Montreal: Practice Sessions

Following on from their dominant win in Monaco a fortnight ago, McLaren continue their momentum into the Canadian Grand Prix leading the first practice session. Fernando Alonso topped the timing sheets with a lap 0.2s faster than his rookie team mate Lewis Hamilton. The pair of McLaren drivers outpaced Kimi Raikkonen in third, Hamilton lapping the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve 0.2s faster. Felipe Massa continued suit by placing his Ferrari in fourth.

The only drama so far was in the BMW garage, with Robert Kubica aborting his first run and returning to the pit lane. Mechanics were ready with fire extinguishers, although it is currently unknown what caused the small blaze. With Montreal’s circuit being a big brake tester, the chances are the Polish driver over-cooked them on the dusty track which led to them igniting.

Toyota have improved with Ralf Schumacher placing himself in eighth and Jarno Trulli in twelfth. Schumacher will be wanting to get a result this weekend, with lots of rumours flying around about his immediate future with the Japanese squad. Interestingly Adrian Sutil and Timo Glock have been mentioned today as potential replacements, but both are being cagey in their responses. It is almost certain though that they have been approached by Toyota. Sutil is tied up at Spyker, but Toyota have the money to buy him from the Dutch team, and Glock is doing well in GP2 at the moment. The saga continues…

Both Super Aguri’s performed well, completely out-pacing the Honda’s again with a tenth for Anthony Davidson and eleventh for Takuma Sato. Jenson Button led the Honda team to thirteenth, while Rubens Barrichello languished in eighteenth.

Practice Session One:

The second 90 minute practice session saw the McLaren’s continue to dominate the circuit, with Fernando Alonso once again going fastest and shedding 1.2s off his previous lap. Lewis Hamilton could only manage third, with Felipe Massa’s Ferrari edging up the tables to split the Woking squad. Kimi Raikkonen followed in fourth, 0.2s shy of Hamilton’s lap time.

Toyota slipped down the timing sheet, despite the circuit getting quicker with more rubber being laid. Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher could only get 16 laps each in, and ended Friday in eighteenth and nineteenth. Anthony Davidson also moved forwards in lap time, but backwards in comparative pace, going from tenth in the first practice to fifteenth in the second. Rubens Barrichello made the biggest gain of the afternoon though, launching himself seventh after 38 tours of the track.

Heikki Kovalainen had a dreadful day which ended in the Finn slamming his R27 into the wall and ending the day at the bottom of the timing sheet. Nick Heidfeld also brushed the wall but managed to escape damage. The German finished in fifth. Heidfeld’s team mate Robert Kubica missed most of the first session due to mechanical problems, and when he eventually got going in round two, spun and clipped a wall at turn 8.

Practice Session Two:

Formula One, F1, Canadian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso, McLaren