Roger Horton returns from the Canadian paddock with a few insights and reflections on the weekend's events

Sometimes a race weekend can be dominated by facts and figures; lap times, pitstop strategy, changing weather conditions and many other factors that can win and lose a race. Other times it can largely be summed up in a couple of images, usually these images contain a winner and a loser and they represent the contrasting fortunes of each participant.

One of the lasting images from Montreal, and the one shared with millions around the world, was of Ralf Schumacher powering his Williams out of the turn ten hairpin, closing up gradually on his brother's leading Ferrari, and time and again attempting a passing manoeuvre as they braked for the chicane leading into the pit-straight.

He never got that pass done, but the ease with which he was always able to close any gap that the elder Schumacher was able to create, was evidence enough that eventually he would be able to find a way past. It was perhaps unfortunate that the overtaking manoeuvre, when it came, was the slightly disappointing 'pass in the pits' to which we have all grown so accustomed, but then again Ralf always knew that he was going to be able to run longer on fuel than his brother, so a do or die overtaking move was always going to be a poor option.

It is a measure of Ralf Schumacher's growing maturity that he kept his head, never losing sight of his original game plan. In short, he drove a race that his three-time champion elder brother could have been proud of, and it is the prevailing view of most in the Paddock, that we will see plenty more drives like this from the younger Schumacher in the future.

In stark contrast was the image, viewed by very few people, of Juan Pablo Montoya quietly leaving the Montreal Paddock accompanied by his mother and father, just moments before his race-winning teammate entered the Williams hospitality area, to the applause of his team members and assorted hangers on.

Leaving quietly was perhaps the smartest thing Montoya could do, given that he had yet another bad race weekend on the track, and perhaps an even worse weekend off it. The incident in the drivers' briefing with Jacques Villenueve, of which there were several differing versions doing the rounds in the Paddock, has reportedly led to him being given a stern warning as to his future conduct by his team boss Frank Williams.

This is a warning that the Colombian would be wise to heed, and despite the fact that the team is publicly supporting Montoya's difficulties in regards to his qualifying performances, citing constant loss of setup time on Fridays and Saturday mornings, there is a growing concern within the team that Montoya is overdriving his car and failing to come to terms with the specialised nature of Formula One.

Montoya complained that his car suddenly felt "strange" just before he lost control and hit the barriers for the second time in two races. Initial investigations at the track failed to find any immediate cause for the car's behaviour, although technical director Patrick Head did concede that the steering rack "felt a bit tight." Whether this was caused by the accident damage was impossible to say until further investigation back at the factory.

If the two Williams drivers experienced contrasting fortunes in Montreal, so did the two McLaren drivers. Once again David Coulthard looked to be the most convincing of the two over the weekend, and he still could have been a contender for a win had he not suffered the bizarre experience of finding a loose nut rolling around in his cockpit during the parade lap.

Speaking after the race Coulthard explained: "I pulled out a nut that should be holding the front suspension on, so I knew straight away I had a problem, and the team gave me the option to stop. I took the view that it was better to hang in there and try and get some points, and I was capable of doing that, but the engine let go before the end."

Given that the Scot's left front wheel was therefore not attached to the car properly, it put what appeared from the outside to be a rather lacklustre drive into a whole fresh prospective. There are a number of places on the Montreal track where the cars travel at over 300 km/h, so any sort of suspension failure could have had very serious consequences. Coulthard doubted whether he could have finished ahead of Ralf's Williams, but was confident he could have handled Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, something that now he will never be able to prove.

Afterwards, Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug tried to remain upbeat despite this being the second race in succession where Coulthard has been robbed of valuable points in his championship chase. "Things can still turn around, at the next race the others might struggle. Of course I would like to be only one point behind or eighteen points in front, but it is not impossible to gain eighteen points in comparison with your competition in nine races."

Not impossible, but mighty difficult given that the man with the points advantage is Michael Schumacher, and he and his Ferrari have looked ominously strong for most of this season.

Local hero Jacques Villeneuve was the other ex-CART champion that did his reputation no good at all in Canada. The incident with Montoya during the Friday morning practice session was silly in the extreme. Whatever the provocation, 'brake testing' or slowing on the straight when you know there is another car following closely behind, is at best juvenile and at worst extremely dangerous.

Whether the slight damage to the rear of his car caused his crash into the barriers a few laps later or not, the resultant loss of setup time cost him dearly, and he was once again outqualified by his teammate Olivier Panis. This now makes it 4:4 in their personal qualifying contest this season, and Panis once again went on to drive the more convincing race, before he was forced to retire on lap 39.

As always, BAR team boss Craig Pollock defended his driver's performance. "It's been pretty hard all the way through," Pollock said after the race. "There is always a lot of pressure on Jacques, but on the other hand, this time I don't think it was the pressure that did him. In reality, I don't think that the team did the job well enough on his car, and in the race something failed and it was not his fault."

The fact remains that Villeneuve's reputation as the third best driver in F1 is looking increasingly shaky. Pollock continues to insist that he is very happy to have a driver as good as Panis is turning out to be, alongside his long-time friend, but to an increasing number of neutral observers, the '97 World Champion is looking to be overrated and overpaid.

So for the second time this season, Sir Frank Williams and his partner Patrick Head were able to leave a Grand Prix as impressive winners. This time they had beaten the acknowledged best car and driver combination in the pitlane in a straight race-long contest and come out on top. On this showing, it could become a habit.