08/06/2013
NEWS STORY
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Mat Coch writes:
Mercedes pole position charge came to an end in Canada today after Sebastian Vettel put in the fastest time in a difficult qualifying session.
However the real story was that of Valtteri Bottas, the young Finn was third fastest to give Williams a second row start as the Grove outfit looks for its first points of the 2013 season in tomorrow's Grand Prix.
Rain began to tumble just moments before the qualifying hour began. The weather had been a talking point for much of the weekend; opening practice was damp to begin with before drying in the closing stages, as it was for final practice on Saturday morning.
Final practice had been shorted after damage to a wall in one of the support races took time to repair, the session cut in half as a result. Even then it was damp rather than wet, a dry line emerging by session’s end.
The two wet practice sessions had meant teams were forced to use their precious grooved tyres, the intermediates and wets. While the wet tyres have a long life expectancy, they're capable of running for several grand prix distances, the intermediate tyres tend to burn up as conditions move from wet to dry.
Tyre management, as well as being on track at the right time, would therefore be key for teams to have any chance of a strong race on Sunday.
Qualifying 1
Toro Rosso was first to send its drivers out on track, while Esteban Gutierrez was also among those to venture out immediately. While light rain was falling there was a dry line around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as drivers tried to get a lap in the bank early in case conditions turned for the worse.
Conditions were far from easy. Kimi Raikkonen slid off at Turn 4 on his out lap while Max Chilton spun at the old Pits Hairpin. It saw the entire field return to the pits to swap their slick tyres for intermediates.
Felipe Massa was among the first to begin a timed lap, almost five minutes into the twenty minute session, the Brazilian, on intermediate tyres, set a first sector time of 26.060. Vergne set the first lap of the session, a 1:28.204 which was quickly bettered by Massa and both Mercedes.
A number of drivers left the circuit in various incidents; Lewis Hamilton off at Turn 1, Adrian Sutil at Turn 8 and Felipe Massa getting his Ferrari out of shape at Turn 3. Sergio Perez too missed his braking marker, running across the tarmac run-off at Turn 8.
With conditions expected to dry as the session wore on, drivers continued circulating to make sure they were not caught in the pits when the circuit was at its best. A dry line was emerging in some parts, Fernando Alonso sweeping off line to cool his intermediate tyres.
The Spaniard came close to clouting the barrier on the outside of Turn 2 as he missed his braking at Turn 1, running wide and sliding across the circuit. The Ferrari driver recovered however, scrambling back on to the drier part of the circuit as teammate Massa went by.
Fellow world champion Raikkonen had another off-track moment at Turn 3, bouncing over the grass as he'd done on his out lap while Sebastian Vettel set the best lap of 1:24.788.
Mid-way through the session Felipe Massa was well down the order in fifteenth, the team working hard on his car in the garage as Vettel reclaimed top spot from Lewis Hamilton, a 1:24.083 beating Hamilton's best by four-tenths.
Rosberg was having none of that however, a 1:23.840 seeing him on top of the timing screens by a quarter of a second.
With five minutes remaining Button found himself in the bottom six as many drivers began heading to the pits for a fresh set of intermediate tyres in their quest to make it through to the second phase of qualifying.
Massa got himself out of trouble in some style, moving to the head of the timing screens with a 1:23.735 before Mark Webber immediately bettered it with a 1:23.247.
Button and Vergne were in danger at the wrong end of the timing screens, the McLaren driver complaining of traffic on his fast lap despite setting the fifth best time of the session.
Vergne too had improved as Paul di Resta fell to nineteenth as times dropped in line with drivers growing in confidence. It was a case of drivers pushing in the closing stages with the last driver to complete a lap at a distinct advantage.
Di Resta was the first to be eliminated from the session, his best lap good enough for just seventeenth as he became the first man to see the chequered flag.
Replays showed a spin from Rosberg in the closing moments of the session at Turn 6 sending cars diving inside and out, with one of the Ferrari's lucky to avoid the German driver.
An impressive session from Valtteri Bottas saw the Williams driver fourth in the timesheets, some 1.3s faster than teammate Maldonado who could do no better than 16th.
Eliminated from the session were Paul di Resta (1:24.551), Charles Pic (1:25.626), Romain Grosjean (1:25.716), Jules Bianchi (1:26.508), Max Chilton (1:27.062) and Giedo van der Garde (1:27.110).
Qualifying 2
There was a rush again as the second phase of qualifying got underway with all but Vettel, Sutil and Bottas opting to remain in the garage initially.
