Hard to extrapolate who is quickest this weekend. Mercedes, especially Nico, seem to be pretty quick. Lewis and himself were about 1s quicker than the rest of the field at the beginning of FP1 when all teams were on the intermediate compound. Again, it's hard to know exactly what this means.
Vettel's pace on inters towards the end of the session was promising. This is normally not a favourite track for Red Bull.
One interesting piece of commentary I picked up on during the session was: Romain has not finished worse than P6 in any FP1 or FP2 session prior to the Canadian GP weekend. I think he really needs to up his game quickly if he has any hopes of remaining with Lotus for 2014. Canada was a great weekend for him last year. He could certainly use a repeat performance. His last stint seemed to go forever and he seemed to go quicker and quicker. Hopefully Lotus will have that same advantage this weekend
I think Mercedes and Red Bull showed a clear advantage in wet conditions, surprise, surprise or maybe not. Kimi was able to find pace on the dry tyres quickly but who knows where they will end up.
Grosjean hasn't finished worse then P6? That is interesting, but of course the one fast lap in FP doesn't give you the whole picture.
ZitatThis Isn’t Control – Canadian Grand Prix, Friday 7th June 2013
Romain Grosjean ended the first day of practice for the Canadian Grand Prix with the third fastest time, whilst team-mate Kimi Räikkönen – fifth fastest in the morning – saw his afternoon session curtailed as the team investigated a brake issue on his E21.
The morning session saw a damp but drying circuit, with afternoon running conducted in cool, dry conditions. Pirelli’s wet and intermediate tyres were used in the morning; the medium, super soft and developmental medium compound dry tyres in the afternoon.
Technical programme notes: • Both drivers ran with new, Montréal downforce level front and rear wing specifications today • Pirelli’s wet (blue), intermediate (green) and medium compound dry (white) tyres were used in the morning session, the medium, developmental medium and super soft (red) in the afternoon • Kimi had a brake issue in the afternoon which ended his session early
What we learned today: • The Montréal-spec front and rear wings and related aero package work well • The E21 looks good in damp conditions but did not display its customary high-fuel pace
Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03 Free practice 1: P5, 1:21.608, 22 laps Free practice 2: P11, 1:15.599, 35 laps
Kimi: “We improved the car through the day and by the end of the session it was ok; not ideal but certainly not a disaster either. It wasn’t easy to get the tyres up to temperature today, but it’s pretty cold at the circuit so that’s not too much of a surprise. If we can get the tyres working better it will be an improvement for sure, but it’s not going to change the world. We’ll be looking at how to get them a bit warmer for qualifying tomorrow and then see what the weather does. After that, we’ll do the best we can.”
Romain Grosjean, E21-02 Free practice 1: P3, 1:21.258, 21 laps Free practice 2: P3, 1:15.083, 40 laps
Romain: “It was more or less a normal Friday for us. This morning was obviously a wet session so we worked on setup for those conditions, then in the afternoon we tested the prototype tyres and completed some long runs. It’s quite hard to get the tyres switched on in these conditions as the surface here is very smooth, so with low temperatures it’s a bit more tricky to build up the energy in the rubber; more so with the mediums but even with the super softs. It’s meant to be quite warm on Sunday which is always a good thing for us, so we’ll try to get the maximum from the car in qualifying tomorrow and go from there.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We’re fairly happy with our single lap pace, but we weren’t as comfortable as we usually are on high fuel levels. Both drivers also complained about a lack of tyre temperature, but with warmer temperatures forecast for Sunday this shouldn’t be too much to worry about. We didn’t learn too much in the morning in the damp conditions, other than getting some worthwhile laps on the intermediate tyres to ensure we’re happy in case of a wet qualifying session. In the afternoon we ran all three types of dry tyre – including the developmental spec – so we’ve got a good amount of data to collate overnight. Kimi’s session ended early as we made a precautionary stop related to the rear brakes, but it’s nothing of concern for the rest of the weekend.”
Lotus really didn't look to good. Red Bull and Ferrari looked the fastest. And they were able to do very long stints as well. Vettel did a 19 lap stint. Even Mercedes looks a bit more convincing, so I would classify Lotus around 4th. It seems like they are just struggling to get the tyres working.
Looking at the weather it will again only be around 14 degrees for qualifying, and there some chance of rain. For the race the temperatures goes up to 22 degrees, perhaps that will help Lotus, it seems like they just cant turn the tyres on in the colder temperatures.
I watched it, because Paul Hembery pull out last minutes so most questions went to Brawn, but he's an old fox... most of the answers were "it will be clear at the tribunal", but he did own up to the responsibility saying he made the decision to do the test.
Could have been more interesting if Hembery was there.
Gear Up For Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztcpzT2X05c Kimi @10:53 had to laugh at Webber's "One? One?" about Grosjean's crash(es) in Monaco " title="ha" /> " title="ha" />
I miss all the great reports from Sky and the BBC, so I really apreciate it " title="wink" />
I think is tricky for the drivers to comment on the tyre-gate but I think what Kimi said was the best: of course we learn in testing otherwise we wouldn't test.
ZitatCanadian GP: Kimi Raikkonen among drivers investigated over pit exit
Five drivers have been summoned to see the Canadian Grand Prix stewards for not lining up properly at the end of the second qualifying segment in Montreal.
Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen, Toro Rosso duo Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, Williams driver Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez of McLaren have been requested to see the stewards after failing to leave the pitlane in order when all the cars were lined up to go out for the final two minutes of Q2.
The session had been red-flagged when Ferrari's Felipe Massa crashed at Turn 3 with slightly over two minutes left.
The majority of the drivers lined up at the end of the pitlane to try to go out quick and get a clean final lap. Many cars, however, were parked out of order.
Raikkonen was also summoned over a similar incident in Q3.
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