Back in its more traditional post-Monaco slot, the Canadian Grand Prix provides the gateway to
Formula One's annual transatlantic 'flyaway' spell, with the USGP following hard on its heels just seven days later.
Situated somewhere between street and road course, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is one of the sport's more quirky venues, as well as one of its more picturesque, with the Montreal cityscape in the background on one side, the St Lawrence river on the other and the remnants of the Expo '67 dotted around the park in which the course is set.
The circuit is, however, one of the hardest that the teams will face this season, with high speeds, heavy braking, tight chicanes and close concrete retaining walls combining to keep drivers and mechanics alike on their toes. Canada rarely throws anything other than an eventful weekend, with a regularly high attrition rate that often includes some unexpected names.
No time was that more apparent than 1999, when three world champions -
Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and
Michael Schumacher - all found the wall on the outside of the final chicane, or 2005, when champion-elect
Fernando Alonso overstepped the mark and retired with broken suspension.
Drivers either seem to love the track - see
Giancarlo Fisichella's record there - or detest its stop-start nature, but what seems to be common consensus is that Montreal is a great place to have the race, with the close proximity of the city a big draw for all concerned.
FIA F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP NEWS
Team orders were the main headline maker in the weeks between Monaco and Montreal, with
Lewis Hamilton's comments after the race in the Principality suggesting that he felt he had been deprived of the chance to shoot for glory.
McLaren insisted that, with a big advantage over its rivals, it was playing safe by instructing its drivers to hold station. The FIA wondered initially, perhaps flexing its muscle a little after Ron Dennis criticised plans to involve the manufacturers in designing the future of
F1, before eventually agreeing that there was no case to answer.
