A bizarre pit-lane incident has removed the top two runners in this year's Formula One world championship from the Canadian Grand Prix, after Lewis Hamilton ran into the back of Kimi Raikkonen.

With the safety car on track to cover the removal of Adrian Sutil's flaming Force India, the race leaders - headed by Hamilton, Robert Kubica and Raikkonen - all opted to pit. Both Kubica and Raikkonen appeared to get the jump on Hamilton after McLaren seemed to put more fuel into the Briton's MP4-23, but had to stop at the end of pit-lane as the red light remained on for the safety car and attendant queue to filter through turns one and two.

Hamilton, however, did not appear to notice the lights and, locked up, ploughed straight into - and over - the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari. Kubica escaped the contact, and the secondary impact caused by fourth-placed Nico Rosberg also missing the signal to slow. The Williams, like Hamilton, lost its nose...

Felipe Massa, third in the title race, was also affected, having to pit for a second time after being delayed by the melee, rejoining 17th and last as result.

The field at the restart, on lap 23, was headed by BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, who had not stopped, with the similarly heavily-laden Rubens Barrichello and Kazuki Nakajima giving chase to the fleeing German. Kubica, for the record, was back in tenth....