After a best time in the first Formula 1 practice session of the Canadian GP, Max Verstappen comes into FP2 with another fastest lap time and prevails against Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in Montreal on Friday. While Sebastian Vettel is in trouble, Perez and Hamilton stay out of the top 10. Valtteri Bottas could not set a single lap time.
Result: Max Verstappen defeated Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in a time of 1:14.127 minutes. Leclerc was 0.081 seconds behind the Red Bull driver’s time. Carlos Sainz is a little more than two tenths behind for third place. Sebastian Vettel continued a strong Aston Martin performance from FP1 and finished in P4, followed by Fernando Alonso’s Alpine.
The pair of Pierre Gasly and George Russell were sixth and seventh ahead of McLaren’s pair of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo. Esteban Ocon made the top 10. Sergio Perez was only 11th, Lewis Hamilton 13th. Mick Schumacher placed FP2 in 15th place.
Events: FP2 mostly went off without incident. The session called for a short virtual safety car duration of 22 minutes after an aluminum fell on the track. Otherwise the training went on without interruption. Only a few slowdowns were recorded.
There was too much action in the pothole alley. Shortly after practice began, Vettel was released from the garage just before Kevin Magnussen, making it difficult for the Dane to brake. The operators took cognizance of the incident. Vettel has also been threatened with an investigation elsewhere. At Target Chicken, he didn’t go around Boulder as planned and so had to report to the steward. Gasly and Strow are charged with the same crime.
Valtteri Bottas was also unable to take part in the training. The Finn’s Alfa Romeo was plagued by a technical problem from the very first lap. Bottas reported that he had an anti-stall when he applied the brakes and came back into the pits. With two more tries, the ex-Mercedes driver reported the same problem on his outlap and returned to the pits. After Barcelona, Mamie, Imola and Bahrain, this was the fifth time he missed an entire training session.
Technique: After Mercedes used two different underbody expansion stages on two of their cars during the first practice session, it was again integrated into FP2. Hamilton’s W13, which had tested a new phase of development in FP1, was retrofitted to the old underbody.
Bouncing was still a problem in FP2. Ferrari and Mercedes cars showed the strongest hopping movement. While the Ferrari F1-75 bounced the most at the end of the long straight before Turn 13, Russell mainly complained of being bounced at Turn 9.
weather: Contrary to the weather forecast, the second training session also took place in dry conditions. The rain was originally forecast for FP2. The temperature was 26 °C in the air and 42 °C on the track surface. As dark clouds covered the track at the end of training, the track temperature dropped to 35 degrees.
