By Emma Aitken
June 9 2008

After the phenomenal race of Monaco all eyes were turned to Montreal and with the threat of rain and a track that was, quite literally breaking up before our very eyes and the wall of Champions seemingly looming ever closer, we all held our breath, hoping none of these things would come in to play to ruin Lewis’ race.

After the phenomenal race of Monaco all eyes were turned to Montreal and with the threat of rain and a track that was, quite literally breaking up before our very eyes and the wall of Champions seemingly looming ever closer, we all held our breath, hoping none of these things would come in to play to ruin Lewis’ race.

They didn’t; a red light did. Look, we English have precious little to get excited about these days when it comes to the achievements of the English sporting World so I can completely understand why Lewis Hamilton has become the nation’s favourite. But there is no pretty way the British press are going to be able to dress this one up. Our boy Lewis failed to spot a red light and the two cars that were patiently waiting in front of it. Steve Ryder said

“Once again, pit lane agony for Lewis Hamilton.”        

Sorry, but “Once again, pit lane – didn’t see it coming – for Lewis Hamilton” would have been more like it.The damage limitation gang, also known as the ITV Formula 1 team leapt on the Lewis can do no wrong band wagon and held the McLaren team responsible. Now, in that they maybe should have mentioned that the pit lane exit light was on red, you’d have to excuse them for thinking that the driver should have noticed the big red light and the two drivers waiting beside it for himself, without a heads up from them. Mind you, those bright Red Ferrari’s have always had a knack of blending in to the middle distance! 

I thought Kimi Raikkonen was very well behaved over the incident. When he climbed out of his damaged beyond repair F2008 and headed towards Lewis I thought there was going to be trouble. But no, The Finn just ironically pointed out  the red light to Hamilton and headed for his garage. He was rather magnanimous about the whole thing.

“Obviously, anyone can make mistakes, as I did two weeks ago in Monaco, but it’s one thing to make a mistake at 200 miles per hour but another to hit a car stopped at a red light.

“I am not angry because that doesn’t achieve anything and does not change my result!”

He’s so laid back you could step over him! Maybe Lewis should take a leaf out of his book and chill out a bit. A burning desire to win is obviously a good thing but the boy needs to tone it down a touch. He saw Raikkonen and Kubica go past him while he was still in the pits and put his foot down when he was released without checking the road in front of him. End result? An early trip home without a point to his name.

And who was there to pick up the spoils? Robert Kubica, that’s who. It was a tremendous drive from the Pole and a well deserved win for him and the BMW team. It might seem a terrible thing for a McLaren fan to say, but with Lewis and Kimi out of the race, the Montreal Grand Prix really picked up for me. There was so much to watch, so many great over taking moves to see. Massa was superb in his spirited dash to claim some decent points with his main rivals out of the way. David Coulthard had a fantastic result for Red Bull Racing too. It was great to see him up on the podium again.

The season is wide open again and that makes it incredibly exciting. It might have been disastrous for Lewis in Canada but the one thing it has done is left us with one Hell of an exciting fight for the title. Bring on France; I can hardly wait to see what is going to happen next!