Canadian GP Practice Two: Kimi Raikkonen outpaces title chasers
Raikkonen two tenths faster than Hamilton and Vettel in Practice Two; Red Bull show pace promise but suffer unreliability; Returning Alonso surprise seventh for McLaren despite losing track time
Saturday 10 June 2017 17:48, UK
Kimi Raikkonen outpaced championship contenders Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari edged out Mercedes in Practice Two ahead of what looks set to prove a hotly-contested Canadian GP.
A fortnight after controversially losing out in Monaco on his first victory in four years to team-mate Vettel, Raikkonen ended Friday's Montreal running at the head of the timesheet as the only driver to break the 1:13 lap barrier.
Raikkonen's 1:12.935 time on the ultrasoft tyres was two tenths quicker than the championship's runaway top two, with Hamilton fractionally faster than title leader Vettel in second place.
Valtteri Bottas was a further tenth adrift in the second Mercedes in fourth, with Max Verstappen close behind in fifth for Red Bull.
However, both Red Bull drivers ran into reliability problems with Verstappen stopped on track by a gearbox problem late in the session after team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had earlier run into Renault engine trouble.
Ferrari v Mercedes takes centre stage again
Ferrari arrived in North America with their biggest leads in the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship so far this season on the back of a dominant one-two on the streets of Monte Carlo a fortnight ago.
As in Monaco, Mercedes' Hamilton set the pace in Montreal's morning's P1 session, but Ferrari came on strong in the faster afternoon session with Raikkonen prevailing on the qualifying-style simulations.
Hamilton struggled from P2 onwards at the last race with tyre issues and, although he split the Ferraris on the P2 timesheet this time, Mercedes were again taking longer to prepare their ultrasoft tyres for a quick lap.
"That's significant that Mercedes need to do that," said Sky F1's David Croft. "Ferrari came out on the ultrasofts and went straight to the top."
Red Bull have predicted a difficult run of races on a succession of power-hungry tracks, but were encouraged by their gap to the front.
"The positive is that Max's pace looked pretty good on the ultrasofts, he looks like he is on the tail-end of the battle," said team-mate Ricciardo, who was only 15th after losing time in the garage due to his RB13's engine fault.
Drivers left in a spin
Although significantly wider than the cramped Monaco street circuit, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is similarly barrier-lined and historically one of F1's most challenging tracks for drivers - with the 'Wall of Champions' at the final chicane its most infamous hot-spot.
However, amid cool temperatures on Friday, it was the asphalt itself which drivers struggled to get to grips with as the two sessions produced an unusually high number of spins.
Bottas spun across the grass at the first section of corners, while Haas's Romain Grosjean completed an unwanted hat-trick with three off-course moments during the 90 minutes of running.
The Frenchman has become known for agitated radio messages over recent years and, in the latest outburst, turned his ire on his misbehaving car - and even team-mate Kevin Magnussen - when he spun for the third time.
"Is that the torque again?," said an angry Grosjean. "I don't give a damn. The torque doesn't sound correct when I release the throttle, I don't know why."
When told that Magnussen was on a back-up lap ahead on him, Grosjean bluntly responded: "Oh, **** him."
Despite his troubles, Grosjean finished as the lead Haas driver in 11th place, just behind the two Force Indias and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat.
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso's return to F1 after his IndyCar adventure had started in familiar unreliability-plagued fashion after a morning hydraulic fault on his McLaren.
However, despite missing the first half of the afternoon's running, Alonso caused a surprise in the final seconds of the session by jumping into a unexpected seventh place ahead of Esteban Ocon, Kvyat and Sergio Perez.
Can Mercedes hit back in the 2017 title fight with Ferrari? Don't miss the Canadian GP live only on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. The race starts at 7pm on Sunday. Watch the race for £6.99 on NOW TV
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