The Friday in F1 Canadian GP was hectic eventually after no running in FP1 and extended run in FP2 which saw rain towards the end.
It was all for in FP2 of F1 Canadian GP after the CCTV sync issues ruining whole of FP1. The extended 90 minutes session saw a busy run where the teams had to gather as much data on their updates and also simulate the qualifying and race performance.
There was the threat of rain too which did arrive in the closing stages of the session, much to the relief as the F1 teams could manage to collect as much data for the weekend and also the season ahead. The usual suspect wasn’t in the Top 3 though.
Both Red Bull set their lap time a bit early which is why they were behind. They had some trouble over the bumps though which both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez feels the team will have to adjust going into Saturday and Sunday but they are not alone in the list.
Even though Mercedes ended up 1-2, Lewis Hamilton doesn’t expects to be at the top in dry conditions. There is decent pace though to keep them in the podium fight. Optimism is far more on Ferrari side, where both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz felt good enough.
Leclerc hailed the positive Friday while Sainz concurred, even though he notes he will need some set-up tuning to be more comfortable. The Aston Martin pair were so-so with their updates, with Fernando Alonso ruing the missed FP1 running.
Verstappen: “Of course, it wasn’t very straightforward, with basically no running in FP1. It was the same for everyone and at least we could get a bit of running in FP2. I think we still have a bit of work to do, the car is not fantastic at the moment over the bumps, over the kerbs. I mean, it’s still not too bad, but we definitely need to fine-tune a few things. But again, you see now it’s raining… Probably tomorrow it’s raining, but then maybe on Sunday it’s dry again. A bit more of a tricky session, but sometimes you have those days. Probably tomorrow is going to be very wet, so that normally always brings a few surprises in qualifying. Then we’ll see what the weather will do on Sunday.”
Leclerc: “Well, in terms of feeling, it’s among the good Fridays for us. I had a really, really good feeling with the car, so that’s positive. Tomorrow will be a completely new day and honestly I don’t think there’s much that we can bring from today to tomorrow, as it’s going to rain probably. It’s going to be very interesting, but it’s been a positive Friday. No, we didn’t do any significant change. We are obviously learning this package more and more, so we are optimising it. Everything we’ve done to the car went in the right direction, so that’s good. The long runs were also really good, so that’s positive. But it’s only Friday, so we need to wait and see. It’s been a positive Friday, now we just need to have a clean qualifying tomorrow in very tricky conditions and then see what’s possible on Sunday. In terms of feeling, it’s been up there, yes.”
Hamilton: “Not the greatest, but not the worst by far. So, as I said, it’s feeling pretty decent, it’s just bumpy and I think everyone’s having the struggles with the bumps. So, I think we’ve just got to improve our ride control and our balance through the corners, and then I think we’ll be alright. I love driving this track, it’s mega. From the moment you leave the pit lane, you’re like ‘yeah, this is wicked’. The car didn’t feel bad, but I think we’ve definitely got some work to do. Well, I can only base it off comparing to last year and it’s massively better than last year. The rear end is not necessarily, but overall, the car is just a step forwards and I’m definitely feeling the improvements we felt in Monaco, I’m feeling them here.”
Alonso: “It’s good to see all of the support here and be back racing in front of the Canadian fans. But it was a shame that we weren’t able to run in FP1 due to the technical issues. We didn’t have a lot of time to fully understand the new upgrades on the car, so we will have to analyse everything overnight and learn more tomorrow. We will keep an eye on the weather radar again for tomorrow, as it could be another mixed day.”
There was almost disaster for Alpine too with both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon facing issues. The former’s steering wheel trouble didn’t harm him enough eventually, but the latter’s water pressure issue curtailed his running with limited data at hand.
The Haas side saw issues too especially for Nico Hulkenberg whose Ferrari F1 engine went bust during the session. There were some positive chatter from the Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri camp, while McLaren focused on getting set-up right and Williams to continue with their updated car on Alexander Albon’s side.
Gasly: “It was a very bizarre day from the start. It stopped after three corners, so not ideal that I had a nice walk through the park to get my way back to the paddock – it was very strange! Then we got the car back before the end of FP1, so I thought maybe we would manage to get out, but we could not get on track. But in the end, on my side, we managed to have a productive day. Free Practice 2 was much better and we were able to progress our programme for almost the full one and a half hour session before the rain at the end. I had an interesting moment at Turn 4 with the rear sliding but managed to keep it away from the wall. I think we’re in a good place ahead of the rest of the weekend and hopefully tomorrow’s practice can be better to set ourselves up for qualifying.”
Bottas: “It’s been a bit of an unusual Friday for everyone; we only managed to set one timed lap in FP1, before the session got red flagged and subsequently stopped. On the other hand, we got to do an extended FP2, getting a decent number of laps in, with only the final minutes of the session being slightly compromised by the rain. Overall, it’s been a positive day: the car felt good in dry conditions, and our performance was within the top ten the whole time, which is encouraging for the rest of the weekend ahead. The weather forecast remains mixed, so our focus will be on finding a good compromise to be at our best both in dry and wet conditions. Based on today, our car has the potential to make it into Q3, so that will be what we’ll be working towards.”
Norris: “It’s nice to be back here in Canada, at a track I enjoy. We had an OK day, it was actually good to get out in mixed conditions. We’ve been working hard trying to find a good set-up. A good balance with the car to feel comfortable is the most important thing, and we were making steps forward. We’ll continue to do that into tomorrow and work hard for a good result in quali.”
Tsunoda: “Although FP1 was interrupted, we still had two hours of running on track, which was enough. Our balance isn’t too bad, but it seems we are struggling to find pace during our performance runs. It looks like it will be raining tomorrow so we will be focusing on wet conditions for one-lap runs, with multiple tyre sets left to use. We did some long runs in the dry, and the pace doesn’t seem bad, but first, let’s see how tomorrow goes. I hope we can achieve Q2 or Q3 tomorrow.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a very disruptive day, obviously for everyone in FP1 with just one lap and then the technical problems we faced, we got compromised there. Then FP2 also didn’t last very long, I got one run in and then starting the second one the ICU failed. It’s not ideal obviously heading into the rest of the weekend but it is what it is now, we’ll see what the other car did, try to learn from that and come up with the best possible package we can tomorrow.”
Albon: “The disrupted day hasn’t hurt us too much. We did a lot of simulator practice and it’s kind of what I expected so there haven’t been any nasty surprises with the car, which is a good thing. We didn’t really complete a proper FP2, so we didn’t put on a proper set of tyres, but otherwise we’re not in a bad place.”
Here’s what happened in FP1 of F1 Canadian GP
Here’s what happened in FP2 of F1 Canadian GP