After the sort of build-up that usually precedes the British or German Grands Prix, the Canadian Grand Prix is over and the hometown hero has disappointed the legion of fans that came to see him.

Before the race

The big news in the run up to the race, ignoring Villeneuve-mania for a moment, was that Gerhard Berger, Benetton-Renault driver, would not be competing. Gerhard has been suffering from a sinus problem for most of the season so far and decided to have an operation to fix the problem. Sadly for the team and himself, Gerhard suffered an infection in the trip over from Europe and was advised to rest instead of race in Canada (it has since transpired that Berger may be out for more races). In his place was fellow Austrian Alex Wurz, former ITC driver, Mercedes GT driver, and Benetton test driver.

Alex, who has impressed the team in testing, was almost immediately at home, and whilst he was not as quick as Jean Alesi (nor could he be expected to be) he ran just outside of the top 10 in both free practices and qualifying (despite hitting the wall on the exit of the final corner in qualifying). Alesi, for his part, was on top form on Friday (3rd and 4th in the first and second sessions respectively), but slipped down to 8th in qualifying.

Qualifying was, as usual, a race between Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari and Jacques Villeneuve in the Williams. Throughout the session the two traded times, with the former ending on top by just 0.013 seconds.

Most notable in qualifying however, was Rubens Barrichello who drove the Stewart car into 3rd spot on the grid, surprising almost everyone with his speed, especially as Jan Magnussen was down in 21st. Due to the Bridgestone tyres that the team runs, Rubens was able to run the car with very little rear wing, giving him one of the fastest times on the straights.

The final fact that is worth noting is that all of the cars were inside the pole position time set by Damon Hill in 1996. Although there have been massive improvements at other tracks that can be explained away by small changes to the track, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has had no such changes.

The race

Sunday arrived and the bad weather that had seemed possible was nowhere in sight, with the sun beating down on the spectators and teams alike on the Ile Notre Dame. The high track temperature would mean high tyre wear and the Goodyear teams knew that they would be effected much more severely than the Bridgestone runners and had planned accordingly, not wishing to endure another debacle like the Spanish GP.

As the 5 red lights went out, both front row starters got off the line well, but the second row did not fare as well and were quickly swamped by the runners behind them. Heinz Harald Frentzen, who qualified 4th, dropped back down to 6th and Rubens Barrichello was pushed down to 8th. At the first corner, the scene of many accidents in past races, the field seemed to filter through without causing any problems, but as the cars bunched even tighter for turn two, Olivier Panis ran into the back of Mika Hakkinen who had slowed just a little too much. This knocked the rear wing from the McLaren and the front from the Prost car and threw the carbon fibre debris into the path of Eddie Irvine and caused him to spin the Ferrari into retirement. Somehow, Jan Magnussen was also accounted for during this incident, although it is still not clear how as the Stewart driver clearly avoided the initial accident wreckage. Both of the main protagonists made it back to the pits, but Mika was unable to continue, a rear wing well beyond the ability for the team to repair in any reasonable time.

Back at the front, the positions were: M. Schumacher -> Villeneuve -> Fisichella -> Alesi -> Coulthard -> Frentzen -> R. Schumacher

Such was the pace of the remaining Ferrari that Michael had opened up a 1.5 second lead at the end of the first lap and Jacques Villeneuve was faced with the very real prospect of being beaten for a second consecutive race at home. It is perhaps this reason that made the Canadian driver push harder on the next lap, so hard in fact, that he drove off the track and straight into a wall.

As Jacques turned into the chicane at the start of the start-finish straight, the Williams understeered off the track and into the wall that had claimed Alex Wurz in qualifying. As he climbed from the car, Jacques looked suitably upset for someone who had crashed in front of his biggest fans without suffering a mechanical failure. Although many expected him to blame either the car or the track, Villeneuve accepted full blame for the accident, saying that he had "misjudged the corner".

This left Michael Schumacher leading the Jordan of Giancarlo Fisichella by over 3 seconds after the 2nd lap and the Ferrari was fast disappearing down the road. Behind Fisichella, both Jean Alesi and David Coulthard were queuing up, obviously in a hurry to get past and give chase. 1.5 seconds behind these 3, and dropping back all the time, was Heinz-Harald Frentzen, having yet another bad day in the Williams. Ralf Schumacher, now running in 6th thanks to Villeneuve, was harrying his countryman, anxious to add to the 4 points he scored in Argentina.

