've got battle lines drawn between team mates, as many as six drivers in the title chase, Ferrari and Mercedes desperate to get on the pace, and former winner Kubica draining every last drop from his Renault. Canada should be a corker.

The biggest casualty of Turkish Grand Prix wasn't Red Bull's title charge, which has seen the team demoted to the second spot behind McLaren. Instead, it was Sebastian Vettel's reputation.

Seb's hand signals have cast him as the bad guy. Personally, I fully support gravel-trap theatrics, whether justified or not. If a driver crashes out of the lead, I say he should kick the car and lamp a marshal. Then he should go on TV and slag everyone off. And then he should go out on the piss and have a laugh about it. See Nelson Piquet Sr.

But I doubt Vettel had much to laugh about on the night of the Turkish Grand Prix. Before lap 40 you wouldn't have found a single person who had a bad word to say about him. He was seen as a brilliantly fast driver destined to be champion and, unlike so many who have found themselves in that position, an approachable lad with a great sense of humour, mature for his years, and very media-savvy.

Perception has changed. Now he's viewed by many inside and outside of the sport as stroppy, immature, unable to pull off a simple overtaking manouvre, and receiving favourable treatment over his team mate.

It's been a PR disaster for the German.

The facts are that Seb is still a brilliant driver, and he's still a smart and mature bloke. I like him a lot. He's in his fourth season of F1 and this is his first PR cock-up. That's pretty amazing, given the media spotlight. Think of the number of excruciating moments there have been in the public life of Lewis Hamilton over those same four seasons. I count five biggies*, far more reprehensible than Vettel's copybook blot which was, to cut the kid some slack, a racing incident.

No one expects him to be a ball of laughs after what happened, but he should have apologized to Mark and the team, on seeing the film footage, by Monday morning at the latest. That statement didn't come until Thursday, and even then it was in print - less convincing than video.

Instead, the battle for goodwill was won by Mark Webber, who released a video statement on the Monday explaining his thoughts on the situation in the most positive light he could muster.

If the championship were won on PR power alone, Mark would be the victor. To a team like Red Bull - a team that exists to sell energy drinks - that currency is as valuable as horsepower and Seb can only do so much to rebuild his status as an F1 good guy, he needs Red Bull's help.

For all the suspicion out there that the company is favouring the younger German-speaking Marko-discovered driver over the elder statesman, if Vettel wins without his image restored it will all be for nothing.

And that means Seb must go on a charm offensive in Canada - something that shouldn't be too difficult, given his genuine personality. He can't do a Tiger Woods and refuse to come out of the motorhome. He mustn't do a Bill Clinton and deny he's done anything wrong. Follow the lead of David Letterman, go on TV, and say you fucked up.

The difference is, those gentlemen were all embroiled in sex scandals. Seb was just doing his job. But without FIA orgies to report on this year, Turkey has become the biggest story of the year.


*
1. The PR stunt which saw Lewis harnessed above a stage in a re-enactment of Troy, and come in for photographic ridicule.
2. Moving to Switzerland for tax reasons, but insisting it was to escape the British paparrazi.
3. Ignoring team orders in Hungary in 2007 and passing his team mate in qualifying.
4. Liargate.
5. Getting charged in Australia this year for 'hooning'.

Here are some other classic roles from the screen, and the drivers who could play these parts:

In Turkey Lewis Hamilton told me how, when he hangs up his helmet, he'll leave Formula One forever to pursue a career in movies and music.

"I'm going to retire from Formula One at some stage and I don't plan to stay here. I don't plan on becoming a commentator. I'd like to do something fresh, like try acting or make music. Do something different."

I'm sitting opposite Lewis in McLaren's 'brand centre'. It's got him thinking about his own brand, and the opportunities available to him. Lewis split with his father Anthony, who had managed him since he was eight, in January and is now looking to Hollywood for representation.

"I need someone who can manage me in F1, but I also need someone who can help build my brand and my image globally."

And that could translate to movie cameos and eventually a career on the screen, though the Englishman concedes that would be "impossible" alongside his racing commitments. So far, his acting work has been limited to commercials for sponsors, and a viral video for Tag Heuer in which he acted alongside legendary actor-racer Steve McQueen, with a bit of digital magic.

"I was told I wasn't that bad!" smiles Lewis. "I mean, I don't even know if I can act, man, but it would be cool just to even be the guy in the background. I don't think I have the potential to be Brad Pitt, but who knows. It would be cool to do some music videos."

Lewis was joined in Istanbul by pop star girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, who won the Dancing with the Stars TV show in the US last week. Lewis had flown to LA to see many of the shows, only to fly back to Europe straight afterwards. Tiring? "Well, I like LA," he says, "and I hope to be there more this summer". On his most recent trip he got his ears pierced. "I'm trying to divert attention from everything else," he laughs, referring to Red Bull Racing's pace this year. "I have to take the attention away from Mark Webber!"

As for taking to the floor in Dancing with the Stars himself, Lewis says he's sticking to driving. "No, you should never say never, but I don't ever plan to do that. After watching Nicole and seeing what she's gone through with the stress, strain, pressure and everything, I don't know if I could take it. The tango can take five months to learn, and she did it in three days. I couldn't do that."

We're more likely to see him partnering up with James Bond than a sequined dancer. Hamilton is a big 007 fan. Should the call come from the Bond producers, I ask him, would he accept a role?

"One hundred percent! I would teach Bond how to drive."