Beautiful weather greeted fans and drivers for the start of this afternoon's Canadian Grand Prix, the clouds from Saturday's qualifying long gone, along with any threat of rain spoiling the day, in fact track temperature is currently sitting at a very warm 35 degrees. Drivers make their way to the grid, lining up in their respective positions, pit lane closes and drivers strap themselves and fire up their respective engines. The formation lap gets underway, a clean start by all and Juan Pablo Montoya leads the field around to await the start of the Canadian Grand Prix.

And it's go in Canada! Montoya takes to the lead but Rubens Barrichello takes second from Michael Schumacher, the German letting his teammate through with ease as the Ferrari strategy becomes clear early on the event. Giancarlo Fisichella loses two places as Kimi Raikkonen takes fourth from Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard moves up to sixth. Pedro de la Rosa hits the wall after a touch with the Toyota of Allan McNish, but rejoins the race as Rubens Barrichello takes the lead from Juan Pablo Montoya and starts to race off into the distance.

It appears as if the second Ferrari is on a very light fuel load, a possible part of their strategy here this afternoon, yet Montoya stays with him. Takuma Sato and Olivier Panis are fighting for twelfth position, the Jordan attacking the BAR but failing to make the move. A little further back Enrique Bernoldi passes Eddie Irvine for 16th place. Mika Salo is on he move the Toyota driver passing Jacques Villeneuve for 11th after starting 18th on the grid.

Lap 6 Rubens Barrichello is 1.4 seconds ahead of Montoya with Michael Schumacher dropping off a little behind them. Sato makes the move on Panis and then Villeneuve claiming 12th place, but the local hero reclaims the place. Barrichello's lead increases, the Ferrari driver pulling out more of an advantage every lap and by the end of lap nine is three seconds ahead of the Polesitter with teammate Michael Schumacher a further two and half seconds back.

Problems for Villeneuve as his BAR comes to a stop at the side of the Canadian circuit with a suspected engine failure. David Coulthard has a moment and goes off track but rejoins the race five seconds behind the battle between his teammate and Ralf Schumacher for fifth place. Lap 15 and the safety car is deployed to remove the stricken BAR of Jacques Villeneuve. Juan Pablo Montoya comes in for an early unscheduled pitstop as does the Jordan of Takuma Sato and the Arrows of Enrique Bernoldi. The Ferrari's are now one and two on the track and Montoya is in fifth. Enrique Bernoldi, who had been having a strong race making several overtaking maneuvers, comes in for another stop and there appears to be a problem with his right rear wheel.

Lap 17 and the race restarts and Bernoldi is back in for this third pitstop and this time he doesn't come back out, the Arrows driver retiring with a broken suspension. Three wide down the main straight, Ralf Schumacher cuts the chicane and Juan Pablo Montoya gets a sniff and passes both his teammate and the third placed McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen! Ralf drops back to fifth but the German isn't giving up and continues to try and get past Raikkonen but the Finn covers his bases well.

lap 24 and Juan Pablo Montoya begins to hunt down the two leading Ferrari's but the gap to second placed man, Michael Schumacher is now nine seconds with Rubens Barrichello another four seconds further down the track. Mika Salo comes in for his first scheduled stop as the Ferrari pit crew prepare for a stop. Rubens Barrichello comes in for the first of what will be a two-stop strategy and he returns to the track in sixth place behind the McLaren of David Coulthard giving the lead of this afternoon's event to Michael Schumacher. The reigning world champion is really on a charge now as Allan McNish has his first pit stop. Jenson Button has tapped the wall but it appears as if no real damage was done.

Schumacher continues to stretch his lead over Juan Pablo Montoya and comes up to lap the Jaguar of Pedro de la Rosa. Juan Pablo Montoya is in second, 14 seconds behind the Ferrari, the Williams seemingly well off the pace at the moment as Kimi Raikkonen slowly catches the Colombian. Problems for Frentzen in the pits, a long stop for the German driver. Pedro de la Rosa is touring and Schumacher easily drives past, the Jaguar coming to a stop and retiring from the race. Mika Salo is handed a penalty for speeding in the pitlane, the Finn forced to give up his tenth place for a drive through penalty.

Michael Schumacher continues to stretch out his lead, the Ferrari ace 29 seconds in the lead as he finally comes in for a pit stop. Problems for the reigning world champion as mechanics remove debris from the radiator intake and it's over 11 seconds, however a lot of fuel went into the Ferrari so it should be his one and only stop. He rejoins in second place with Juan Pablo Montoya in the lead of the Canadian Grand Prix by 3.9 seconds, but will the Williams need to pit again?

Nick Heidfeld is under investigation as Olivier Panis comes in from ninth place for his stop. Juan Montoya gains a little more time over Michael Schumacher and on lap 41 there is only ten seconds covering the top six. Ralf Schumacher pits and problems in the Williams garage! The fuel hose refuses to go in and they are forced to change hoses. Over 20 seconds and he goes out and comes back in again, eventually returning to the track in tenth place. Disaster for Ralf! Eddie Irvine is out of the race after a blown Cosworth engine. Heidfeld receives a penalty for speeding in pitlane and Montoya continues to lead in Canada with Michael Schumacher losing ground to the Williams.

David Coulthard, now in third, begins to put pressure on Michael but the Scot still has to pit. Allan McNish spins the Toyota at turn four and it looks as if the safety car will be deployed again to remove the stricken car that is stranded on the circuit. McNish's car is removed and there is no need for the safety car as David Coulthard comes in for his first and only stop. The Scot returns to the track in front of his teammate in fourth place.

With twenty laps remaining Montoya leads Michael Schumacher by 11 seconds with Rubens Barrichello five seconds behind his teammate in third place. David Coulthard is fourth, Kimi Raikkonen fifth and Giancarlo Fisichella sixth. After his earlier pit problems, Ralf Schumacher is in eighth place, the last driver on the lead lap and only a few seconds off being lapped by his teammate. 16 drivers are still in the event with Alex Yoong the last of the cars still running and two laps down.

Juan Pablo Montoya pits and gets back out in third. Michael Schumacher leads once again with Barrichello second and Montoya eight and a half seconds behind but the Colombian is on a charge and takes over a second out of Schumacher's lead. Rubens Barrichello pits for a second time and gets out behind David Coulthard, who is now in third place. Montoya is just six seconds behind with 17 laps remaining and closing on the Ferrari. Michael responds and gains back a little time but the Williams is sick and smoke begins to pour out from the back of the FW24. Montoya retires in Canada with 13 laps remaining.

Michael seemingly has this win in the bag now and his lead will be dramatically increased with a 43 point advantage over Montoya and with Ralf in seventh, he may secure one solitary point, if he manages to get past the Renault of Jarno Trulli.

The battle heats up for second place with Rubens Barrichello putting pressure on the McLaren of David Coulthard. Kimi Raikkonen is fourth, Fisichella is fifth as Rubens Barrichello attempts to pass Coulthard but Coulthard fights back and they both go across the chicane and their positions remain the same. The laps tick down and Barrichello keeps the pressure on Coulthard as the Scot closes the gap to Schumacher, but the race leader is just pacing himself now with the race almost at an end. Ralf keeps the pressure on Jarno Trulli as teammate Jenson Button retires. A mistake for Ralf and the battle for sixth now appears over and Ralf won't be adding to his points tally this afternoon.

Giancarlo Fisichella looks set to secure another two points as Michael begins his final lap. The German takes the chequered flag and wins Ferrari's 150th Grand Prix!!

Top six: Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello, Kimi Raikkonen, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli.