Hamilton takes pole position in Canada

Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix tomorrow. He will start ahead of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, who will both start on the medium tyre. Here is the full report:

Q1

The Virgin of Timo Glock was first out, while most others waited in the garage for a few more minutes. Vitaly Petrov set the initial pace with a 1.20.210, before being unseated by Jarno Trulli soon after. Fernando Alonso was the first of the frontrunners to set a time, on the medium tyres, with a 1.17.864.

Mark Webber decided to go out on the super-s0ft tyres, and set a 1.17.988, which was quite surprising, as it was predicted that they would be conserved until Q3. McLaren revealed that they would be using used super-soft tyres for Q1. Fernando Alonso improved on his earlier time, before being beaten by Mark Webber, who was instantly beated by Vitantonio Liuzzi. However, this only lasted for about 10 seconds, as Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to get into the 1.16 zone.

Sebastian Vettel, also on the super-soft tyres like his team-mate, ended up 2nd on his first run. But, Hamilton blitzed a 1.15.889, and became the first driver of the entire weekend to get a 1.15 time. Robert Kubica was the last driver to set his first lap, which was a 1.16.853 to take 9th place.

With 5 minutes to go, the battle to survive Q1 was between the Toro Rosso and Sauber drivers. When both Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi improved their times, it became clear that Kamui Kobayashi was going to fall at the first hurdle. He was knocked out alongside the Lotus, Virgin and HRT cars.For a moment, it appeared as if Heikki Kovalainen was going to be the first of the new teams to beat an established team, but Kobayashi just scraped past him to finish 18th.

Karun Chandhok set an awful time, a 1.27, as his car had a problem. Seeing as he had been given a 5-place penalty for a gearbox change, he elected not to go out again.

Amazingly, in this session, the Lotus cars were only 2.2 seconds slower than the fastest laps, which is an excellent improvement.

Drivers knocked out in Q1:

18) Kamui Kobayashi

19) Heikki Kovalainen

20) Jarno Trulli

21) Timo Glock

22) Bruno Senna

23) Lucas di Grassi

24) Karun Chandhok

Q2

Vitaly Petrov was the first driver out, on the super-soft tyres, although he ditched his first attempt. The first fast lap was set by Vitantonio Liuzzi, which was a 1.17.726, which was 1 tenth faster than Fernando Alonso’s first attempt. Mark Webber than got a 1.16.292, before Sebastian Vettel set a 1.16.163 to take 1st place.

But, it was short lived, as Lewis Hamilton recorded a 1.16.053, and Fernando Alonso got a 1.15.954. Then, Robert Kubica got the fastest lap of the weekend so far, with a 1.15.6, before Vettel took top spot again with a 1.15.556. Nico Rosberg went 4th, beating his team-mate Schumacher, although he did crash his car over the final kerbs a bit.

Jenson Button was particularly unimpressive, getting 9th place, while Hamilton took 1st spot again with a 1.15.528. Mark Webber was next up out on track. He was very close to Hamilton’s times in the first sector, although he messed up the second half of the lap, and ditched that attempt. Sebastian Vettel also went out for another run, but was unable to improve his time.

Nico Hulkenberg was quite poor in Q2, and couldn’t improve from 17th at the moment. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher was in danger of being knocked out, as he was only 10th. With his next attempt, he failed to improve. He and Jenson Button were struggling, and were in danger from 12th placed Liuzzi. His final lap, a 1.16.423, knocked Michael down to 11th. Then, Schumacher’s next lap got him into 10th, at the expense of Button.

Jenson’s final lap got him into 7th place, which again pushed Schumacher into the drop-out zone. Then, a faster lap from Nico Hulkenberg shoved him down to 12th, and he stayed there, and was knocked out in Q2. Rubens Barrichello’s last-gasp attempt got him 11th, alongside Hulkenberg, which is an improvement for Williams. Also, Force India did well to get both cars into Q3.

Drivers knocked out in Q2:

11) Rubens Barrichello

12) Nico Hulkenberg

13) Michael Schumacher

14) Vitaly Petrov

15) Sebastien Buemi

16) Jaime Alguersuari

17) Pedro de la Rosa

Q3

As the lights went green to signal the start of Q3, no car made a move for at least a minute, until both McLarens were the first out. Button’s attempt was very poor, and Hamilton beat him by an entire second, with a 1.15.500. Fernando Alonso was up next, although his first attempt was more of a warm-up. Both Red Bulls and Robert Kubica opted for the medium tyres, while Alonso’s lap was well behind Hamilton.

Webber’s first lap was only a few tenths behind Hamilton, which isn’t bad considering he was on the harder tyre. His next attempt was very close to Lewis, but he was still in 2nd. Vettel cut the final chicane after a mistake, which ruined his main attempt. Robert Kubica went 5th fastest, while Nico Rosberg was 7th.

