Lewis Hamilton led the way in the first practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver set a fastest time of 1’15.564 on the soft tyres, just over a tenth of a second fastest than Sebastian Vettel.
With occasional drops of rain falling at the track, and heavier rain expected during the second practice session, the teams wasted no times in getting the day’s running started.
Several teams had aerodynamic testing to do. Ferrari as usual had liberal amounts of flow-vis applied to their rear wings.
Red Bull had substantial flow measurement arrays fitted to both cars, as well as special cameras directed at different points of their cars.
Hamilton was immediately on the pace after taking to the track, reeling off a quick sequence of laps to lead the times.
Early in the second half of the session Heikki Kovalainen lost the back end of his car coming out of turn nine. As he tried to straighten up his Caterham the car snapped right and hit the wall heavily on the right, taking two wheels off it.
The session was stopped for around 15 minutes while the Caterham was recovered, restarting with around half an hour to go.
After the session resumed Nico Rosberg briefly took over at the top of the times before Hamilton produced another improvement to beat it again.
Both Red Bull drivers improved their times in the final minutes of the session on super-soft tyres. Vettel’s last effort produced a 1’15.682, good enough for second.
However the stewards are investigating an incident between him and Williams driver Bruno Senna at the chicane at the end of the lap during the session, when Vettel overtook Senna and the pair made contact.
Fernando Alonso was fourth-quickest for Ferrari who tested a new configuration of exhaust exit on their F2012.
Mark Webber was sixth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and the Saubers of Kamui Kobayshi and Sergio Perez.
Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button completed the top ten, the latter slowed by a slipping clutch during the first session.
2012 Canadian Grand Prix
Image © Caterham/LAT
duncanmonza (@duncanmonza)
8th June 2012, 16:42
I have a feeling that the cars that are 4th, 5th, 6th 7th and 8th in the championship are going to be stronger in Montreal than those that are 1st, 2nd and 3rd. If this is reflected in the result than it could even the championship even more.
Eggry (@eggry)
8th June 2012, 16:45
Lotus is not so impressive. Possibly due to colder temperature? but Mercedes that is good at lower temperature is not looking good as well. Hamilton is still favorite for the pole, Ferrari is remained to be seen. It would be interesting quali and race.
marcusbreese (@marcusbreese)
8th June 2012, 16:58
Lotus doing race prep on Super Softs, I think Kimi did ~23 laps on one set of tyres,
moonlight (@prdsh)
8th June 2012, 16:49
Ham,Ros,Alo set fastest times on Soft tires & Vet and Web on Super-soft?
Paul A (@paul-a)
8th June 2012, 16:56
I think I saw Rosberg with the red stripes.
bag0 (@bag0)
8th June 2012, 17:00
@paul-a He used a set of SSs but he set the fastest on S.
Paul A (@paul-a)
8th June 2012, 18:02
Thanks – Autosport is now reporting “But the Mercedes did not go any quicker than it had on softs …” These tyres again — oh well.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
8th June 2012, 17:00
@prdsh High fuel run? They’ll have to start the race on the super-soft so it makes sense to gauge them with high fuel if they’re expecting interruption from the rain. That or they’re just slow around here, wouldn’t surprise me.
AdamRHolt (@adamrholt)
8th June 2012, 16:52
Hamilton looking solid. Vettel must get a penalty?!
bag0 (@bag0)
8th June 2012, 16:57
Im not sure about the penatly, the rules say:
You could argue what a justifiable reason is.
AdamRHolt (@adamrholt)
8th June 2012, 17:08
I’m sure Vettel also clipped Senna before cutting the chicane, or am I mistaken?
McLarenFanJamm (@mclarenfanjamm)
8th June 2012, 17:10
Didn’t he cut it to get past a back-marker so he could get a better run to begin his next flying lap? Don’t think that’s justifiable.
AdamRHolt (@adamrholt)
8th June 2012, 17:21
Either way, I’m sure Vettel will get away with. That guy should buy lottery tickets every fortnight!
Karl Fuss (@)
8th June 2012, 17:29
I was only able to follow the bbc live text as i’m working, but it sounded like he cut the chicane solely to get ahead of a slower car. To me that is not justifiable. But we’ll see what happens after the stewards talk to him… probably nothing happens to him.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th June 2012, 17:49
@bag0 certainly being held up isn’t a justificable reason. Specially during a practise session.
I bet they are going to penalize him…
Aldoid
8th June 2012, 16:56
What an impressive opening stint from Hamilton. He’ll definitely be the man to beat this weekend… completely dialed in right from the jump.
Klaas (@klaas)
8th June 2012, 17:04
Yeah, makes you wonder what could possibly go wrong at McLaren this time and spoil his race.
McLarenFanJamm (@mclarenfanjamm)
8th June 2012, 17:11
There will be something, no doubt. Beginning to wish I could change my display name…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th June 2012, 17:12
@mclarenfanjamm You can:
https://www.racefans.net/f1-information/f1-faq/f1-fanatic-faq/#displayname
suka (@suka)
8th June 2012, 18:25
If I were you I would not change it, Mclaren is,it seems to me the most relaxed team,hence; there tend to be a few more mistakes during the race weekends.
BasCB (@bascb)
8th June 2012, 19:04
Don’t worry @klaas, they will find something to surprise us again!
timi (@timi)
8th June 2012, 16:56
Missed the Vettel-Senna contact. Can anyone give me an idea of how it happened? And how serious/who is at fault please. Cheers
bag0 (@bag0)
8th June 2012, 16:58
I only saw that Vettel cut the last chicane on purpose, overtaking Senna.
Akin Aslan (@hamfanatic)
8th June 2012, 17:00
Vettel must get a penalty for cutting the last chicane to overtake someone, i didn’t see the crash with Senna. But he should get a penalty for unnecessary corner cutting.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
8th June 2012, 17:06
Anyone know why Massa only did half the laps Alonso did? I get the impression that both drivers were testing some new aero but only Alonso testing the new exhaust? If so, it looks to be working!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th June 2012, 17:50
@andrewtanner Massa tried the new exhaust, and Alonso worked on setup with the old version of the car, at least that’s what Ted said during practice.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
8th June 2012, 18:56
@fer-no65 Hmm but that contradicts with what the article says …
Fernando Alonso was fourth-quickest for Ferrari who tested a new configuration of exhaust exit on their F2012.
I read that as Alonso being the one who was testing…who knows!!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th June 2012, 20:19
@andrewtanner well, I saw Massa’s car with the new exhaust. So did Ted.
I guess Keith wanted to say that it was Ferrari who tested a new configuration of the exhaust on the F2012, not Alonso himself.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
8th June 2012, 21:53
@fer-no65 Ah well, I can’t argue that :D Thanks for clearing it up.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th June 2012, 22:42
@andrewtanner you can argue :P not sure you should, but you defo can :P hehe!
f1alex (@f1alex)
8th June 2012, 17:25
As far as I know, the investigation wasn’t for the overtaking through the chicane, but for moving back over on Senna in the braking zone, similar to what Schumacher did to Massa in 2010.
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
8th June 2012, 18:12
Vettel might get a penalty? I should put him on pole then ;)
Gogog
8th June 2012, 18:39
Wow, the first time I`ve missed a broadcast F1 session in many years, I suppose the `Not on terrestial channels` syndome is kicking in.
Malibu_GP
8th June 2012, 19:12
Go get em L.H.