Williams Wins in Montreal!

Posted on Sunday 13 Jun 2010 and tagged with Canada.

In a revival of a long-standing tradition at the Canadian GP, Williams and Lotus took to the Olympic rowing lake that borders the paddock at the Circuit Giles Villeneuve for the annual F1 raft race following qualifying on Saturday.

Based on very strict regulations and ruthless scrutineering that demand teams must construct a vessel only with materials that can be found in their garages, this year's race only attracted two entries (shame on the rest of you); Williams' design was based around an aluminium front wing flight case with pitlane lollipops for oars. Lotus by contrast went for a high downforce spec arrangement with a large rear wing and a more conventional 'escape from Devil Island' floation raft lashed (literally) onto empty water bottles.

From the off it was clear the Willies kayak was the far superior craft despite a heavy bread roll bombardment from a frankly rather partisan crowd on the shore. The Lotus pedalo, by now dubbed the Titanic, had developed pronounced steering problems and its crew decided to abandon ship and endeavour to scupper their rivals. Undeterred, the Willies boys - Skipper Matt Webb and Cabin Boy Nick Matthews - dragged their boat over the finish line first to claim the glory.

See all the action here....