Canada – Free Practice 2: Hamilton Dominates Rosberg, Vettel and Ferraris Lurking

Rain fell during the break between FP1 and FP2, without soaking the track, and still threatens the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The green light is given to the 22 drivers, but no one rushes out of the pits like Lewis Hamilton, who settles in calmly. It’s Kevin Magnussen who breaks the silence, with a practice start in front of Max Chilton. After a few minutes, Kamui Kobayashi makes a mistake in the second corner and spins, without any damage. In the Red Bull garage, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel put on their helmets calmly, as lap times come in gradually.

Pastor Maldonado, who was in the middle of a start simulation, cannot get going. Located just outside the pit lane, he must first be pushed by the marshals before the Lotus team mechanics take over to bring the E22 back to the garage. On the Sauber side, Esteban Gutierrez had a scare in the first chicane (turn 4) by cutting through the grass before sliding across the track. Fortunately, without touching the wall or another driver. He is able to continue.

After half an hour, Hamilton clocked 1:16.692, leading Rosberg, Alonso, Räikkönen, and Bottas. Sutil was heavily impeded by Magnussen in the final chicane and was forced to cut through at quite a high speed. This incident is under investigation. Stuck in the garage after only three laps, Jules Bianchi explained to Canal+ that his Marussia is experiencing an engine problem that could make him miss the entire session.

Marcus Ericsson stops his Caterham in the escape area before turn 4. End of session for the Swede. Rosberg switches to super-soft tires to improve: he takes the lead with a time of 1:16.687, quite low compared to his teammate, Hamilton, who clocks in at 1:16.118 with the same tires. Unusual images: in the middle of the straight, Kobayashi loses an aerodynamic element from his car – the famous monkey seat – while in turn 6, it’s Bottas’s Williams that loses a small piece of carbon.

As we approach the last half-hour, Kobayashi makes a mistake in the second turn and, at the same time, Räikkönen has a very heavy foot on the accelerator coming out of the hairpin, so much so that he completely loses the rear of his Ferrari F14-T and ends up backwards in a cloud of smoke. The Finn can continue.

After one hour, Hamilton is still leading ahead of Rosberg, who has closed the gap (+0.175). Following are Räikkönen (+0.530), Alonso (+0.583), and Massa (+0.656). The drivers are entering the long stint phase, which should not result in significant improvements. Except… for the Red Bulls, who were behind during the first hour: Vettel sets the third-fastest time, 455 milliseconds behind Hamilton.

As expected, the stints, even when done on super-soft tires, are very consistent in terms of time, with degradation being relatively contained. The soft tires (yellow) hardly degrade. On Daniil Kvyat’s side, the session seems to have ended prematurely: the young Russian, on the pit wall, only completed nine laps. At the very end of the session, his teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne, locks his wheels while braking at turn 3 and has to go straight before reversing to get back on track.

The session ends with the best time by Lewis Hamilton ahead of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel.