This was the race Michael Schumacher was supposed to close the gap on Fernando Alonso in the chase for the Formula One championship.
After all, Schumacher had won the Canadian Grand Prix seven times. Alonso never had anything but trouble at the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve.
None of that mattered Sunday -- Alonso drove his Renault to an easy victory for his fourth consecutive win. The Spaniard has six victories this season and 15 straight top-three finishes.
"It is fantastic," he said. "All the victories are nice, but this one after the last two or three years having a chance to win and then mistakes or mechanical problems, this is one of the races we should have [won] in the previous years."
Alonso had failed to finish the Canadian GP in three of his previous four races, including last year when he crashed while leading. This time, his only problem was staying focused despite leading by almost 25 seconds in the closing laps.
"It was not easy to keep the concentration while leading the race with such a large gap," he said. "You lose concentration of maybe you relax."
The reigning world champion stretched his lead to 25 points over Schumacher, who passed Kimi Raikkonen with one lap to go to finish second. Raikkonen wound up third.
"It's just a shame there wasn't 10 more laps, it could have made it interesting," Schumacher said. "We kept the damage as little as possible."
They now head to Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix, which Schumacher won last season after Alonso and 13 other drivers boycotted because of concern over tire safety.
RSS