Renault were set for a good haul of points – which would have cut their gap to Ferrari in the constructors’ championship – until Heidfeld crashed out.
| Nick Heidfeld | Vitaly Petrov | |
| Qualifying position | 9 | 10 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q3) | 1’14.062 (-0.023) | 1’14.085 |
| Race position | 5 | |
| Laps | 55/70 | 70/70 |
| Pit stops | 2 | 2 |
Renault drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | |
| Nick Heidfeld | 146.887 | 126.186 | 125.218 | 122.854 | 101.891 | 100.761 | 97.757 | 106.108 | 114.308 | 130.294 | 125.997 | 121.03 | 97.051 | 96.436 | 96.265 | 97.153 | 97.93 | 97.542 | 104.257 | 109.467 | 104.906 | 113.505 | 131.779 | 135.864 | 140.34 | 126.424 | 123.891 | 121.977 | 123.36 | 120.907 | 122.007 | 122.482 | 120.933 | 109.29 | 93.12 | 105.444 | 117.453 | 125.173 | 123.925 | 92.742 | 91.599 | 92.757 | 90.786 | 90.692 | 90.086 | 89.339 | 88.823 | 88.749 | 87.914 | 88.129 | 102.527 | 93.983 | 87.759 | 85.135 | ||||||||||||||||
| Vitaly Petrov | 148.629 | 126.257 | 124.052 | 122.811 | 102.088 | 101.374 | 97.586 | 105.904 | 114.407 | 129.904 | 126.135 | 120.355 | 96.944 | 96.642 | 98.116 | 96.945 | 96.262 | 97.346 | 108.752 | 109.964 | 106.591 | 108.858 | 131.277 | 136.239 | 141.597 | 126.084 | 123.368 | 121.9 | 123.416 | 121.459 | 121.382 | 122.368 | 120.938 | 94.849 | 108.374 | 109.294 | 114.875 | 125.469 | 122.167 | 93.462 | 92.144 | 91.764 | 91.956 | 89.327 | 89.552 | 89.648 | 88.529 | 88.715 | 88.971 | 88.027 | 90.582 | 104.817 | 95.201 | 84.057 | 85.792 | 104.434 | 102.712 | 103.96 | 120.337 | 85.426 | 81.841 | 84.033 | 80.964 | 80.037 | 79.117 | 79.314 | 79.054 | 79.502 | 79.436 |
Nick Heidfeld
Having been warned to up his game in qualifying Heidfeld did precisely that: joining Petrov in Q3 and pipping his team mate to ninth by a mere two-hundredths of a second.
He also ran a higher downforce set-up in anticipation of the Sunday rain. Both cars avoided making an early pit stop for intermediates and Heidfeld was up to foutrh, Petrov in his wheel tracks, when the race was suspended.
Heidfeld survived an attack from Paul di Resta on lap 42. But three laps later Michael Schumacher had fourth place off him, using DRS to pass on the straight heading to the final corner.
After switching to slicks on lap 52 Heidfeld came out of the pits behind Kamui Kobayashi. He nudged the back of the Sauber at the Senna hairpin, breaking his front wing.
The wing broke up and folded under the car, causing him to skate off down the escape road at turn three and into retirement. He felt he would have been fifth had it not been for the crash.
Vitaly Petrov
Petrov was delayed by throttle and radio problem in the first practice session.
He ran behind Heidfeld until his team mate retired. When the race restarted on lap 60 he overtook Kobayashi for fifth, where he finished.
2011 Canadian Grand Prix
Image © Renault/LAT
BasCB (@bascb)
13th June 2011, 17:27
Heidfeld looks uncharacteristically (wow, long word, checked spelling 2s) for him to be as crash and damage prone as he has been so far at Renault.
Petrov shows how dropping a rookie after just one year is a waste of ressources invested. He has upped his game and I figuere, that had he stood against Kubica he might have even took it a notch further.
Fixy (@)
13th June 2011, 17:41
Agree on both statements.
Todfod (@todfod)
13th June 2011, 18:07
I would have to disagree about the Petrov statement. Other than the 1st race of the season, he hasn’t done anything exceptional so far. Even in Canada, all he did was stay out of trouble. Drivers such as Webber and Schumacher were behind him at some point of the race and he was unable to hold them off, or even put up a fight.
dyslexicbunny
13th June 2011, 18:25
Well you can say that about Schumi too near the end. DRS makes defending somewhat pointless in cases and the wet conditions could make it somewhat risky.
I think he’s getting much better and should be strong next year. He’s not Kubica but I don’t think anyone is asking him to be. Besides, had they dropped him, who would be there in his place?
Derek
13th June 2011, 23:10
first Kubica photos after his hard accident
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDgm-jijeYQ
GET WELL SOON ROBERT :-)))
Eggry (@eggry)
13th June 2011, 23:55
Now I think Petrov stood well, Heidfeld is only temporarily solution. I miss Kubica! Now they will be good duo.
slr
13th June 2011, 18:09
I thought both drivers did really well, I thought Heidfeld was really unlucky with his incident with Kobayashi. It’s also good to see Petrov going well. Renault’s drivers seem to have an awful lot bad luck, hopefully that changes so that we can see just how good Renault really are.
MattHT (@mattht)
13th June 2011, 22:32
Agree with those saying that Petrov has upped his game a bit. That’s obvious, as at times last year he was bordering on terrible, and this year despite lacking some real good results, he’s a lot more focused it seems, and more aware of whats going on around him – you can’t blame him for not defending overtakes very well on that track – as a few drivers showed us, you only had to go few inches off line and it was game over. Good stuff from the Russian.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
13th June 2011, 23:01
Impeccable parking from Heidfeld just off turn 3, very impressive! Also nice to see Petrov managed to avoid killing a marshall.
I think Petrov is doing a great job, him and Kubica may be on more of a par next year than people think. That’s if Kubica comes back :/
Eggry (@eggry)
13th June 2011, 23:47
In my guess Renault finally reintroduced their once famous launch control. This time it’s to the air!