Fernando Alonso finally knocked off Hamilton, just before Webber went even faster with a 1.15.373. Lewis’ final attempt was too slow, and he didn’t improve. Felipe Massa went 5th, and Button got 4th. Then, as the session neared the ending, Vettel went 2nd, and it was all down to Hamilton. His final lap was a stunner, a 1.15.1, which clinched him pole position, ahead of the two Red Bulls.

Vitantonio Liuzzi had a fantastic qualifying performance, possibly a career-saving one, to take 6th place.

But, as he celebrated, his team went on the radio to inform him that he didn’t have enough fuel to enter the pit lane, and he had to stop out on track. He then proceeded to delight the fans by cutting out the engine and pushing the car down the back straight! It certainly was a unique way to celebrate beating the Red Bulls to pole position for the first time this year.

Canadian Grand Prix Friday Practice in pictures

Here are the pictures from today’s practice sessions in Canada:

Vettel heads Canadian Friday Practice 2

Sebastian Vettel topped FP2 for the Canadian Grand Prix today

Sebastian Vettel led the second Friday Practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix today. His time of 1.16.877 was a tenth of a second faster than second placed Fernando Alonso, who was followed by Nico Rosberg in 3rd position. Most of this session was dogged by severe graining on drivers’ tyres.

This session was a bit of a disaster for the McLaren team. Lewis Hamilton was 7th, and 0.6 seconds off the pace, with Jenson Button back in 11th. Lewis said on the team radio that he was “about to crash the car” as his super-soft tyres were disintegrating rapidly, before he pitted and switched tyres. Jenson was unable to set a fast lap with the super-soft tyres on a heavy fuel load, and ended up halfway down the pack.

Mark Webber and Felipe Massa improved from FP1 to finish 4th and 5th respectively. Adrian Sutil was only 0.014 seconds behind Massa in 6th, while Hamilton was 7th. Robert Kubica and Michael Schumacher were 8th and 9th, while Vitantonio Liuzzi topped off the top 10.

Jenson Button was 11th, while the two Williams cars of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg were 12th and 13th respectively. Vitaly Petrov was 14th, and the two Saubers of Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi were 15th and 16th. The Toro Rossos of Buemi and Alguersuari were the slowest of the midfield.

Once again, Heikki Kovalainen was in 19th place, only 3 seconds slower than Vettel. Also, yet again, HRT comfortably beat the Virgins, as Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna were 20th and 21st. Their critical lack of downforce has actually considerably helped them on the straights this weekend.

Jarno Trulli was 22nd, although he had electricalm problems, and could only get 10 laps in. It was another disastrous session for the Virgin team. While both Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi managed to get proper stints in, they were more than 4.5 seconds off the pace, and filled the back of the timesheets in FP2.

While Vettel and Alonso set their final fast laps on the super-soft rubber, nearly all of the other drivers were reporting severe graining on that compound. Many drivers were forced to stay on the medium compound near the end, as the super-softs were falling apart. As the track rubbers in tomorrow, it should become less of a problem.

Unfortunately, WordPress isn’t working properly tonight, as my usual chart for driver times isn’t going on the page properly. It will be up as soon as possible.

Button leads Canadian Friday Practice 1

Jenson Button led the way as Formula 1 returned to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the first time in 2 years.  Michael Schumacher was an impressive 2nd, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the other McLaren. However, the track was reported to be incredibly greasy, as the track hasn’t been raced on in years.

Because of this, the times were much slower than anticipated, as Button’s fastest lap was a 1.18.127. Lewis Hamilton was with Button for most of the session, before Schumacher displaced him near the end of the session, by 0.067 seconds. Nico Rosberg was 4th, while Sebastian Vettel was a further 2 tenths behind in 5th place.

Robert Kubica beat Fernando Alonso for 6th and 7th, and Vitantonio Liuzzi helped himself by beating his team-mate Adrian Sutil by getting 8th. Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello were impressive with 9th and 10th respectively. Adrian Sutil was 11th.

Felipe Massa was dissapointingly slow, as he tends to be in Friday Practice sessions, in 12th, and was 1.3 seconds slower than Button. Vitaly Petrov was 13th, and Mark Webber was 14th, nearly 1.5 seconds off the pace. However, it has been reported that he was on a different setup compared to Sebastian Vettel.

Kamui Kobayashi was 2 seconds back with 15th, ahead of Sebastien Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa. Jaime Alguersuari was 18th, and Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest of the new teams with 19th. Karun Chandhok was very impressive, as he was only 3.8 seconds off the pace, and was 20th, 6 tenths ahead of the Lotus of Jarno Trulli.

Bruno Senna was 22nd, ahead of Timo Glock’s Virgin. Lucas di Grassi was unable to set a time, as he pulled over after only 4 laps out. With Timo Glock 4.5 seconds off the pace it was a very poor session for Virgin.

The slippery track made is very difficult for the drivers, with many going off track. Karun Chandhok claimed it was “the greasiest track I’ve ever raced on”. Also, Rubens Barrichello had a technical problem during this session, and had to be pushed back to the garage.

Unfortunately, WordPress isn’t working properly tonight, as my usual chart for driver times isn’t going on the page properly. It will be up as soon as possible.