Qualifying was 'like driving on ice' protests Raikkonen

Panic set in the night before yesterday's race after the track surface had broken up in several places, in particular turn two and seven, and the turn 10 hairpin, during Saturday's practice and qualifying. All of the drivers complained that marbles of asphalt debris rendered it a skating rink, and several expressed concern about the prospects for a 70-lap race. Parts of the track had been resurfaced ahead of this year's race to try to alleviate the problem with high tyre wear rates that had affected last year's event, and the 2006 race.

"The track was really chewed up," said 2007 winner Lewis Hamilton, after securing pole position. "In turn two and the exit to turn seven and the apex and exit of the hairpin, there was loads of debris everywhere. I just had to try and stick it out there and that's where everyone was losing their time. I had quite a clean lap elsewhere, but I lost a lot of time in turn 10, the hairpin. I just couldn't carry as much speed there or get on the power early."

Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen was also very unhappy, and said: "It's unbelievable how much time I lost at turn 10, lap after lap. The track was already beginning to break up in Q1 and I had no drive: it was like driving on ice and I never managed to find the right line at this point. It's a real shame because the car was going very well and I could have fought for pole position. I can't understand how things like this can happen: maybe it's down to the higher temperatures, or a repair job at this point not done properly but one thing's certain, in the race tomorrow it will be very difficult to get through here.

Red Bull's Mark Webber went fast enough to have made the final, Q3, session, but crashed his car on the marbles in turn seven at the end of Q2 and damaged it too badly to continue. Webber, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, was particularly critical and said it was not realistic to expect Formula One cars to race at Montreal following the problems, and that if the event went ahead they would recur during the race. "I was going OK, but the track was breaking up and there were marbles on the racing line," he said. "Unfortunately, on the way back to the pits at the end of the second session, I was slightly off line, got onto the marbles and couldn't bring it back. I'm not sure how they're going to manage with the track tomorrow, but everyone's in the same boat. I think we'll need to use motocross bikes, as it's not realistic in a Formula One car, you'll need to drive on the grass or on the inside of the hairpin."

His team-mate David Coulthard agreed that the surface conditions made it difficult to maintain control. "The track is breaking up, as it did two years ago, and it was incredibly difficult to drive at turn seven and at the hairpin," he said. "The track was swept between the first and second session, but it was breaking up so quickly that it was like trying to drive on train tracks. When you've got that amount of horsepower on a car that's slipping and sliding, it's incredibly difficult."

After lengthy discussions with FIA race director Charlie Whiting, officials overnight reached a compromise and had the offending part of the hairpin resurfaced, but debris was still evident after yesterday morning's support races for Ferrari, Porsche and Formula BMW machines. Work was still progressing elsewhere within an hour of the 70-lap race.

Canadian GP executive vice president François Dumontier said on Saturday: "We have been monitoring the situation extensively. This year we chose a new specialist to settle the issue, but obviously conditions related to the technological evolution of the race cars do create some problems.

"Aggressive adhesion of grooved tyres, removal of traction control systems and the actual physical configuration of the hairpin corner itself could all be probable causes for this situation. We will correct this problem as soon as the last car leaves the track today, and everything will be rectified for tomorrow's races."

Besides the problems here this weekend and two years ago, there were problems with the surface breaking up prior to the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder in 1973 and in super-hot Dallas in 1984. The Belgian race at Spa-Francorchamps in 1985 had to be postponed from May to September after the problems proved insurmountable during the grand prix weekend.

It is understood that the organisers are considering a significant overhaul of the track prior to the 2009 event, including further resurfacing, when they conduct their post-race debrief next weekend.