By Dan Knutson
NSSN Correspondent
MONTREAL — Scott Speed can’t wait to get to Indianapolis.
“That’s the race I look forward to most of all,” he said of his home United States Grand Prix. “The support I got from the fans there last year was amazing.”
Speed crashed out of the Canadian Grand Prix on lap nine trying to pass Alex Wurz.
“It is a disappointing day for us,” Speed said. “It was crazy out there. I have to say sorry to the team, because I made a bit of a mistake. Alex was quicker than me down the straightaway, but he made a mistake at the hairpin and then another at the corner before I tried to pass, and when I did try, there just was not enough room for two cars.”

— Despite the absence of local hero Jacques Villeneuve and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, race day was a sell out.

— The FIA issued a polite reprimand to Alex Wurz and Ralf Schumacher, telling them it was “discourteous” to arrive late for FIA press conferences, which they did Thursday.
The FIA rarely fines people for being late for press conferences. But when Williams was discourteous again Friday and technical director Sam Michael arrived late for that day’s press conference, the FIA fined him 5,000 euros ($6,686).

— Jarno Trulli had two identical left-front suspension failures Friday. Toyota determined that a new camber setting combined with Trulli hitting the curbs hard, especially at turn eight, put a different load of forces on the suspension upright than normal. The team told its drivers to avoid the turn-eight curbs for the rest of the weekend.

— Heikki Kovalainen had an unhappy weekend, hitting the wall Friday, having an engine blow Saturday morning (which sent him to the back of the grid) and then spinning into the wall in the first qualifying session. Fourth place after all that was pretty satisfying.

— Did Fernando Alonso have any advice for pole-winning teammate Lewis Hamilton? “Don’t be too aggressive in the first corner, and let me through!” Alonso quipped. Ironically, they almost collided in that turn.

— Trulli wore a helmet with a pink top and a photo of good friend and training partner Danilo di Luca, the cyclist who won this year’s Giro d’Italia.

— Hamilton says he would never play a No. 2 role such as Rubens Barrichello had to do with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari. “I hate the situation that Rubens was in,” he said. “If that was ever the case, I would not be there much longer.”

— The Swiss government is poised to lift the country’s ban on motorsport that has been in place since the horrific accident in 1955 at Le Mans. Reports that residents Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa will lose their low tax status because they are now “employable” in the country are not true because there is still no F-1 race there.

— Gerhard Berger told Autosprint magazine that Toro Rosso is happy with its driver lineup of Speed and Tonio Liuzzi and has no plans to drop either of them during the season.

— Raikkonen went back to school the Wednesday before the race when he visited with 400 5- to 11-year-olds at Montreal’s Coronation school.