DAMON HILL drove a strong, measured race in yesterday's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal to win his fifth race of the season and extend his lead in the world championship over race runner up and team mate Jacques Villeneuve. The Rothmans Williams Renault pair dominated the race from start to finish, their cause being aided by the demise of Michael Schumacher with mechanical trouble.

Eddie Irvine was the first retirement of the race, while Rubens Barrichello was sidelined by clutch trouble for the second, race in a row. Martin Brundle had a strong race, finishing sixth, but at a pace that marked by far his most competitive weekend of the 1996 season.

Hill started from pole and won the sprint to the first corner and swiftly pulled away from his pursuers: "I hadn't won for two races, so it's nice to be back on top at this half way point of the season. It helps for the championship, but Jacques is still close to me and even though Michael retired from this race, I am sure we will see him again later in the year.

Villeneuve's front row start ensured the Ile De Notre Dame was packed to capacity, but the 25 year old never had the measure of Hill: "Still it is a podium finish and of course here in Canada it is very important to me," said Villeneuve.

The luck of the Irish, so evident at the Ile De Notre Dame last year, deserted Eddie Irvine and Jordan driver Rubens Barrichello. Irvine started from fifth place on the grid and was feeling good, as he explained in the Ferrari garage afterwards: "I really felt confident today. The car was handling well and I felt really good about the race."

Irvine was helped when Schumacher, ahead of him on the grid, had trouble getting his car going for the parade lap and was forced to start form the back of the grid. Irvine had only pole man Hill in front of him on the left hand side of the track and as the red light dimmed, he was away in fourth place.

"Yeah, but it only lasted a lap," said the good humoured and laconic Ulsterman, "then the front suspension collapsed," he added.

On the thorny subject of lack of testing, Irvine quipped: "The only testing I'm doing is in my helicopter!" He is visiting the Bell helicopter factory in Montreal today and hopes to get a machine in the coming weeks. He is not expected to have any time in his Ferrari race car this week or next.

Eddie Jordan was not his usual chatty self, feeling some of the pressure of his many sponsors looking for results. The team looked in good shape early on in the race with the gold cars running 5th and 6th, but trouble was not far away.

Rubens Barrichello was close to tears as yet another result slipped away from him: "I had trouble with the clutch at the start and then after the pit stop it got a lot worse. When I say clutch trouble I mean that it slips and you can't drive it like that." The problem is a recurrence of a problem that struck two weeks ago in Barcelona.

Martin Brundle had by far hid most competitive drive to data for Jordan, snatching 5th at the start from 9th place on the grid. Gary Anderson explained where Brundle's improved form came from: "Against his view, we made some big changes to his car. When he tested them at Silverstone he was a lot quicker than ever before. I think the change was worth a quarter of a second a lap and the confidence it inspired was worth three quarter of a second!," said the big Ulsterman.

Brundle himself was pleased with his sixth place, although he was hampered by losing a nose cone when lapping Pedro Lamy. "I thought he had given me the corner but then he came across and knocked off my nose. I would have been fifth otherwise, but I wouldn't have caught Coulthard."

Eddie Jordan reflected on the race: "For the clutch to go in one race is bad but twice is not acceptable. Martin drove very wet - he was on the case all weekend."

Hill again acknowledged his debt of gratitude to Terry Venables' men after his triumph. The 35 year old had revealed that he had been inspired to grab pole position in qualifying after watching Paul Gascoigne's wonder goal in the 2-0 victory over Scotland on pictures transmitted from the Williams teams Oxfordshire based by computers.

"If the team were watching today's race I hope I gave them something to cheer," said a delighted Hill. "I was certainly inspired by their result before qualifying."

"We watched it on the screens after being sent through the computers the engineers looking at the game rather than the data from the car before I went out."

Hill said his triumph by just over four seconds from Villeneuve, with double champion Michael Schumacher slumping 27 points adrift after retiring.