10/06/2017
NEWS STORY
Warm weather and a 'green' track were the conditions in which the first two practice sessions took place at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. As usual, we can expect a lot of track improvement over the next two days but, for the moment, Kimi Raikkonen's lap time at the end of the afternoon was the best overall (1'12"935 on Ultrasoft tires), while team-mate Sebastian Vettel was in third spot with a best lap time of 1'13"200.
Kimi Raikkonen: "It was a good day. Things worked out smoothly and the car felt ok both on high and low fuel; that's the main thing. So far so good, but it's still Friday and obviously there's always things to improve. The nature of the circuit is quite tricky because of the low downforce configuration; in some corners, like in the chicanes, you have to use the kerbs a lot to go fast, but because of the low downforce the car is bouncing and it always feels very slippery. But at this track, given the long straights, to achieve pure lap time you have to drive in that configuration. Today we started pretty well, we keep on doing our usual work, trying to improve for tomorrow."
Sebastian Vettel: "Today I was fighting with the car at the beginning, but in the end I understood what we needed and what we had to do. Tomorrow should be a better day. It was an interesting session. The track was slippery and very dirty this morning. We try to do our best, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But in the end we found the right direction. So we'll see what tomorrow brings, but I am confident it will be better. We focus on what we have to do. We could have had a better session today, but hopefully we'll have it tomorrow."