Speaking with the media Paul di Resta claimed a gearbox problem was the root cause of his qualifying woes, telling Sky F1 that there was "something wrong with the gearbox and as we were in the garage fixing it the track was at its best."
On track Felipe Massa slid in to the escape road at Turn 3, the Ferrari driver reversing back out on track at the twelve minute mark.
Hamilton was the early pace setter as all remaining 16 cars were on track, times some four seconds off the pace of di Resta's time from the opening phase of qualifying.
Conditions had visibly worsened with Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil all skidding off at the final chicane and dodging their way around the new for 2013 kerbing protecting the run off.
The same mistake from Sebastian Vettel raised questions as the German set his first time of the session. With conditions getting worse the lap which was good enough for sixth was set after he'd run off the circuit. It ultimately became a moot point as his next lap was a 1:28.825.
Hamilton and Sutil both missed their braking markers at Turn 3, the pair took to the escape road at the same time while Vettel continued circulating more than a second faster than anyone else.
In the danger zone with six minutes remaining were Perez, Gutierrez, Massa, Sutil, Maldonado and Button.
Massa stopped for fresh intermediates as he fought to get into the top ten, his first lap only eleventh fastest and some three seconds off the pace of Mark Webber, who had narrowly pipped Vettel for the top spot.
The gloomy conditions seemed to be suiting Bottas who set the third best time with three minutes remaining, just a quarter of a second off the pace of Webber on provisional pole.
The red flag was shown after Felipe Massa buried his Ferrari in the barrier at Turn 3, appearing to have lost his car under braking and sliding sideways into the tyre barrier. The Brazilian climbed from the car after banging his steering wheel in frustration.
With 1:59 on the clock the remaining 15 cars faced a tough task to ensure they made it through to the next phase. It was an important point for the likes of Button and Sutil, while the likes of Hamilton and Perez were all but forced to head back out to defend their positions at the wrong end of the top ten.
Even before the lights had turned green drivers began queuing at the end of the pitlane, headed rather predictably by the Sauber duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez. It was a traffic jam without road rules, eager drivers stacked three or four abreast as they battled to get on track early. It was a pseudo race start when the lights went green, drivers with elbows out heading down the pit exit and out on track.
It was especially important because, with just two minutes left in the session as it restarted, there was little time for drivers to complete an out-lap and begin their flying lap before the chequered flag fell.
Jenson Button was the biggest victim, the McLaren driver stuck in twelfth when the flag fell having taken too long on his out-lap, and potentially baulking Webber in the process. He ultimately fell to fourteenth as Hamilton went fastest on a 1:27.649.
Eliminated in the second phase were: Nico Hulkenberg (1:29.435), Sergio Perez (1:29.761), Pastor Maldonado (1:29.917), Jenson Button (1:30.068), Esteban Gutierrez (1:30.315) and Felipe Massa (1:30.354).
Qualifying 3
The eager Red Bull pair headed the queue as the lights turned green for the final phase of qualifying, though conditions appeared to have eased since the second phase.
An aggressive Kimi Raikkonen had no patience for the Red Bull duo, accelerating past Webber as the lights went green as all but Bottas took to the circuit.
Drivers jockeyed for track position in the early part of the session as they looked to set an early lap time before a tyre change midway through the ten minutes for one final push.
Vettel, first on track, was initially fastest with a 1:25.425, some two seconds faster than any of his rivals. Half a minute later Hamilton came within half a second while an off-track excursion for Webber cost him his first timed lap.
Raikkonen too was off track at Turn 8 before the Lotus driver dived in to the pits for a fresh set of intermediate tyres. He found himself just ninth halfway through the session while Bottas showed his earlier pace was no fluke, setting the third fastest time behind Vettel and Hamilton.
As the conditions worsened Vettel's time looked hard to beat, though every driver opted to return to the circuit in case conditions improved.
As if to disprove the theory the circuit had deteriorated, Rosberg set the fastest sector of the session around the first part of the lap, followed by a personal best middle sector before going on to set a 1:26.008 - a slow final sector however hurt the Mercedes drivers charge.
Indeed the first two sectors appeared to have improved while rain over the final chicane slowed lap times by about half a second over those set earlier in the ten minute final phase.
With less than a minute on the clock it seemed the grid was set, with Vettel ahead of Hamilton, Bottas, Rosberg and Webber.
It left Sebastian Vettel on pole, the reigning world champion claiming his third successive Canadian Grand Prix pole while an impressive Bottas was just two spots further back.
Raikkonen could only manage ninth, behind Adrian Sutil in eighth and Jean-Eric Vergne in seventh. Alonso too was down the order, just sixth fastest at the end of the session while Nico Rosberg was fourth.