The Friday in F1 Canadian GP was more weather dictated but teams still got some valuable running unlike Max Verstappen who faced an issue.
It was weather dominating on Friday of F1 Canadian GP at Montreal which is the thing to be seen on Saturday and Sunday as well. The tricky conditions helped teams and drivers to learn and prepare for the rainy weekend ahead which will be a lottery.
There cannot be a set order due to the conditions but the usual contenders are likely to take the forefront Ferrari seems the team to beat after a solid run for both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, where they didn’t chase lap times but looked at different windows.
Since the threshold point will be key, it was crucial to get things right as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso noted as well. Both he and Lance Stroll did manage to get their timing right, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton on it being aggressive with his run plan.
Teammate George Russell felt good too. The McLaren pair didn’t do as much laps on the dry tyres, but got good amount on the wet compound while not going for lap times. They think Ferrari are ahead in terms of pace, but mixed conditions will play a role.
For Red Bull, it was another catch-up especially with the ERS issue for Verstappen, which has certainly limited his running in the tricky conditions. Sergio Perez is confident of good pace if only the team can get into the right window to extract the maximum.
Leclerc: “I mean, as much as we can in those conditions, of course. On the car, it’s very difficult to do anything because every time you go out you face a different feeling with the car. But all in all, I’m happy because we are very competitive in all of the conditions. We were never really on top of the timesheets just because we didn’t do the time at the right time in the session with the driest track etc., but I think every lap we were doing we were very competitive, so that is a good thing. But that doesn’t mean that there is not a lot to improve on the car. We still have to do some changes for tomorrow that hopefully will bring us in a better position again. It is quite clear as much as everybody will have a scatter as to what we feel today and what we will feel tomorrow if we have dry conditions. But let’s see. If FP3 and quali are dry, we will have FP3 to set up the car, if FP3 is wet and quali is dry, it is going to go into qualifying with a lot of unknowns for everybody. But we have always been pretty good at having a good starting set-up, so hopefully we maybe try it again.”
Verstappen: “Yeah, unfortunately in FP2, not many laps for me. There was a suspected electrical issue so they told me to box and they’re investigating now. I haven’t been back in the garage yet, but I’m sure soon we’ll figure out what it is. It’s not ideal. I would have liked to drive more laps. Some other people had a few more laps in the dry, a few more laps now in the wet. It’s definitely not how I would have liked to get on in FP2, but I think it’s more important to just figure out what actually happened, and what kind of implications that will have for this weekend or the rest of the year.”
Norris: “Never enough, but we learned a good amount… Actually, not in the dry. We didn’t learn enough in the dry, to be honest. We did the fewest laps, I think, out of everyone in the dry… Not the best thing with that, but in the wet a good amount, we’re in a reasonable place. At the minute I think we seem a little bit off the pace. The Ferraris seem definitely a little bit ahead. I don’t know where we are the minute, because the conditions are changing, so whether you do the first lap when the track’s the best, or the last lap when the track’s the best, it changes everything, but I have no idea.”
Alonso: “Not really much to comment, to be honest. A tricky Friday for everyone – not many laps in FP1, not many laps in FP2. Not proper laps in dry conditions and not proper laps in wet conditions, we were in the middle of nowhere. But it could be like this in qualifying and the race, so it’s still very useful information. We need to analyse a little bit the data and be very sharp tomorrow. I think the right decision can gain you five seconds, the wrong decision and you are out of the race. It seems okay, obviously it’s not very clean also after the storm. It’s quite dusty but, at the same time, it feels quite good grip, so I think the new tarmac is a good one. We just need to test it in proper wet conditions, if there is any aquaplaning or something like that. It’s going to be an interesting weekend for you guys from the outside, but for us it’s going to be a gamble always in which tyre to put in which moment. Let’s see if we get it right.”
