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Saturday, 9 June 2012

Friday Free Practice 1 & 2: Hamilton Quickest in Canada in both Sessions

Practice One:


McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton staked his claim to become the seventh winner of the season by setting the fastest time in Friday morning’s opening practice session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Ile Notre-Dame.

Hamilton clocked his best time of 1m 15.564s on Pirelli’s soft tyres with less than 20 minutes to go but pretty much dominated the running throughout. Earlier, the session had to be stopped for 13 minutes, after a heavy shunt for Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen, who hit the wall exiting Turn Nine.

Hamilton’s main threat for a long time was Nico Rosberg, who lapped his Mercedes in 1m 15.782s on the super-soft rubber, but right at the end a series of quick laps lifted Sebastian Vettel to second for Red Bull with 1m 15.682s.

Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber were also right there, with laps of 1m 15.842s and 1m 15.897s respectively for Ferrari and Red Bull.

A super-soft run put Nico Hulkenberg a surprise sixth for Force India on 1m 15.986s, while Sauber’s prediction that their C31 would suit the track proved accurate as Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez were next up in 1m 16.000s and 1m 16.249s.

Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher was ninth on 1m 16.264s on the soft rubber, while Jenson Button completed the top 10 with 1m 16.347s before losing a lot of running time as McLaren had to take the gearbox off his MP4-27 to deal with an oil leak. Paul di Resta was 11th in the second Force India with 1m 16.460s as Ferrari’s Felipe Massa dropped back after being well up at one stage with his soft-tyred 1m 16.619s. 

Pastor Maldonado’s experimentation with a new DRS system didn’t pay off yet, as the Venezuelan was only 13th for Williams on 1m 16.859s, while the Lotuses of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen didn’t really get going after posting laps of 1m 16.890s and 1m 17.014s early on.

Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo continued their duel at Toro Rosso, the Frenchman lapping in 1m 17.352s to the Australian’s 1m 17.580s.

Vitaly Petrov showed Caterham’s recent improvement with 1m 17.935s, but Kovalainen’s morning ended with that shunt after he’d recorded 1m 18.177s. Right behind him, much to HRT’s delight, was Pedro de la Rosa who hauled a revised F112 round in 1m 18.182s. 

That left him comfortably ahead of Bruno Senna on 1m 18.762s in the second Williams, team mate Narain Karthikeyan on 1m 19.354s, and the Marussias of Timo Glock and Charles Pic on 1m 20.004s and 1m 20.067s.

Vettel and Senna are under investigation by the Canadian race stewards after the German took a shortcut over the final chicane, whilst passing the Brazilian.




Practice One Results:



PosNoDriverTeamTime/RetiredGapLaps
14Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:15.56430
21Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:15.6820.11829
38Nico RosbergMercedes1:15.7820.21830
45Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:15.8420.27834
52Mark WebberRed Bull Racing-Renault1:15.8970.33328
612Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1:15.9860.42229
714Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1:16.0000.43631
815Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1:16.2490.68532
97Michael SchumacherMercedes1:16.2640.70028
103Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:16.3470.78312
1111Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1:16.4600.89632
126Felipe MassaFerrari1:16.6191.05517
1318Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1:16.8591.29526
1410Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1:16.8901.32636
159Kimi RäikkönenLotus-Renault1:17.0141.45042
1617Jean-Eric VergneSTR-Ferrari1:17.3521.78828
1716Daniel RicciardoSTR-Ferrari1:17.5802.01631
1821Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1:17.9352.37123
1920Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1:18.1772.61316
2022Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1:18.1822.61826
2119Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1:18.7623.19836
2223Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1:19.3543.79023
2324Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1:20.0044.44021
2425Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1:20.0674.50323 






Practice Two:


Lewis Hamilton maintained the upper hand after Friday’s second practice session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Montreal’s Ile Notre Dame. Having lapped in 1m 15.564s in the morning to beat Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel by 0.118s, he trimmed that to 1m 15.259s to beat Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso by 0.054s in the afternoon.

