07/06/2013
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
Fernando Alonso headed the pack after second practice in Canada, the Ferrari driver narrowly holding off Lewis Hamilton with Romain Grosjean loitering not too far back, appearing to have bounced back after a difficult Monaco Grand Prix weekend.
The morning session was a difficult one to read. Affected by the weather it was only in the final moments of the ninety minute session that teams had a chance to get on to slick tyres, though the slippery circuit quickly punished those who were too aggressive.
It made Paul di Resta's fastest time almost impossible to put into context against those around him; the Scot set a final flying lap when the circuit was at its best at the very end of the session. Mark Webber had been fast too, though mistimed the start of his last lap, the chequered flag beating the Australian by a matter of seconds.
By the time the second session began the circuit was dry, though the weather remained cool. The odd wet patch remained on the slither of tarmac winding its way around the island in the middle of the St Lawrence River, though gone were the puddles and narrow dry line which punctuated first practice.
Esteban Gutierrez got things underway, as has become tradition in practice sessions of late, as cars poured out of the pits the moment the lights turned green. Dry conditions gave many an opportunity to perform a practice start at pit exit, drivers testing clutch bite point and gathering data useful for the start of the race on Sunday.
Pastor Maldonado was among those out on circuit early, the Venezuelan headed nose first in to the barrier at Turn 3 and damaging his Williams in opening practice. Interestingly with yellow flags out Mark Webber had set his best sector time through that part of the circuit, and had been subsequently called to the stewards with a grid penalty a possibility, though no decision had been made as the green flag fell to start the session.
With the exception of Caterham's Giedo van der Garde all drivers were using the development Medium compound Pirelli. The unmarked tyre features a different construction designed to prevent the delamination which has affected a number of tyres throughout the year to date. For the teams it was a free set of tyres on which to go testing.
Nico Rosberg was the initial pace setter with a 1:17.332, a time soon bettered by di Resta and Kimi Raikkonen, who set a 1:16.979. Lotus' pace was reinforced by Romain Grosjean who set an almost identical time to his teammate moments before Webber went half a second faster than everyone.
The early part of the session was spent catching up on time lost to the weather during the opening session; drivers banking laps to familiarise themselves with the Gilles Villeneuve circuit. Lewis Hamilton dipped two wheels off the circuit at the same point that Maldonado had crashed in the morning session, though he managed to gather his Mercedes together.
Ten minutes into the session everyone had been out, just Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel having not set a time though both had completed installation laps at least. While on track replays showed a mistake from Vettel at Turn 1, the German running off track through the mud on the outside of the circuit, it was a long way from anything solid enough to do any damage to the world champion’s ego.
Times were some five seconds faster than they'd been in the morning session, di Resta the fastest car on track after fifteen minutes, followed four tenths further back by Felipe Massa.
Unhappy with second Massa soon went fastest, scraping the concrete wall on the outside of Turn 4 on his way to a lap seven-tenths faster than his own previous best. A 1:16.001 was his reward.
Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso was also fast, and was on target for the fastest lap of the session before a wild moment in the final chicane almost ended his days' work early. The Spaniard, arms filled with opposite lock, powered his way through the corner to narrowly miss the Wall of Champions.
Mark Webber spun at Turn 6 after twenty-five minutes, appearing to lose the rear of the car under braking; perhaps due to KERS harvesting or a differential setting as the clumsy pirouette appeared more than a simple driving error, though a tarmac run off area allowed the Australian to carry on without harm. Webber was third fastest at the time on a 1:16.513 while teammate Vettel was scarcely a tenth of a second slower.
The circuit remained busy, teams seemingly focussed on longer run set up work, lap times having slowed from those set during the early part of the session. That was until Lewis Hamilton got out on track, the Mercedes driver setting fastest sectors in the first two thirds of the circuit, and a personal best final sector, to go three-tenths faster than anyone else.
Just over an hour remained when Van der Garde ventured on track with the supersoft tyres, the first driver to sample the softer compound Pirelli tyre. While the circuit was dry it was still evolving, Van der Garde locking up heavily into the final chicane and forced to take to the tarmac run off as a result.
Grip was at a premium; lock ups under braking common place while oversteer under acceleration evidence the circuit was lacking grip. It was a problem expected of the circuit given it is rarely used outside of the annual Formula One weekend.
After thirty-five minutes Adrian Sutil ran off at the final chicane, launching his car over the kerbs in spectacular fashion with all four wheels off the ground and sparks flying from the undertray as it crashed back to earth. The German was clearly pushing; locking brakes and having his Force India step out as he muscled it around the circuit.
Forty minutes in to the session, and with rain threatening, teams began to switch their attention to the supersoft tyres; Sergio Perez, Vettel, Webber and Raikkonen all sampling the softer compound.
Red Bull confirmed to Webber that the supersofts were about a second faster than the mediums, though it was teammate Vettel who was fastest overall with a 1:15.378 – still a tenth or so off the fastest time set in the same session in 2012. Webber lowered the benchmark by half a tenth with little more than three quarters of an hour remaining, though Vettel's next lap soon returned him to the top of the charts.
Raikkonen and Perez, both on track on supersoft tyres, were circulating in almost identical times, raising suggestions the pair could find themselves close to one another on the grid come Saturday afternoon. Raikkonen had been critical of Perez following an incident in Monaco which ultimately ended the McLaren driver’s race and forced Raikkonen to pit with a puncture with just a handful of laps remaining.
With the move to supersoft tyres the early pace di Resta had shown appeared to disappear, the Force India driver dropping from the top of the time sheets to tenth place. The softer compound tyres did appear to work with the Toro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo who set the fifth fastest time.
As di Resta appeared to struggle on the supersoft tyre, teammate Sutil, while ragged, appeared to have stronger pace as he set times within the top ten; his best of 1:15.396 less than six tenths off Alonso's new benchmark of 1:14.818.
With thirty minutes left on the clock the track began to fall silent with most drivers opting to return to the garage and fine tune their setups.
At Force India work was underway on di Resta's car, the team investigating a suspected fuel pickup problem that would ultimately mean an early end to the Scot’s session.
The majority of cars were once again on circuit with just over twenty minutes remaining, a mixture of medium and supersoft tyres in use while most cars appeared to be running on higher fuel loads as lap times slowed – Gutierrez set a 1:21.439, five seconds off his own personal best, an indication that teams were looking towards Sunday's race.
Light rain began to fall with sixteen minutes remaining, Red Bull telling Webber that rain was expected at the middle of the circuit while television showed rain drops falling in the pitlane. Perhaps anticipating a heavier shower most drivers were on track.
For McLaren, Jenson Button suffered a gearbox sensor issue, reporting he changed down from seventh gear and got neutral instead of sixth; “please explain”, he radioed back to his team. As his crew investigated the issue, the Englishman was forced back to the pits where the team opted to end the session for its driver.
It left Button and di Resta, the fastest two drivers from this morning’s session, sat in the garage at the end of the second practice while Alonso was fastest, narrowly faster than Lewis Hamilton with Romain Grosjean in third place. It was a promising opening day for both Lotus and Mercedes, even if Raikkonen did end the day in eleventh place, though worryingly for their rivals both Rosberg and Hamilton were among the front runners all day.
Red Bull too were consistently fast while the Force India pair look fast on the medium compound tyres, though appeared somewhat slower on the medium compound.