Button loses pole
Pole position man Jenson Button’s advantage in the Canadian Grand Prix lasted just a few yards as a lightning start from Renault dropped him to third.
Button made a clean getaway to outstrip second-on-the-grid Michael Schumacher, but Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso made stunning starts to move to the front from fourth and third respectively.
Button started from his second career pole position after a stunning lap yesterday in his resurgent BAR-Honda – but he dropped to third, with McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya fourth. Schumacher dropped to sixth behind Kimi Raikkonen.
Rubens Barrichello started the race from the pit lane, after a gearbox failure in qualifying left him at the back of the grid.
Jacques Villeneuve's hopes of points on home ground looked slim when he pitted on lap two for a new nose cone, after qualifying his Sauber an impressive eighth.
World championship leader Alonso was not content to shadow his team-mate and clocked fastest laps to keep up the pressure on Fisichella.
After the shock of seeing both Renaults blast clear in the run to the first corner, Button settled in third as further back his team-mate Takuma Sato went wheel to wheel with Toyota’s Jarno Trulli in a fight for seventh.
Narain Karthikeyan came to grief at turn one of lap eight when he braked too late and spun his Jordan to slip to 18th.
