Canadian GP - Hoping for a sunny Sunday
Montreal, 8 June
It was a case of damage limitation for Fernando Alonso in today’s qualifying session for tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix and just damage for the unfortunate Felipe Massa, who for the second race weekend in succession had a crash that was bad enough to see him play no more part in the afternoon proceedings after Q2. The Spaniard will start from the third row in sixth place, while the Brazilian is sixteenth on row 8.
Qualifying is always one of the most manic and tense parts of a Grand Prix weekend, with tyre changes often made during the session in true race configuration in the pit lane, rather than the more relaxed method of pulling the cars into the garage. On top of that, fuel loads have to be precisely calculated, so that you have just enough to do the number of laps your plan demands, without having too much, so that the weight penalty slows you down. When it’s wet, the tension and complication all goes up a notch or two and the fact that the level of rain kept changing made life even tougher for everyone today.
In fact, the track seemed dry enough for slicks as the cars left the pits for the start of Q1, but it only took less than a lap for all the drivers to report that they had no grip as the rain intensified. Everyone dashed back into the pits to fit intermediates, the only tyre that would be used for the rest of the afternoon. In the Scuderia Ferrari garage it was clear that getting the rain tyres up to the right operating temperature was proving tricky and certainly didn’t help Fernando’s chances, although as usual the Spaniard gave it his all. Felipe was also fighting his car’s lack of grip and he got caught out when he clipped a white painted line at the side of the track, just as he was braking. Painted lines, rain and braking make a famously strong cocktail in motor racing and there is usually one outcome, a spinning car. So the unfortunate Brazilian had a third successive accident following the two in Monaco and will have an uphill fight as he tries to head for the points zone from the back end of the grid. But with dry weather forecast, slower cars ahead of him and a track where overtaking was even possible in the days before DRS, he has every chance of salvaging something from his Canadian weekend.
Fernando also expects to go on the attack when the lights go out at 14h00 on Sunday and he too has cars ahead of him that probably can’t match the pace of the F138. That probably doesn’t apply to the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, who broke the recent Mercedes stranglehold on pole, even if Lewis Hamilton starts alongside him for the Anglo-German team. On a day that was full of surprises, the biggest one is surely the fact that in third spot on the grid is Valtteri Bottas in the Williams. Alongside him is Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes, while Fernando has Mark Webber on his inside in fifth place for Red Bull.
It was a case of damage limitation for Fernando Alonso in today’s qualifying session for tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix and just damage for the unfortunate Felipe Massa, who for the second race weekend in succession had a crash that was bad enough to see him play no more part in the afternoon proceedings after Q2. The Spaniard will start from the third row in sixth place, while the Brazilian is sixteenth on row 8.
Qualifying is always one of the most manic and tense parts of a Grand Prix weekend, with tyre changes often made during the session in true race configuration in the pit lane, rather than the more relaxed method of pulling the cars into the garage. On top of that, fuel loads have to be precisely calculated, so that you have just enough to do the number of laps your plan demands, without having too much, so that the weight penalty slows you down. When it’s wet, the tension and complication all goes up a notch or two and the fact that the level of rain kept changing made life even tougher for everyone today.
In fact, the track seemed dry enough for slicks as the cars left the pits for the start of Q1, but it only took less than a lap for all the drivers to report that they had no grip as the rain intensified. Everyone dashed back into the pits to fit intermediates, the only tyre that would be used for the rest of the afternoon. In the Scuderia Ferrari garage it was clear that getting the rain tyres up to the right operating temperature was proving tricky and certainly didn’t help Fernando’s chances, although as usual the Spaniard gave it his all. Felipe was also fighting his car’s lack of grip and he got caught out when he clipped a white painted line at the side of the track, just as he was braking. Painted lines, rain and braking make a famously strong cocktail in motor racing and there is usually one outcome, a spinning car. So the unfortunate Brazilian had a third successive accident following the two in Monaco and will have an uphill fight as he tries to head for the points zone from the back end of the grid. But with dry weather forecast, slower cars ahead of him and a track where overtaking was even possible in the days before DRS, he has every chance of salvaging something from his Canadian weekend.
Fernando also expects to go on the attack when the lights go out at 14h00 on Sunday and he too has cars ahead of him that probably can’t match the pace of the F138. That probably doesn’t apply to the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, who broke the recent Mercedes stranglehold on pole, even if Lewis Hamilton starts alongside him for the Anglo-German team. On a day that was full of surprises, the biggest one is surely the fact that in third spot on the grid is Valtteri Bottas in the Williams. Alongside him is Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes, while Fernando has Mark Webber on his inside in fifth place for Red Bull.
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