2005 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX: VILLENEUVE SLAMS HIS WAY HOME

By James Neilson

Villeneuve-Gate has made its way home for the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix at the beautiful Isle Notre Dame and the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The Canadian Driver is embroiled in yet another war of words with his team boss Peter Sauber.

The 1997 World Champion claims the Sauber team isn’t listening to his input and that his experiences as a past champion are being wasted. But enough about what is quickly becoming a tired and depressing story about one of Canada’s greatest athletes. Somewhere 1981 World Champion Alan Jones is sympathizing, or thanking the lord it’s not him this time!

The Final practise session saw Mclaren’s third driver, Pedro De La Rosa, continue to dominate the weekend. The Spaniard’s best time, 1:14.662, was nearly 2 seconds clear of his best time in the first session. His Teammates, Juan Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen, continue to hammer home Mclaren’s newfound turn of speed setting the fourth, Montoya, and fifth, Raikkonen, quickest times of the day.

Slotting into second place on the timesheets was Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta who continues to impress in his role as Toyota’s third driver. His teammates, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, set the ninth and 11th best times of the day. That has to be a disappointing turn of pace for the lead Toyota drivers as Trulli has been a new man at his new team in 2005 and Ralf has been the pole-sitter for the last two Canadian Grands Prix.

Fernando Alonso Continues his metronome-like charge to the title and sits at the head of the "race drivers" timesheets after practise. His 1:15.376 time was good enough for third behind De La Rosa and Zonta. His Teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, was equally impressive on his way to the sixth fastest time.

The BAR team looks good to score their first points of the season, at least if no one finds anything fishy in their fuel tanks. After practise Jenson Button and Takuma Sato sit in 7th and 8th respectively.

Ferrari continue to struggle, presumably with their tires, as Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher languish down the timesheets in 10th and 16th places respectively.

Mark Webber managed to stay ahead of his red hot teammate Nick Heidfeld but the Williams team as a whole struggled on a track they usually dominate. Webber sits in 12 while Heidfeld sits in 15th place.

Jacques Villeneuve can take some solice from the practise session as he achieved a rare feat this year by staying ahead of his teammate throughout it. Villeneuve and his teammate, Felipe Massa sit in 13 and 14th places respectively.

Thr Red Bull team struggled as David Coulthard and Christan Klien could only manage the 17th and 18th fastest times of the day. The team’s thrid driver, making his F1 debut in Canada, Scott Speed, spun and only managed half the laps of his competitors. He sits in dead last.

Business as usual at the back of the grid with the Jordans and Minardi’s bringing up the rear as usual. Do you even care in what order? Didn’t think so.

For Full practise times visit www.formula1.com for more details.