Ten Points Rain Down On Vitaly

We were expecting the unpredictable at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and who could have predicted biblical weather, five safety cars, a red flag, five stewards’ investigations, clashes between team-mates, and a surprise lead change just one lap from the finish. Fabulous. But at four hours and four minutes – the longest grand prix in history – it required almost Le Mans-levels of endurance, and that was just for the TV commentators.

Both Lotus-Renault GP cars were in strong positions until, on Lap 56, Nick Heidfeld crashed. He was fighting for fifth with Kamui Kobayashi and tapped the rear of the Sauber. This tore off Nick’s front wing and, unluckily, it folded underneath the car and launched the R31 in the air. It was quite a scary moment for Nick but the car took off down an escape road and came to a rest without hitting a tyre wall. The DNF is miserable for the German given his impressive pace all weekend.

Vitaly Petrov kept his head while everyone was losing theirs, and drove an incredibly controlled race. His fifth place elevates him to seventh in the drivers’ standings, one spot ahead of his team-mate.