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"Reaching the semis is not enough for this a
MONTREAL - The tightly cornered Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is a different track than most in Formula One, but dont expect the Mercedes AMG team to be any less dominant. Air Max 95 Outlet Italia . The Mercedes duo of three-time Canadian Grand Prix champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has won all six races to start the season, finishing one-two in the last five. They will be the favourites again despite the close walls and hard braking on the 4.361-kilometre circuit. "I dont think it will be different from the other weeks before," a resigned Nico Hulkenberg of the Force India team said Thursday. The race weekend begins with practice on Friday, and qualifying on Saturday, before the grandstands on the island track across from downtown Montreal fill up on what is expected to be sunny, warm day for the 45th Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday. It will be first experience for Canadian fans of the quieter, more fuel-efficient 1.6-litre turbo engines introduced this year, which have dropped the formerly dominant Red Bull team down the grid and raised Mercedes AMG to near-invincibility. In the opening six events, Rosberg has two wins and finished second four times to lead drivers standings with 122 points. Hamilton has four wins and one second to sit second with 118 points. Next closest is Ferraris Fernando Alonso, a two-time world champion, with 61 points. Sebastian Vettel, the F1 champion the last four years with Red Bull, is sixth with 45. Some felt the peculiar Gilles-Villeneuve track, which features long straightaways leading into sharp turns, a hairpin and some tricky chicanes, might close the power gap on Mercedes. No such luck, said Hamilton. "Ill be guessing, but I dont feel that will be the case," the 29-year-old Briton said. "Were particularly strong in the straights, the Mercedes are, but I dont know. "Maybe well be surprised this weekend, but the long straights do suit us very well. We have a very good power unit in our engines. Mercedes has done the best job with the engines, so Renault and Ferrari would have had to have done an exceptional job coming into this weekend in that area to be able to keep up with us on the straights." The Mercedes supremacy is drawing comparisons to 1988, when the McLaren Honda team of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won 15 of the 16 races on the schedule, with the Brazilian taking eight and Prost winning seven. "In a way Im honoured to hear those comparisons because that was an extremely high-level, big battle at the time, but I leave it at that," said Rosberg. "I dont really compare myself to that era. I want to do my own thing." It seems the only thing that can stop Mercedes may be infighting between Hamilton and Rosberg, but even the tension that was building between them looks to have abated since a blow-up at Monaco two weeks ago, when Hamilton felt Rosberg cheated him of a chance to claim pole position. Hamilton tweeted recently "we spoke and were cool, still friends #noproblem." The Hamilton-Rosberg duo already has Mercedes 141 points clear of Red Bull and 162 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors championship. Vettel has had bad luck in Canada in the past, but broke through last year when he cruised to win from the pole, finishing 14 seconds ahead of Alonso. Now hes grasping at any edge to stay competitive. "It will be difficult to match the Mercedes-powered cars down the straights," the German said. "There are also some corners here and weve been competitive in the past. "We were in a very good position in to win the race in 2011 and we won last year, so we have reason to be confident. But we know it could be a difficult weekend. "We know that the corners are very tricky and demanding here and you can make up a lot of time in the corners. Well try to do our best down the straights and try to do better than everyone else on the corners." Another leveller could be the infamous wall of champions, a concrete barrier at the chicane leading to the final stretch to the finish line. Over the years, some of the sports greatest drivers have crashed into it. Jenson Button of McLaren Mercedes is confident that even with the lighter back end on this years cars they should get through the turn OK. "Weve been driving these cars all year and if we can drive these cars around Monaco, I think well be all right around here," he said. The McLaren, Force India and Williams teams also use Mercedes engines, but none has put the package of engine and car together quite like Mercedes AMG. "In terms of the development of the car, it is working and were going in the right direction," said Button, the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix winner who has found himself battling just to get into the points by finishing in the top 10 this season. "Its tough. "When youve been fighting for wins and the team is used to fighting for wins, its difficult when you find yourself in this situation." Scarpe Nike Air Max In Offerta . Off-Season Game Plan looks at what the Blue Jackets may do to build upon last seasons success to return to the playoffs again next year. Scarpe Nike Air Max Scontate . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona.NANCY, France -- France rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat Germany 3-2 in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup on Sunday. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga cruised past Tobias Kamke 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to help France even the tie before Gael Monfils secured the winning point by defeating Peter Gojowczyk 6-1, 7-6 (0), 6-2. France improved to 8-2 against Germany and will next face the Czech Republic, which routed Japan 5-0. "This victory is logical and was expected, but we know nothing is logical in the Davis Cup," France captain Arnaud Clement told Sport Plus television. "We saw some courageous Germans who played their best tennis and even played above their usual level." Tsonga outslugged Kamke by making 45 winners to 19 for his opponent. The Frenchman jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first set and broke Kamke twice in the second. Tsonga slapped a forehand winner to break for a 2-1 lead in the last set before clinching the victory with an ace. In the fifth match, Monfils got off to a good start by winning the first five games. Gojowczyk saved two break points at 2-2 in the second set. However, Monfils fired threee forehand winners and an ace in the tiebreaker to go two sets up. Scarpe Air Max 360 Scontate. Gojowczyk dropped serve three times in the final set as Monfils capitalized on an unforced error from the German to convert his first match point. "Im very proud of their reaction after those two losses on Friday that really hurt us," Clement said. "They knew they had no room for error. Playing in such conditions is very tough. But they managed to react like men." On Friday, Kamke beat Julien Benneteau 7-6 (8), 6-3, 6-2, and Gojowczyk outlasted Tsonga 5-7, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (8), 8-6 to give Germany a 2-0 lead. On Saturday, Michael Llodra and Benneteau defeated Kamke and Andre Begemann 6-1, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5 to cut Germanys lead to 2-1. "We said it last year and we said it at the beginning of this year: our goal is to win the Davis Cup," Clement said. "Reaching the semis is not enough for this ambitious group." Germany stunned Spain 4-1 in the first round but missed its four best players for this tie: Tommy Haas, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Florian Mayer and Benjamin Becker. ' ' '
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