Hamilton fastest in rained out free practice, Max P16

Published on 06 June 2015 by Mike Motilall

After a decent first free practice previously on Friday, Max drove to P16 with a 1:17.675 in the second free practice session on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Lewis Hamilton, in his Mercedes, was the fastest with a 1:15.955, followed by Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, in their Ferrari’s, in second and third.

“We had a very hard day today, but we expected that. The first free practice was not all too bad and to finish tenth is a good result”, Max informs Verstappen.nl. “We changed the car quite a bit for the second free practice, but that didn’t work out well. We still have a lot of work to do, and luckily we know which way we need to go. We are facing a tough weekend, but I am up for the challenge.”

When the light turn green, we quickly see all the drivers on track. They are in a hurry as rain is expected. After about ten minutes, the drivers change to the super softs to also gather enough data from those tyres as well.

When it eventually starts raining, after about half an hour, it’s Hamilton who is leading the pack. Both Scuderia Toro Rosso, after a long run on the super softs, are to be found at the bottom half of the leader board with Carlos Sainz thirteenth and Max sixteenth. Both youngsters do 23 laps, more than anyone else.

Because the weather stations don’t expect further rain for the rest of the weekend, nobody expects the drivers to head out on track in these conditions. The risk of causing damage is far too high and can influence how the weekend will progress. Mercedes was an exception. Hamilton and Rosberg choose to venture out on the intermediates; the crowd showed their appreciation by cheering them on. Hamilton quickly realizes that this was a wrong choice, skids off in the hairpin and hits the tyre wall due to aqua planing. The session is stopped as a result of this by means of a code red.

The rain persists while time seeps away. No drivers are to be seen on track for the remainder of the session, which ultimately concluded the action on Friday in Canada.

Canadian Grand Prix – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – Friday 5 June

 P No  Driver            Team          Time     Gap   Laps
 1 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:15.988         22
 2  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:16.304 +0.316s 19
 3  7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:16.310 +0.322s 20
 4  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:16.440 +0.452s 22
 5 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:16.600 +0.612s 15
 6 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:16.849 +0.861s 18
 7  8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:16.864 +0.876s 15
 8 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:17.041 +1.053s 19
 9 26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:17.092 +1.104s 10
10  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:17.111 +1.123s 16
11 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:17.120 +1.132s 15
12  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:17.261 +1.273s 17
13 55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:17.318 +1.330s 23
14 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:17.367 +1.379s 20
15 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:17.627 +1.639s 21
16 33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:17.657 +1.669s 23
17 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:17.751 +1.763s 21
18 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:18.135 +2.147s 20
19 98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:19.531 +3.543s 15
20 28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:19.734 +3.746s 13 

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