Hamilton: “It felt great out there today. I was raring to go throughout no matter what the conditions. I was pleased that we were able to maximise our time on track as that is what is needed around a circuit like this. It’s all about building your pace. Today, it was also about understanding the conditions plus the new surface they’ve laid. The car felt strong throughout and I didn’t even get to finish what would have been my fastest lap. This is one of the best circuits we go to, so I really enjoyed myself out there. Recently, Saturday’s have proved more challenging for us, but I feel confident out there and that the car is reacting to my inputs. Ultimately, we won’t know until tomorrow afternoon just where we are in the order but today was a really good day overall.”
The mixed conditions allowed for the lower half of the F1 teams to penetrate into the Top 10 as well. And they are all for such situations which will play a key role as a lottery will give them a chance to secure a good position, provided they pounce on it.
It is a wait and watch policy for all of them re Visa Cash App RB, Haas, Williams, Stake F1 Team and Alpine. They all got decent amount of running, as Zhou Guanyu noted about his barrier hit and Jack Doohan not getting to run enough in his outing.
Tsunoda: “As a team, it was a positive day. For myself, there are still a couple of things to improve but overall, it was a very fun day because of the several condition changes. It was good training and learning for myself, especially driving the intermediate tyres in wet conditions because we haven’t had much wet running this year. It was also good data collecting. As we know, everyone was doing different things but looking at our pace we’re not in a bad place. I still felt as though we were able to perform well in rainy conditions, so I’m confident in both wet and dry. As always, there are some things from today’s runs to improve on, and the midfield is still very tight, but we’ll continue doing what we’ve been doing for the last races, finetune certain areas and put it all together tomorrow.”
Albon: “Overall, we had a good practice session in FP2 and it was fun to get out there and take a bit of risk. It looks like we will have similar conditions across the weekend, so I’m glad we could do some laps on the slicks and the Inters. The car felt strong on both compounds, and the slicks felt really good even with the DRS closed, so there’s definitely more lap time there. In all my running today, I was between fourth and ninth so I’m generally feeling positive for tomorrow.”
Hulkenberg: “There are mixed feelings from different parts of the sessions. Some moments felt good, some moments felt bad, so we’ll be looking into that to understand it. It didn’t feel great and we didn’t get into a good rhythm or harmony, so we’ve got some work to do there. It does make it tricky, but you have those weekends sometimes, but it spices things up. Tomorrow is more of the same in terms of weather, so I’m getting ready for an interesting day.”
Gasly: “Overall, the car felt good today. Although, due to the weather conditions and heavy rain we did not get much running in. But it is the same for everyone else. So there are lots of question marks for all the teams, especially with the new asphalt. We will see what the rest of the weekend has in store for us. Obviously, it would be great to continue where we have left off in Monaco, but we are conscious that Monaco is a very unique track and we know where we stand with our car’s current performance. Hopefully, the weather conditions here for the rest of the weekend can mix things up and open up opportunities for us. We will work hard to make sure we are ready to grab them if they present themselves to us.”
Guanyu: “It’s great to be back racing in Montreal, even though it’s been a tricky day for everyone out there. During FP1, I expected a bit more grip on the wet track, but I experienced aquaplaning and was lucky to save it just before touching the wall – so we were able to minimize the damage. The team did a great job getting the car ready for FP2, allowing us to run in both wet and dry conditions. Given the mixed conditions, however, it’s difficult to say where we stand, but the car definitely feels much better than it did in Monaco. I’m looking forward to more racing tomorrow.”
Doohan: “It was not the most exciting FP1 session for me, with limited running due to the weather conditions. With the forecast for the remainder of the weekend also looking uncertain, it was important to save tyres and keep some sets back in case the rain remains. We were able to get an installation lap in with the Wet tyre and make sure the car was running fine. Then when the track was drying towards the end, we finished off with an out lap on the Soft tyre and conduct practice starts. So, we still managed to gather some useful data. In the end, the weather is outside of our control, but we made the most of what we could given the conditions.”
Here’s how FP1 in F1 Canadian GP panned out
Here’s how FP2 in F1 Canadian GP panned out
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