Formula One competition made its way across the Atlantic for the North American round, starting with the Canadian Grand Prix on 23 June at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve close by the centre of Montreal.

The first day of this year’s Canadian Grand Prix was cloudy, resulting in comparatively cool conditions (19 degrees C) for the first practice. As the circuit is located in central Montreal, it is not used other than for racing, the track surface is notoriously slippery on the first day, leading to many of the drivers running off the course during the morning’s practice. Despite this, Panasonic Toyota Racing’s Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli made use of this important time to clock up six and seven laps, respectively.

Track surface conditions had improved by the start of the second practice session. The two drivers commenced long runs in the latter stages on different tyres so as to complete comparisons on the two tyre types. Ralf Schumacher was able to collect data over nine laps; however, Trulli was stopped short on his second lap due to gearbox trouble.

The fastest time (1’16”390) during practice on the first day was recorded by Robert Kubica (Sauber-BMW) to out him at the top of the field heading into the second day of competition.

The second day of competition witnessed a change around of weather conditions, the clouds of the previous day giving way to blue skies and warm temperatures. During the first practice session of the day, the two Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers concentrated on their setups for qualifying and the race on Sunday. As such, they remained on worn-in tyres rather than new ones as they clocked up the laps.

Both drivers suffered from a lack of grip during practice, leading them to implement changes to their setups ahead of qualifying that started one hour earlier than usual.

Both drivers performed well enough in the first period to continue on to the second period. However, times were tighter in the second period, with 13 drivers in the 1 minute 15 second range; unfortunately Ralf Schumacher missed the cut by just 0.07 second.

This left just Trulli in the run for a top ten placing for Panasonic Toyota Racing and he performed commendably, marking the fastest Bridgestone tyre and fourth fastest overall time of 1’15”968. This put Trulli on the second row of the grid for the start – the best placing for the season to date.

Pole position honours were taken by Fernando Alonso (Renault) for the fifth time in succession. This took his season total to five and overall total to 14. His time: 1’14”942.

Sunday’s weather was perfect for racing and the Jacques Villeneuve circuit was crowded with over 119,000 fans who had flocked there to watch the race.

The ninth race of the 2006 season, the Canadian Grand Prix, got underway to an air temperature of 24 degrees C and track temperature of 38 degrees C. Jarno Trulli put in a good dash from his favourable second-row start, holding firmly onto his position through the first corner. However, in the second lap, a collision between Nico Rosberg (Williams), who had been running immediately behind Trulli, and Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren-Mercedes) saw the safety car deployed.

The race recommenced in the fourth lap, the top order remaining the same then until the seventh lap when Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) took the drive-through penalty he incurred for jumping the start. This saw Trulli advance to third position, which he maintained until his first pit stop in the 25th lap.

By the time all of the top group had completed the first round of pit stops, Jarno Trulli had dropped back to fifth position. He was then overtaken by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and the two Sauber-BMWs during his second pit stop to find himself even further back in eighth, surely leaving Trulli feeling this year’s Canadian Grand Prix was going to be another tough race for him.

Despite the developments to that point, Trulli put in an energetic performance to shrug off any bad luck that may have been lurking in the shadows. Even the second deployment of the safety car with 10 laps to go was not enough to keep Trulli from a solid finish to see in the chequered flag in sixth. With team mate Ralf Schumacher retiring part the way through the race, Trulli’s finish brought home three very important championship points for Panasonic Toyota Racing, to bring the team up to sixth position in the constructors’ championship.

The race was ultimately taken out by pole position starter, Fernando Alonso (Renault) for his sixth win this season and fourteenth overall.