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Apart from being one of my favourite races of the year, it has some interesting facts:

- Gilles Villeneuve's 1978 triumph was also his maiden victory in F1 & the track was renamed after him in 1982. Since then, five others drivers have had maiden victories in Canada: Thierry Boutsen (1989), Jean Alesi (1995), Lewis Hamilton (2007), Robert Kubica (2008) and most recently Daniel Ricciardo (2014).

- Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver in history at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The German won here seven times, was on the podium 12 times in total, and also sealed pole position on six different occasions.

- The list of drivers to have had accidents at the Wall of Champions includes Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Jensen Button and Sebastian Vettel.

- The longest race in F1 history took place in Canada in 2011, at 4h 4m 39.537s (which included a two-hour rain break). Jenson Button won fighting back from 21st on the road to pass Sebastian Vettel on the final lap.

- In the last 10 races in Canada, the pole sitter has been victorious on just four occasions.

- Ferrari's Rene Arnoux recorded what remains the biggest winning margin in a Grand Prix at Montreal, as he crossed the line 42.029s ahead of Renault's Eddie Cheever. On the other hand, the smallest winning margin came in 2000, when Michael Schumacher took the chequered flag just 0.174s ahead of Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello.

I just love the Montreal circuit. It's been relatively unchanged since its first race and some of F1's best races have been there (Jenson's 2011 win is still my favourite race).

After Monaco, I'm optimistic Montreal will give us another cracker.

Interesting. What's the weather forecast for the weekend?

Covalent wrote:Interesting. What's the weather forecast for the weekend?

Dry, I hope. I like a wet race on TV, but it's a different matter when I'm actually going to be there!

Canada is exciting in either conditions!

I do a virtual rain dance for most F1 races, but if there are 2 circuits that can deliver a top race in the dry, those are Spa and Montreal.

I get chance of showers on Google.

Alex53 wrote:I do a virtual rain dance for most F1 races, but if there are 2 circuits that can deliver a top race in the dry, those are Spa and Montreal.

I tend to agree.

Exediron wrote:

Covalent wrote:Interesting. What's the weather forecast for the weekend?

Dry, I hope. I like a wet race on TV, but it's a different matter when I'm actually going to be there!

Understandably so

Alex53 wrote:

I get chance of showers on Google.

Methinks that Google is teasing us...

I missed the 2011 Canadian GP live as I was at a music festival having probably the best weekend of my life (not sure if I should be positive or negative about that). I have 3 massively innapropriate stories I'd like to tell, but I won't. I will smile as I recall them now though. I came home and stuck the F1 on iPlayer. Watched qualy then loaded the race and I was looking at the 5+ hours in the progress bar thinking something must be wrong. After a while I forgot I could skip so sat through DC and Brundle doing inane commentary for at least 90 mins of the rain break. Sure it was amusing at times, but I'd rather have two hours of time.

Enjoyed the trivia about the race, I love a nice bit of trivia.

Hamilton has won this race 4 times, but never consecutive years (nor consecutive attempts around years like 09). But Jackie Icyx did, then Sir Jackie Stewart did for back to back back to back winners.

This race has also happened on my birthday the most of any race... probably. I'm not going to check that but seems likely.

I wonder if a Groundhog (Beaver) will again make its presence felt just like 2007 when Super Aguri driver hit one at top speed. He had to make a pit stop & till then was enroute to being on the podium.

Hamilton narrowly misses a Groundhog during the 2008 practice session!!

Source - http://www.thesun.co.uk/

Circuit facts are always interesting. Thanks OP
Agree with other posters that Montreal is almost always a good race.
I prefer dry weather races tho, no oddball results esp for grid times.

Some infamous drives into the wall of champions:

http://f1.com/CAN-Wall-Video

To the OP, do you mean that the largest winning margin in any GP was at Montreal?

flyboy10 wrote:To the OP, do you mean that the largest winning margin in any GP was at Montreal?

I think it is just Montreal's biggest winning margin.

flyboy10 wrote:To the OP, do you mean that the largest winning margin in any GP was at Montreal?

As per the information in the below link, the largest margin ever between 1st & 2nd was between Damon Hill & Olivier Panis during the 1995 Australian Grand Prix. The margin was 2 laps!!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Aust ... Grand_Prix

In terms of time, the gap between 1st (Sir Stirling Moss & 2nd (Mike Hawthorn) was 5 minutes & 12.75 seconds during the 1958 Portugese Grand Prix:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Port ... Grand_Prix

Been attending Montreal since 2001, so this year is my 15th race (no race in 2009).

That rain delay, was still sitting in Grandstand 21 which was the best section IMO until they brought in the ridiculous new fence, three times as thick, literally three times as tall too, completely ruining the view. That day it was only 13C, I was frozen, didn't even want the beer we brought. We and several other regulars I know have moved from GS21 (entrance to hairpin) to GS24 (exit of hairpin) as the same crappy fence is over there but just not as tall.

I mention the rain delay it because I"m reading the new security rules today that just got e-mailed out, I'm most disappointed about the cooler size restrictions but they ahve said no umbrellas and there is rain forecast over the week-end. I don't put an umbrella up during an active session, but during a red flag session with torrential Malaysia-like downpour? Now I can't even bring one to help protect my camera bag from getting utterly drenched (no lockers on the island)? Ridiculous.

Cooler size is now being limited to NINE INCHES TALL!!! Absurd! Look, the team have been running this race so smoothly every year, I've never had anyone complain about my cooler which is around 12" tall, I've never had to put it under my seat, it's easy to lift out the way when someone wants to walk in and out and you expect disruptive traffic to be at a minimum during a session, especially in the front row. How does it affect overall room in the seat and on the metro/pedestrian traffic if I show up with 5 @ 6-can coolers just to get them under the seat? Absurd! My buddy and I will take a bottle of red, some 24-month proscuitto, baguette, some spicy soprasetta, a nice cheese like a riopelle, perhaps 16 cans of Heineken and maybe one or two small bottles of water for the Friday, it fits perfectly in my 30-can cooler which hasn't had a single complaint in the 8+ years I've switched to it.

Frustrating to be so close to heading out on the road and to have such an annoyance at this stage in the game possibly altering checklists and planning.

If something ain't broke, don't break it!!!!

Absolutely agree with Dobyblue's cooler complaint. Been going to Montreal since emigrating to Canada in '87 and I've just measured the cooler I usually take; it's 11½ inches and IT FITS UNDER THE ******* SEAT! As for umbrellas I was in Barcelona last month and people were very well behaved with umbrellas. It's not about what you've got it's what you do with it.

Okay well aside from the tropical storm effects taking Montreal from a lovely 28C recently to what looks to be 16C/61F and rain for Sunday's race, the cooler thing seems to be a non-issue.

I don't know why they woudln't state this in their e-mail, but they've said they will allow a few inches variance and that these "conditions" have been the same for many years. That's a big relief. Shame about the weather, but if we get a fairly dry Friday and Saturday then I'm okay with enough rain for Inters for the race...as long as it's not a red flag-inducing monsoon like the year Button passed Seb on the penultimate or final lap a few years ago!