Canadian Grand Prix: Can Montreal master Lewis Hamilton make history in Canada?

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Formula 1 can awaken from its Monaco slumber. Canada is ready to pump some adrenaline back into the season.

The stinging criticism from all quarters over Monte Carlo’s ‘driver procession’ means Montreal only needs to deliver a smidgen of drama to stoke the fires of interest again.

Blockbuster excitement is something the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has served up regularly. This artificial island built for the World Fair in 1967 has played host to high emotions and jaw-dropping highlights.

When Frenchman Jean Alesi won in 1995, not only was it his birthday, he sealed his one and only win in a Ferrari bearing the same number 27 as legendary Canadian driver Gilles Villeneuve.

In 2007, Robert Kubica miraculously walked away with light concussion and a sprained ankle from one of F1’s most shocking crashes, his Sauber hurtling through the air at Turn 10 before smashing into the wall in a plume of smoke and debris.

Returning to the circuit in 2008 and like a scene from a Hollywood movie, Kubica stood on top of the podium, basking in the adulation of a maiden win at the scene which could have proved nearly fatal just 12 months earlier.

After his Ferrari gave up at the end of a chaotic race, Jean Alesi hitched a ride on Michael Schumacher’s Benetton and was paraded around the track like a king to the cheers of the Canadian crowd

If anyone is worthy of an honorary star on the Canadian Walk of Fame (home to 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve… but strangely… not his father Gilles), then Lewis Hamilton would be in with a good shout.

Triumph this weekend and he’ll draw level with seven-time Canada victor Michael Schumacher. No-one else on the current grid comes close to matching these impressive stats.

As an added bonus, Hamilton can make his own history by becoming the first driver to score four consecutive pole positions and – if converted – race wins at the Montreal street circuit.

There wasn’t a dry eye in house at last year’s qualifying session when, after equalling Ayrton Senna’s 65 career poles, the Mercedes man was gifted a race-worn helmet by the Senna family.

If more records are set this weekend, then the memory of drivers lapping slowly around Monaco like a scene from Driving Miss Daisy will be wiped away and another tear-jerking spectacle can be added to Montreal’s back catalogue.

O Canada sure can pull on the heart strings.

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