With Villeneuve out, Fisichella seemed to realise that only one car stood between him and the lead and he set about chasing down the fleeing Ferrari, setting a new lap record (at that time) on lap 4 and pulling out a small gap between himself and Jean Alesi.

Lap 5 saw Ralf Schumacher finally getting past a slow Frentzen, moving himself into 5th and giving Alex Wurz a chance of scoring points in his first ever F1 race. It was starting to become clear that Frentzen was having some kind of tyre problem as he was dramatically slower than the rest of the front runners and losing time hand over fist.

On lap 7 Ukyo Katayama rammed his Minardi into the wall in the run up to the hairpin, the positioning of the crippled car necessitating the use of the safety car. The Japanese driver has had little success so far in 1997 and is rumoured to be heading Stateside to race in CART. For two laps the Mercedes C-Class saloon car kept the F1 cars circulating at a pedestrian pace before allowing them to continue racing.

At the end of lap 10, the Williams crew called Heinz-Harald Frentzen in for fresh tyres and fuel, the first set of Goodyear rubber being clearly well worn. The mysterious thing about the stop was not that it occurred, but the timing. The Williams mechanics had been standing in the pitlane throughout the safety car period and had could have called their driver in then and saved a lot of time.

Another driver in at this point was Damon Hill, although this was his second stop of the day. The Arrows driver had previously complained of a vibration from the front of the car, believed to be caused by a loose wheel weight, and had decided to fill up the tanks to allow himself to run a one-stop strategy.

Once again, Giancarlo Fisichella was proving equal to the task of keeping Michael Schumacher in his sights and kept station around 1.5 seconds behind the former World Champion. An equal distance behind the Jordan was the Benetton of Jean Alesi who was being pushed hard by David Coulthard, whose McLaren was being powered by the new F-spec Mercedes engine.

Ralf Schumacher was unable to catch the leading group, but was easily pulling away from Wurz's Benetton (at around 1.5 seconds per lap) who was in turn being chased hard by Barrichello and, perhaps most surprisingly, the two Tyrrells.

Mika Salo and Jos Verstappen were closely matched all weekend, and in the race both were proving troublesome for Rubens Barrichello. The Stewart driver had his mirrors full of Jos Verstappen as soon as the green flag had been waved after the pace car and the Dutch driver was past within 2 laps after carrying out a brave lunge down the outside in the approach to the last corner. This left Mika Salo the task of passing the Stewart before he could continue the battle with his teammate. As they crossed the line to end lap 13, Salo was in a great position to overtake Barrichello, but had his maneuvre spoiled when Ralf Schumacher had a high-speed accident at the first corner.

As Jordan had passed the pitlane exit, something at the back had broken (initially believed to be a tyre, but now thought to be suspension related) causing the car to move rapidly right and into the barriers. The impact was a glancing one and the Jordan slid along the Armco barrier, almost unaffected by the gravel until it ran headlong into the tyre wall. Almost immediately, Ralf was out of the car and over the barriers, looking as unshaken as we have come to expect F1 drivers to be after an accident.

Up at the front, Michael Schumacher had finally managed to start to edge away from the second Jordan. Fisichella, on the other hand, was still unable to get away from his pursuers, Jean Alesi and David Coulthard. Behind Coulthard, Wurz was dropping back quickly, but was keeping the gap to Jos Verstappen at a relatively stable 2.5 seconds.

Lap 24 saw the first of the scheduled stops with Verstappen, Alesi, Fisichella, and Barrichello all coming in for new tyres and fuel. These were followed 2 laps later by Wurz and a further 2 laps later by Schumacher.

David Coulthard was alone among the front runners to stay out, prompting many to believe that the McLaren team were planning to run him on just one stop as opposed the others two stops. Unlike most of the other Goodyear shod cars, the McLaren seemed to be using tyres relatively well, the team having allegedly heated the tyres more than once to make them slightly harder than the normal compound.

