Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in the second Formula 1 practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Finn clocked a 1m12.935s at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal to finish 0.215 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.
Championship leader Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas were third and fourth respectively with the top four separated by 0.375s.
The super-soft was the tyre of choice for the early running, before teams turned their attention to the ultra-softs for qualifying simulations.
Vettel was among the first to do his low-fuel run and promptly went quickest, with team-mate Raikkonen slotting into second.
Raikkonen then improved to go fastest, with Hamilton moving up into second and Vettel demoted to third.
Max Verstappen was the leading Red Bull in fifth, 0.453s off the pace, but his session was curtailed 20 minutes early when he stopped out on track with a gearbox problem.
The session was red-flagged while the teenager's car was recovered from the side of the track between Turns 7 and 8.
It compounded a frustrating afternoon for the team, with Daniel Ricciardo spending most of the session in the garage after suffering an engine problem.
Felipe Massa was sixth, but he was nearly seven tenths further back in the Williams, with Fernando Alonso bouncing back from a late start to the session to go seventh at the chequered flag.
Esteban Ocon, Daniil Kvyat and Sergio Perez completed the top 10.
Romain Grosjean was 11th after he endured a frustrating session, spinning twice at Turn 6 and once at Turn 1 before ranting on the radio to his team about the situation.
He was just one of a series of drivers, that included Vettel, Bottas, Kvyat (pictured) and Perez, who spun during the session.
Carlos Sainz Jr recovered from failing to set a timed lap in FP1 to rack up more than 40 laps in the Toro Rosso, ending the day 13th-fastest.
Near the back of the field, Stoffel Vandoorne failed to set a representative qualifying simulation time after spinning at the final chicane on his new-tyre run.
FP2 TIMES
POS DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS 1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m12.935s - 41 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m13.150s 0.215s 41 3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m13.200s 0.265s 41 4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m13.310s 0.375s 42 5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m13.388s 0.453s 25 6 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m14.063s 1.128s 38 7 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m14.245s 1.310s 19 8 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m14.299s 1.364s 46 9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 1m14.461s 1.526s 38 10 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m14.501s 1.566s 41 11 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m14.566s 1.631s 33 12 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m14.604s 1.669s 38 13 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Renault 1m14.621s 1.686s 43 14 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m14.676s 1.741s 35 15 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m15.072s 2.137s 8 16 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m15.127s 2.192s 40 17 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m15.240s 2.305s 40 18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m15.611s 2.676s 31 19 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 1m15.624s 2.689s 20 20 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber/Ferrari 1m16.308s 3.373s 31
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says he was "laughing a bit" at suggestions the team is favouring Sebastian Vettel over Kimi Raikkonen in the 2017 Formula 1 title battle.
Raikkonen had taken pole ahead of his team-mate at the Monaco Grand Prix and the Finn had led until the pitstops, with Vettel's later stop allowing him to take the lead and go on to win the race.
Vettel's victory meant he extended his championship lead over Hamilton to 25 points, and the Ferrari driver has finished ahead of Raikkonen in all the races this season.
Arrivabene insisted Vettel is not the number one driver in the Ferrari line-up, claiming that the team's priority is the constructors' standings.
"I was reading after Monaco and hearing all the speculation about number one and number two, I always said that the situation is that we are looking forward in the championship, to do all our best for the constructors' championship," Arrivabene said in Canada.
"If you do well in the constructors' championship, you need two drivers and this is better at the moment for Ferrari. It is the only trophy that if you win, it stays at home. The drivers' trophy goes to the drivers, of course."
Hamilton's seventh place finish in Canada meant his points defecit to Vettel increased from six points to 25, and he argued after the race that Ferrari was "clearly" favouring Vettel - although the two Ferrari drivers dismissed such suggestions.
Arrivabene said both Ferrari drivers were well aware of the team's current policy.
"I was very clear since the beginning of the season. Until the numbers are going in one direction or the other direction in the championship, there will be no team orders.
