Canada – Free tests 1 and 2: Hamilton dominates proceedings
On this first day in Montreal, Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in both sessions, while the Ferraris looked in good form, as did the Red Bulls.
Lewis Hamilton intends to make up for the gap he has accumulated in the world championship since the beginning of the season. He therefore clearly dominated both sessions this Friday in Montreal. The morning performance is all the more remarkable as he was able to clock a time three-tenths faster than Nico Rosberg, even though the Briton was on super-softs compared to his teammate’s ultra-softs.
If the two Mercedes had no issues, the same couldn’t be said for Felipe Massa. Indeed, the Brazilian experienced a DRS problem at the end of the pit straight, causing him to lose the rear of his car and he couldn’t avoid the safety barrier. His session ended after twenty minutes with only eight laps completed.
Similarly, Jenson Button once again faced reliability issues with his Honda engine as he was only able to complete eight laps, the last of which was at a very slow pace due to a temperature sensor that switched to safety mode. This therefore forced the Briton’s mechanics to completely change the power unit between the two sessions.
Behind the four main teams, Sahara Force India confirmed its current good form as Nico Hülkenberg is in 7th place and Sergio Perez in 9th. At Toro Rosso, there was a significant gap between Carlos Sainz in 8th and Daniil Kvyat, who had to settle for a modest 15th place.
For the second session, Lewis Hamilton resumed his progress, but this time, the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel came between the two Mercedes. Vettel finished just over a tenth behind the leader while Nico Rosberg was half a second behind his teammate.
After a disappointing morning session, finishing with the 11th best time, Daniel Ricciardo climbed up the rankings but had to settle for 5th place, a hundredth of a second behind his teammate. Jenson Button was smiling again as his new engine allowed him to match Valtteri Bottas, showing that real progress is being made at Woking.
Kimi Räikkönen finally finished in 8th position, after following a very different program from that of his teammate. The Finn made numerous adjustments to his car but never found a balance that suited him perfectly: « It wasn’t an easy day, one of those days where you keep making changes and nothing seems to work exactly as you hoped. We struggled to make the car behave better and we didn’t manage to do it. »
Able to take to the track as soon as the green light was given, despite his morning accident, Felipe Massa mainly focused on accumulating laps (44 in total) and settled for a final 13th place.