Right behind the Spaniard, who lapped in 1m 15.313s, Felipe Massa maintained his upswing from Monaco with 1m 15.410s for third fastest time. All three used the super-soft Pirellis, whereas Vettel set his fourth best 1m 15.531s on the soft compound, boding well for qualifying tomorrow. The world champion did the most laps of the session, with 44 - one more that Hamilton.

Fifth fastest time for Paul di Resta underpinned Force India’s hopes of a strong race, as the Scot lapped in 1m 15.544s to hold off Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 15.651s. Michael Schumacher was hot on his heels as Mercedes’ lead runner, with 1m 15.697s and then came Di Resta’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 15.799s.

Jenson Button, like Di Resta, put in one of the performances of the session by taking ninth place with 1m 15.812s, despite sitting out most of the morning and 70 minutes of the afternoon as McLaren fixed the oil leak on his car. This took much longer than anticipated after an oil leak on to the clutch was fixed, only for another leak to manifest itself which required further dismantling.

The top 10 was rounded off by Nico Rosberg in the second Mercedes with 1m 15.878s, just ahead of Sergio Perez who took his Sauber round 1m 15.898s. Mark Webber was 12th in the second Red Bull on 1m 15.907s, with Pastor Maldonado breathing down his neck in the lead Williams with 1m 15.987s.

It was a quiet day for Lotus, with Romain Grosjean 14th on 1m 16.360s and Kimi Raikkonen 15th on 1m 16.562s, but they are happy with their race pace.

Heikki Kovalainen made up for his accident this morning with 1m 16.981s, which left his Caterham 16th. 

This time it was Bruno Senna’s turn to bring out the red flags after he backed his Williams into the so-called ‘Champion’s Wall’ - where the likes of Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel have previously come to grief - on the exit to the final corner. Like Kovalainen in the morning, only the Brazilian’s pride was hurt, but the car was a mess that took marshals 13 minutes to clear up. His 1m 17.022s left him 17th, just ahead of Vitaly Petrov who took the second Caterham round in 1m 17.075s.

Behind them, Jean-Eric Vergne headed Toro Rosso team mate Daniel Ricciardo, with 1m 17.124s to 1m 17.716s, while Pedro de la Rosa again put the HRT ahead of the Marussias with 1m 18.908s for 21st. That left Timo Glock 22nd on 1m 19.084s with Narain Karthikeyan on 1m 19.378s and Charles Pic bringing up the rear on 1m 19.902s.

Besides Senna’s incident there were plenty of off-road adventures; Glock and Alonso both spun, while Webber, Di Resta, De la Rosa, Alonso and Hamilton all strayed off the grey stuff without damage.



Practice Two Results:



PosNoDriverTeamTime/RetiredGapLaps
14Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:15.25943
25Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:15.3130.05436
36Felipe MassaFerrari1:15.4100.15139
41Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:15.5310.27244
511Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1:15.5440.28532
614Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1:15.6510.39237
77Michael SchumacherMercedes1:15.6970.43832
812Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1:15.7990.54039
93Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:15.8120.55314
108Nico RosbergMercedes1:15.8780.61940
1115Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1:15.8980.63938
122Mark WebberRed Bull Racing-Renault1:15.9070.64841
1318Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1:15.9870.72839
1410Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1:16.3601.10129
159Kimi RäikkönenLotus-Renault1:16.5621.30333
1620Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1:16.9811.72224
1719Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1:17.0221.76322
1821Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1:17.0751.81641
1917Jean-Eric VergneSTR-Ferrari1:17.1241.86541
2016Daniel RicciardoSTR-Ferrari1:17.7162.45734
2122Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1:18.9083.64927
2224Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1:19.0843.82540
2323Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1:19.3784.11921
2425Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1:19.9024.64318













 

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