Canada Grand Prix – Second Practice Results: P11

| Source: autosport.com | full report @ lotusf1team.com | notes @ f1elvis.com |

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes to the fastest time in Friday practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.

A totally dry afternoon session allowed teams to get on with the work stymied by morning rain, including testing the development Pirelli tyres, modified to try to eliminate recent delamination issues.

Lotus’ Technical programme notes:

• Both drivers ran with new, Montréal downforce level front and rear wing specifications today

• Pirelli’s wet (blue), intermediate (green) and medium compound dry (white) tyres were used in the morning session, the medium, developmental medium and super soft (red) in the afternoon

• Kimi had a brake issue in the afternoon which ended his session early

What we learned today:

• The Montréal-spec front and rear wings and related aero package work well

• The E21 looks good in damp conditions but did not display its customary high-fuel pace

Pos  Driver               Team                  Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m14.818s            48
 2.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m14.830s  + 0.012s  45
 3.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m15.083s  + 0.265s  40
 4.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault      1m15.212s  + 0.394s  46
 5.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m15.249s  + 0.431s  46
 6.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m15.254s  + 0.436s  43
 7.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m15.280s  + 0.462s  41
 8.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m15.396s  + 0.578s  43
 9.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m15.422s  + 0.604s  29
10.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m15.566s  + 0.748s  38
11.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m15.599s  + 0.781s  35
12.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m15.661s  + 0.843s  39
13.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m15.855s  + 1.037s  22
14.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m16.319s  + 1.501s  46
15.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m16.351s  + 1.533s  38
16.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m16.374s  + 1.556s  40
17.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m16.475s  + 1.657s  45
18.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m16.929s  + 2.111s  35
19.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m17.070s  + 2.252s  41
20.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m17.236s  + 2.418s  35
21.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m17.888s  + 3.070s  45
22.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m18.392s  + 3.574s  39

On Twitter:

@F1PitRadio Kimi, “My brake pedal is getting very softer”

@f1zone Raikkonen struggling on options. Has locked up and run wide twice

Other news:

Raikkonen struggling with tyre form

Lotus Team Friday Quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen: “We improved the car through the day and by the end of the session it was ok; not ideal but certainly not a disaster either. It wasn’t easy to get the tyres up to temperature today, but it’s pretty cold at the circuit so that’s not too much of a surprise. If we can get the tyres working better it will be an improvement for sure, but it’s not going to change the world. We’ll be looking at how to get them a bit warmer for qualifying tomorrow and then see what the weather does. After that, we’ll do the best we can.”

Romain Grosjean: “It was more or less a normal Friday for us. This morning was obviously a wet session so we worked on setup for those conditions, then in the afternoon we tested the prototype tyres and completed some long runs. It’s quite hard to get the tyres switched on in these conditions as the surface here is very smooth, so with low temperatures it’s a bit more tricky to build up the energy in the rubber; more so with the mediums but even with the super softs. It’s meant to be quite warm on Sunday which is always a good thing for us, so we’ll try to get the maximum from the car in qualifying tomorrow and go from there.”

Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director: “We’re fairly happy with our single lap pace, but we weren’t as comfortable as we usually are on high fuel levels. Both drivers also complained about a lack of tyre temperature, but with warmer temperatures forecast for Sunday this shouldn’t be too much to worry about. We didn’t learn too much in the morning in the damp conditions, other than getting some worthwhile laps on the intermediate tyres to ensure we’re happy in case of a wet qualifying session. In the afternoon we ran all three types of dry tyre – including the developmental spec – so we’ve got a good amount of data to collate overnight. Kimi’s session ended early as we made a precautionary stop related to the rear brakes, but it’s nothing of concern for the rest of the weekend.”