Drivers report from the first day of the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, on the Ile Notre-Dame in Montreal.
Marcus Ericsson: “It was not the perfect day. We had some technical issues in FP1, which meant I was not able to run many laps. In that sense, FP2 was much better, as I completed 51 laps. I am not fully satisfied with the way the car behaves at the moment. We need to look into the data and understand in which areas we can improve. As of tomorrow, I will get a new power unit, so that should also help to make up some lap time.”
Felipe Nasr: “In the morning we missed a lot of track time due to the issues we had. But then in the afternoon we were able to recover and put in some good mileage. That helped us to get a better understanding of the car. It was good to get an idea about the superersoft and ultasoft tyres on short as well as long-runs. From my perspective, the ultrasoft tyre does not last that long. A key fact for the race will, for sure, be good tyre management.”
Daniil Kvyat: “It was a decent and useful first day here in Montreal. We were able to complete plenty of laps and this will certainly help us to continue preparing for Sunday’s race. We still need to sort out a few things regarding the set-up of the car, but that’s what Friday evenings are for. We can be happy with our start and I’m looking forward to tomorrow: the gaps with our main competitors are really small, but I’m confident we can fight for a good result!”
Carlos Sainz: “I’d describe today as a good Friday. Even if our FP1 was cut short this morning because of a red flag, during this afternoon’s FP2 we managed to cover the whole programme. It was a day with no issues or major problems, which is always welcome. This means we had a good baseline to start the weekend with and now we just need to continue like this and hold on to this positive feeling. It’s looking like a very tight midfield again here, so I’m sure we will witness a good fight to get into Q3, but we just need to focus on ourselves and extract the maximum from the car: the top ten is our target!”
Valtteri Bottas: “It’s always really good fun to drive on this track – so I really enjoyed today. We managed to get the car balanced pretty quickly and to get good drivability, so I’m quite happy with the car already, but I’m sure we can make it better. Overall it’s been a positive Friday and I think tomorrow is going to be very close so anything we can find overnight is going to be very useful.”
Felipe Massa: “It wasn’t really a positive day after what happened in the first session. We lost a lot of time and a lot of pieces of the car. It’s never nice to crash, especially not straight away in the first session. On a positive note, the car was very good this afternoon. There’s still room for improvement to make the car perfect for tomorrow after what happened in the first session. But, we’ll make the most of FP3 and make sure we have everything right for qualifying. For sure, the car seems to be much more competitive straight away compared to Monaco. I hope that carries into tomorrow and Sunday.”
Pascal Wehrlein: “Overall today was positive. This morning we tried some things on the car which didn’t have the desired improvement, so we went back for FP2 and I felt much more comfortable again. Now we have to sit together and analyse in order to improve for qualifying, but we are not too far away. I think we can do a good job tomorrow.”
Rio Haryanto: “Today was a good day for us and it seemed we are more competitive than at previous events. We tried a number of things on the car and learned a lot from these in FP1. This is my first time here, so I am getting more familiar with the track and enjoying it. From the afternoon session, I think we can work more on the balance, the pace seemed quite good, we did some short and long runs, so we managed to learn a lot from today.”
Lewis Hamilton: “It’s been an awesome day. This has always been a strong circuit for me and I’m really enjoying being back here again. I’ve generally been really happy with the car so far. The focus today has been on working hard to make sure we have a good understanding of the tyres. I’m enjoying myself and hoping the weather stays like this over the weekend for all the fans out there in the grandstands.”
Nico Rosberg: “Generally I feel good in the car. But getting the tyres working is not so straightforward here, so that needs some further analysis tonight. I lost most of my time in the first sector – possibly because of tyre temperatures. So, that part of the lap is the main area to work on and find some improvement for qualifying. The long runs have looked good so far, though. It’s been great to see so many spectators out there already today and I’m sure there will be an awesome atmosphere over the weekend.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “It was not an easy day, one of those days when you keep making changes and nothing seems to work exactly as you hoped. We struggled to make the car handling better but we did not manage to do it. It’s difficult to talk about the updates in the car, we are in a different place and in different conditions, but as I said before we wouldn’t use new parts if they didn’t improve the car. Today we tried many different things, now we have to go through them, analyse all data and pick the right things for tomorrow.”
Sebastian Vettel: “The car felt ok today, but it was quite nervous, which is normal around this track with all the curbs and the bumps. But overall it was a good day, all the things we brought seem to work, even if I am not yet entirely happy. But then show me one driver that is entirely happy with the car on Friday…you always have the feeling you can improve.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “We did a large number of laps today, especially this afternoon, and that’s what you want from a Friday. The car felt good from the start, which is always an encouraging sign, and we kept on top of the track evolution, which changed a lot as the day went on. The two sessions have been fairly straightforward: a lot of tweaks and small changes to try to find the ideal balance and a bit more speed for qualifying. In general it has been a good day that gave us a lot of information.”