"I am very, very clear. The drivers know all about this, they accept it. I think, what has happened in Monaco - I was a bit laughing when I heard the stories. It is not the reality.
"We are looking for the constructors' championship, but in the drivers' championship they are free to do it until the numbers are clear in one direction or the other."
quoteRaikkonen says he paid the price for a mistake in F1 qualifying
Kimi Raikkonen said he "paid the price" for a mistake when it counted in the closing moments of Formula 1 qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. The Finn, who set the pace during Friday practice, had to settle for fourth on the grid, and he believes he was capable of more than that if he hadn't made an error on his final run. "There was a lot of speed on the last lap, but I made a mistake in corner two," said Raikkonen. "I improved a little bit, but I couldn't make the lap very good, and I paid the price for it. "It was a little bit more tricky today than yesterday just to get a good feeling with the tyres, but that's how it goes."
While his Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel ended up three tenths of a second adrift of an inspired Lewis Hamilton in the fight for pole, Raikkonen was nearly eight tenths back, which he described as "not a surprise". "At places like this, if you get one corner wrong, you're going to lose massive lap time," he said. "Our car has been good, but for whatever reason we've struggled a bit in qualifying."
However, Raikkonen believes the race "will be a different story", with the Montreal venue traditionally throwing up unexpected circumstances and incident-packed grands prix. "Often it's quite a hectic race here, a lot of things happen," he said. "You never know here, it's one of those places things can change quite quickly. "We'll try again, we'll see what happens. We should have good speed."
quoteA long fight back for Seb to finish fourth and Kimi seventh
Montreal – The toughest Grand Prix of the year ended with Seb in fourth place and Kimi in seventh. Given how things went on the opening lap, with both cars damaged and a front wing to change, a strategy to rejig, overtaking moves to make, it was a demonstration of courage and determination from drivers and team. Sebastian still leads the Drivers’ championship on 141 points, 13 more than Hamilton.
Gusty conditions, dust flying around the track and even a few black but harmless clouds all served to ramp up the tension before the start. Verstappen’s blistering start meant that Seb, who had got off the line well, had to lift off. He thus found himself back in fourth, but further back, a collision between Massa and Sainz immediately brought out the Safety Car. Max’s move had damaged the right front wing end plate on Sebastian’s car. Rather than risk further problems, he pitted for a new nose and a change to Supersofts. Unfortunately, the SF70H had additional damage to the floor. Meanwhile, Kimi lost ground in the duel with Ricciardo and found himself sixth and a trip across the grass also caused him some damage.
Verstappen’s race ended at the side of the track at Turn 3 and out came the safety car again, albeit this time a virtual one. The race resumed on lap 14 and that number also represented Seb’s position, but he soon dispensed with Grosjean. On lap 18, Kimi, who was having a tricky time of it, pitted and fitted the red-banded tyres and by this point Seb was already up to eleventh. He then passed Hulkenberg to move into the points before pulling off a passing move on Stroll at the chicane. Kimi got ahead of Alonso to go sixth, with Sebastian now just two places further back having come out on top of duels with Magnussen and Fernando.
Life wasn’t easy with two damaged cars: on lap 42, Kimi pitted for fresh rubber, the super-quick Ultrasofts. Seb stayed out until lap 50, dealing with traffic ahead of him, but he would also have to rescue his race with the purple tyres, with which Kimi was now flying. Seb started to demolish the lap times, getting under the 1’15” mark with 10 laps to go. He passed Kimi who had a brake control issue. At the start of lap 66, Seb pulled off a miracle, risking everything to pass Ocon who was also using the DRS. Perez was now in his sights and he slipped by at the start of the penultimate lap, so that his race ended just off the podium. KImi brought his wounded No 7 car home in seventh spot. “Thanks guys” was the immediate message from Maurizio. That said it all.
Print view
Fri Jun 09, 2017 11:52 pm
reply