After these stops were completed the tops 6 looked like this:
Coulthard -> 8.356s -> Schumacher -> 17.136s -> Alesi -> 3.101s -> Fisichella -> 4.639s -> Herbert -> 11.163s -> Frentzen

Within 2 laps, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was in for his second stop, dropping him out of the top 6 and moving Alex Wurz back into 6th place. Johnny Herbert's 5th position was due to his pit strategy, which appeared to be the same as that of David Coulthard.

The 3-lap period beginning with lap 33 saw the retirement of Jarno Trulli (engine), Rubens Barrichello (gearbox) and Alex Wurz (driveshaft), leaving only 14 cars remaining in the race.

On lap 37 Herbert came in for his first, and last, stop of the race, although the gap over 6th placed Frentzen was sufficient for him to remain in 5th. Herbert was followed 2 laps later by the leader, David Coulthard, whose McLaren was refueled and re-shod in 10.5 seconds, dropping him down to second behind Schumacher but well clear of 3rd placed Jean Alesi.

Sadly, for Johnny Herbert, his race was ruined by a 10-second stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. This 10 seconds added to the amount of time taken to get into, and out of, the pits cost Sauber a possible podium position, just because a button didn't work as required.

As Herbert came in for his stop, both Jean Alesi and Giancarlo Fisichella came in for their second stops, preparing for the final run to the flag, moving Frentzen temporarily up to 3rd spot.

On track Olivier Panis, still recovering from the time lost replacing his front wing, set about unlapping himself and passed Schumacher on lap 50, making many people wonder what might have been if he hadn't savaged the back of the McLaren at the start of the race.

Lap 51 saw Olivier Panis, Michael Schumacher and fellow German Heinz-Harald Frentzen come in for their final stops. This moved David Coulthard back into 1st and prompted McLaren to bring him in for a precautionary stop as his tyres were looking worn. Sadly this proved to be the biggest misjudgment of the day, and instead of ensuring the victory, it spelled the end of their challenge.

The stop ran faultlessly from the moment the car arrived to the moment it was dropped from the jacks, and it was at that instant that the race was lost. Coulthard stalled the engine and a slipping clutch cost them valuable time in their attempts to restart it. Before coming in the team knew they had around 18 seconds to complete the tyre change they were to get out ahead of Schumacher, but it took well in excess of 20 seconds to get the engine started again and David was dropped out of the top 6 and Schumacher returned to the front of the field.

At this point, the incident that the race will no doubt be remembered for occurred: Olivier Panis, trying his hardest to get something from the race was entering the sweeping bends after turn 3 when the back end of the Prost car broke away from him. Panis bounced at a relatively slight angle off the right hand wall (which was unprotected concrete) and rebounded into the left-hand wall. The angle that the Prost hit the second wall at was even shallower than the previous collision, but the presence of a tyre wall meant the impact buried the car up to the cockpit in the tyres.

The tyre wall flexed, but did not break and the chassis was trapped in place, decelerating the car in a fraction of a second. It is here that most of the damage to both car and driver seemed to be caused and although it was instantly clear that Olivier was conscious (moving his head around to show he was okay), it was also clear that all was not well inside the cockpit. Unlike Ralf Schumacher earlier, Panis did not spring from the car and over the barrier; instead he remained in the car, moving around, but not getting out.

As the safety car came out, the medical team arrived at the scene of the accident to start treating the injured driver. Seeing the cars driving past the scene of the accident, even at a relatively slow pace, seemed more than a little dangerous bearing in mind that these cars have a habit of having suspension parts breaking at the most inopportune times.

As Panis was placed in the ambulance, the red flag was displayed, calling an end to the race after 2 laps behind the safety car. This meant that Schumacher had won the Canadian Grand Prix with Alesi 2nd, Fisichella 3rd, Frentzen 4th, Herbert 5th and Nakano 6th. Damon Hill had finished a race for the first time in 1997, but the feeling was muted as the drivers gathered on the grid, the extent of Olivier's injuries still being unknown at that time.

The podium was also a sombre affair, with the drivers ignoring the usual champagne ritual, clearly feeling that it was inappropriate to celebrate when one of their number had suffered serious injuries.

As Michael Schumacher said, "I am pleased with the ten points but there is no point celebrating a victory in these circumstances."