Sergio Perez: “The changing weather between the morning and the afternoon meant we had two very different sessions. The track was very green at first, but we still managed to learn a lot about the car and the tyres. The red flag cost us a bit of time, especially as we had just gone out for our first run when that happened. The potential for a good result in qualifying is there, but of course we need to do some work tonight to make sure we’re in the right position tomorrow. Finding the right balance under braking and good traction is crucial here so those are the areas where we are focussing our attention.”
Kevin Magnussen: “We made good progress today and the car is certainly faster on the ultrasoft compared with the soft tyre as you’d expect. I was pushing quite hard so there was a bit of flat-spotting going on out there. The gearbox issue in the morning was no big drama and we did have to check the car again in the afternoon. I think we should find a little more pace for qualifying.”
Jolyon Palmer: “That was a lot of laps in FP2 and we’ve completed a lot of assessments over the two sessions today meaning we should have all the pieces to put together to go as fast as possible for qualifying. We didn’t show all the pace that’s in the car over my side of the garage today; that’s tomorrow’s job.”
Daniel Ricciardo: “Obviously nice to be driving again for sure, and it’s a nice circuit – I enjoy it here. I think the day was ok; we can still find some more speed so we’ll work hard tonight to hopefully find some good solutions which can put us towards the top four tomorrow and close to Ferrari. Mercedes looked strong today, their long run pace was probably more impressive than their short run pace so that’s where I think we need to improve. Our long runs can be better for both me and Max, so that’s what we’ll look at tonight. On Sunday the weather looks like it could change, so we will wait and see as it will affect things. I expect the gap to Lewis to be less than a second tomorrow, how much less I’m not sure but I think we can close the gap quite a lot from today.”
Max Verstappen: “Not a bad first day at the track, good day, good weather. I’m more or less happy with the balance we have, now it’s down to fine tuning little bits and getting some lap time out of that. It’s always very challenging here, you ride the curbs and get a bit of a go kart feel so I always enjoy it. The first feeling with the new engine was very positive, you’re always happy when you get more power. We understood the car setup and the engine felt good which is important. We did some good lap times and a long run which was promising. Ferrari look to have a bit better pace here so we still need to do some work and improve but overall it’s been a positive day. Looking at tomorrow, in qualifying you always want the softest tyres so we’ll put them on but on Sunday there is a chance of rain so we will have to wait and see what to do.”
Fernando Alonso:“It’s been a good Friday. We were able to try a few interesting things, including all three tyre compounds, which will for sure be the most interesting element this weekend.
Tomorrow, I think that perhaps qualifying 11th will be the best starting position for the race, as you’ll be the fastest runner free to choose your starting compound. I reckon starting the race on the Ultrasoft might not be ideal.
Everything worked well today, including the new turbo from Honda. However, we didn’t have too much grip, and need to look at improving our traction out of corners.
Now we have collected all the data from both cars, we need to find the direction for tomorrow.”
Jenson Button: “We had several different issues in FP1 – it was a very unlucky morning. We changed the power unit between FP1 and FP2 – we were a little late out this afternoon, but the guys did a pretty amazing job to build the car up. After that, we had no issues with how the engine was running – but we’ll look at the data tonight to understand if we should continue with the engine we took out this morning, or stay with the one we fitted for this afternoon.
In FP2, I was able to do a reasonable amount of running. The car feels good and is enjoyable to drive, but there are some set-up issues to resolve, which we’ll do tonight.
It’s been a positive day, but there’s still improvement needed – if I was another half-tenth quicker, I’d be fourth overall, and if I was two tenths slower, I’d be 11th – so we really need to maximise everything we have for the rest of the weekend.”
Romain Grosjean: “It was a good day. We had plenty of mileage and the car felt OK. Generally, I’m very happy with the balance of the car. We had a long run to end the day and it did everything we wanted it to do, so that’s good. Hopefully, we can find a bit of performance in the tires for tomorrow.”
Esteban Gutierrez: “We completed today’s program, which was the most important thing for us as it gave us some good data. Now the guys are working hard to fine tune everything for tomorrow. With low fuel the car wasn’t really that great on the ultrasoft. However, the car felt better with a high fuel load. We’ll work a bit more on our qualifying pace and try to make a clean day tomorrow. The weather will be a bit variable, so we’ll have to adapt and react quickly, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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