Lewis Hamilton of McLaren Mercedes won his first career Formula One Race on Sunday, capturing the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

The British rookie took advantage of his pole position to stay out of trouble in a chaotic race in which only 12 of 22 cars made it to the finish line on the 4.63-kilometre Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Lewis Hamilton is the first rookie to win the Canadian Grand Prix.
(Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

With the victory, Hamilton became the first black driver to win a F1 race, and the first rookie to take the Canadian Grand Prix.

"It's been a fantastic season already," he said. "We've had six podiums and I've been ready for quite some time for the win — it's just been a matter of when and where. The team gave me the best car and I had no problems during the race at all."

Germany's Nick Heidfeld finished second — 4.2 seconds behind Hamilton — for BMW Sauber and Austrian Alexander Wurz was third for Williams after starting 19th on the grid.

Heikki Kovalainen's Renault was fourth, Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari was fifth and Takuma Sato passed two cars in the final laps to place sixth.

Hamilton, who made history earlier this season by becoming the youngest competitor to top the F1 drivers' championship, retook sole possession of the lead over McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso, who finished a disappointing seventh after incurring a penalty.

Frightening crash

The race was marred by a frightening crash involving BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica, who lost control on the 27th lap after an apparent touch with Jarno Trulli's Toyota on a corner just ahead of a hairpin turn.

The Polish driver went across the grass and hit a concrete wall head-on before the car bounced across the track and slid on its side to a stop.

Debris was strewn across the track as the safety car came out until the site was cleaned up.

A team spokesman said the 22-year-old driver was conscious and moving his limbs, but was taken to hospital for tests, reportedly suffering a broken leg.

Later, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella were disqualified from the race for exiting the pits on a red light.

Massa, who was third in the championship standings coming into Sunday's action, was fourth in the race when the black flag was displayed on the 52nd lap.

Alonso penalized

The pace car first came out when Adrian Sutil's Spyker hit a wall and had to be lifted off the track on the 23rd lap.

After the Kubica crash, Alonso and Nico Rosberg of Williams were assessed 10-second stop-and-go penalties for an incident in the pits.

And on the 55th lap, Vitantonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso scraped a wall and the pace car came out. It returned after the 58th lap when Trulli hit a tire wall.

The race was only 10 laps old when Scott Speed's Toro Rosso went out with a smoking engine after bumping with Wurz.

Jenson Button's Honda had a gearbox problem on the grid, was pushed back to the pits and never got started.

With files from the Associated Press