Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2018

Verstappen completes practice clean sweep in close session

2018 Canadian Grand Prix third practice

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A Red Bull driver headed all three practice sessions for the second race weekend in a row, but in Canada it was Max Verstappen instead of Daniel Ricciardo.

Verstappen ended a close final hour of practice just five-hundredths of a second clear of the Ferraris and a tenth of a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.

Verstappen appeared to have more time in hand, setting a further two personal best sectors before pitting. Even so his best run was 0.14s shy of last year’s pole position time, which is also the track record for this circuit.

There was almost nothing to choose between the two Ferraris. Mercedes were unable to jump them or Verstappen’s Red Bull despite finally running the hyper-soft tyres for the first time this weekend.

Following his compromised first day of practice, Daniel Ricciardo spent part of his session doing a longer run and ended up fifth-fastest.

The lead of the midfield battle changed hands between several drivers during the session. Force India seemed to hold a slight edge and Sergio Perez ended up first behind the ‘big six’, though the gaps behind him were tiny. Just 0.17 seconds covered six drivers from five different teams.

Stoffel Vandoorne was the quicker of the two McLaren drivers in 10th place. This was despite a trip up the escape road at turn three which it took some time for him to emerge from as he slowly U-turned his McLaren.

Williams’ joyless weekend continued. Sergey Sirotkin only prevented both their cars from being rooted to the bottom of the times by beating Marcus Ericsson to 18th place.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
133Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’11.59914
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1’11.6480.04922
37Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’11.6500.05121
444Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’11.7060.10723
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’12.1530.55429
677Valtteri BottasMercedes1’12.2550.65627
711Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’12.9031.30416
827Nico HulkenbergRenault1’12.9461.34721
98Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’13.0141.41516
102Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’13.0341.43521
1131Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’13.0641.46518
1228Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’13.0761.47724
1314Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’13.2251.62619
1455Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’13.3311.73222
1510Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’13.3341.73519
1616Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’13.4521.85319
1720Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’13.4881.88921
1835Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’13.8182.21918
199Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’13.9252.32620
2018Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’13.9682.36917

Third practice visual gaps

Max Verstappen – 1’11.599

+0.049 Sebastian Vettel – 1’11.648

+0.051 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’11.650

+0.107 Lewis Hamilton – 1’11.706

+0.554 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’12.153

+0.656 Valtteri Bottas – 1’12.255

+1.304 Sergio Perez – 1’12.903

+1.347 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’12.946

+1.415 Romain Grosjean – 1’13.014

+1.435 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’13.034

+1.465 Esteban Ocon – 1’13.064

+1.477 Brendon Hartley – 1’13.076

+1.626 Fernando Alonso – 1’13.225

+1.732 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’13.331

+1.735 Pierre Gasly – 1’13.334

+1.853 Charles Leclerc – 1’13.452

+1.889 Kevin Magnussen – 1’13.488

+2.219 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’13.818

+2.326 Marcus Ericsson – 1’13.925

+2.369 Lance Stroll – 1’13.968

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’13.3021’12.1981’11.599-0.59979
2Sebastian VettelFerrari1’13.5741’12.9851’11.648-1.33765
3Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’13.7271’12.3281’11.650-0.67891
4Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’13.3901’12.7771’11.706-1.07191
5Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’13.5181’12.6031’12.153-0.4570
6Valtteri BottasMercedes1’13.6171’13.0611’12.255-0.80698
7Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’13.7541’12.903-0.85156
8Nico HulkenbergRenault1’13.9671’12.946-1.02161
9Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’15.1191’13.6201’13.014-0.60671
10Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’14.3111’14.1671’13.034-1.13354
11Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’15.0711’13.7471’13.064-0.68387
12Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’15.7561’13.8891’13.076-0.813104
13Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’13.9001’13.8661’13.225-0.64176
14Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’14.1161’14.4331’13.331-0.78555
15Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’15.0041’14.4861’13.334-1.15289
16Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’15.4391’13.8841’13.452-0.43288
17Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’15.5791’13.9561’13.488-0.46881
18Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’15.7681’14.7821’13.818-0.96483
19Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’15.3861’14.1081’13.925-0.18391
20Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’16.2591’14.7031’13.968-0.73573
21Nicholas LatifiForce India-Mercedes1’17.14528

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2018 Canadian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Verstappen completes practice clean sweep in close session”

  1. That gap to the midfield, though. And closeness within.

    1. @phylyp Precisely. It should be a close qualifying especially at that part of the field.

    2. @phylyp
      Now imagine what that’d look like if Bottas and Ricciardo had managed decent laps as well …

      1. Indeed, nase and @jerejj

    3. What’s more worrying that the top teams again can get a quick lap in Q2 on middle or hardest tyre compound and start the race on contra strategy to rest of the top 10 or even the grid.

      1. Andrew in Atlanta
        9th June 2018, 17:49

        Why is that worrying, it’s a valid strategy within the rules. If they can lap fast enough to stay ahead of the mid tier cars on supers more power to them. But it looks like the hypers are over a second faster and those in 8-13ish are within that window to make running the harder tire risky and end up 11th at the end of the session. I doubt anyone would skip on running hypers in Q2, they might try the supers but thinking they’ll have to fit hypers to make sure they’re in.

        1. He means worrying as in that they have so much pace advantage.

  2. RBR has no party mode. So RBR will have to fight for maybe P3/P4 since Bottas doesn’t look that strong at the moment. But Max shows again that he is the fastest.

  3. That visual gap on this page says enough .. top 3 and then the rest! it will be 2 races in 1 race …

  4. Vettel fan 17 (@)
    9th June 2018, 18:16

    Qualifying is going to be sooooooooooooo close

  5. And then. Quali Ferrari and nerc turn up the engines and of of those steals pole

Comments are closed.