Kubica

Montreal: Poland’s Robert Kubica seized his and BMW Sauber’s first Formula One victory at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday to wrest the championship lead from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Kubica, who suffered the worst crash of his career at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last year, led a BMW one-two after Hamilton and Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen collided in a pit-lane pile-up.

Germany’s Nick Heidfeld anchored the Swiss-based team’s breakthrough result in second place, with Britain’s David Coulthard third for Red Bull.

Hamilton shunted himself and Raikkonen out of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix in a bizarre pit-lane pile-up while the safety car was deployed.

The 23-year-old McLaren driver, leading the race from pole position at the scene of his first grand prix victory last year, apologised to the Finn after the most embarrassing moment of his fledgling Formula One career.

Raikkonen had stopped at the red light at the end of the pit lane on lap 20, with Kubica waiting alongside, after they had made their first pitstops.

Hamilton failed to brake in time, the Briton piling hard into the back of the stationary Ferrari with German driver Nico Rosberg’s Williams then piling into the McLaren and breaking his front wing. “We got into the pitstop, it wasn’t a great stop and I saw the two guys in front of me and they were battling in the pit lane,” Hamilton said. (Agencies)