Rosberg quickest as Vettel hits the champions’ wall

2011 Canadian GP first practice

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Nico Rosberg set the pace in the first practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix.

But he had to abandon his final run in the session when he began to experience burning in the car.

Other drivers found the circuit a considerable challenge as the little-used track proved very dusty. The slippery surface caught out several drivers – including the world champion.

Sebastian Vettel lost the rear of his car at the final chicane and slithered helplessly into the wall, smashing the front-right corner of the car. The Wall of Champions claimed another victim.

Many other drivers went off the track during the session including Nick Heidfeld, who pirouetted on his way out of the Senna hairpin.

Paul di Resta locked his brakes at the L’Epingle hairpin and took to the run-off there.

The Ferraris led the way early on, with Fernando Alonso heading the times for much of the second half of the session.

Lewis Hamilton had been quickest up to that point but suffered a technical problem relating to the steering wheel which confined him to the garage halfway through the session.

He was able to join the track later in the session. Team mate Jenson Button also hit trouble with a faulty Drag Reduction System.

Michael Schumacher ended the session third fastest ahead of Felipe Massa and the two McLarens.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
18Nico RosbergMercedes1’15.59132
25Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’16.1390.54827
37Michael SchumacherMercedes1’16.5490.95830
46Felipe MassaFerrari1’16.6581.06726
54Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’16.6761.08520
63Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’16.8421.25119
711Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’16.9901.39928
815Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’17.2941.70326
99Nick HeidfeldRenault1’17.4451.85428
1014Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’17.5491.95820
1117Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’17.6622.07127
122Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’17.8202.22930
1319Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’18.4582.86731
1410Vitaly PetrovRenault1’18.5062.91515
1518Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’18.6483.05735
161Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’18.8523.2618
1712Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’18.9323.34120
1821Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’19.2743.68329
1920Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’19.4223.83130
2016Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’19.5773.98626
2125Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’19.8384.24731
2223Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’19.9604.36923
2324Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’20.5204.92921
2422Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’20.8395.24827

2011 Canadian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    58 comments on “Rosberg quickest as Vettel hits the champions’ wall”

    1. Perhaps Jenson was right in predicting Mercedes to be quick here.

      But the crash won’t have affected Vettel. I remember Turkey all too well.

      1. I think their habit of eating tyres will cost them though. Remember how bad they were in Monaco?

        1. Yeah, I think it would be a bit like Alonso in Spain. Fast for part of the race, but horrebly slow in others.

          1. Don’t think so. In Barcelona they were forced to use the super-hard compound that didn’t work at all for Ferrari, here they use soft tyres which suit their car.

        2. That leaves Ferrari as a serious contender.

          It would though… Rain is coming and Ferrari certainly wouldn’t want it when they finally seem to be competitive.

          If it is raining during Q and the race, all of this is going to be a mess and kind of a Russian roulette. Ferrari won’t make its slight advantage count – if they really have it.

          Sad.

          1. I can’t see why Ferrari wouldn’t want some rain. It worked fine for them in Korea. I actually think a wet race is their only chance of winning (for now at least).

      2. yes but did anyone else see the marshall fall over straight after the crash? What the hell was that all about?

        1. he failed at jumping the barrier

        2. You fall when your distracted or stressed. He was very intent on running to Vettel’s aid. His brain stopped thinking about what his feet were doing for a moment and bam! He seemed to be OK though as far as I could tell.

          Actually I was a bit worried for him because he lay on the ground for a bit. I was imagining another car coming along and flattening him.

      3. It’ll hurt Seb to an extent just like Turkey as he was immediately on the backfoot. He recoeverd well in Turkey but that might not be the case here when this should be one of their weakest tracks.

        1. Its a damage recovery weekend for RB. Their car is not drag efficient and their engine is not the best. So they are already going into this weekend taking a conservative approach in order to minimize the point damage they should receive.

        2. It may not be the end of the world. They were all running on a tyre they won’t be using (accept for Vettel), and there could be rain which means they may totally change the setup anyway. Also the track was in a state it won’t be in for the rest of the weekend. I think the penalty will come if they miss all the 2nd session as well.

    2. quick constant time from both Ferrari drivers and they havent used the option tire yet. RBR seem to be struggling on the straights and Mclaren left me blank…

      1. I’m not sure about alonso but massa did use the option

        1. I think both used the option tyre. Mclaren didn’t use their option tyre, and looked really strong on the hard compound.

          1. Pirelli are using soft and super soft here at Canada (as per Monaco). Soft are Yellow and Super soft are Red. No one used the Super soft tyres during FP1 (Red). All teams started using a Medium compound supplied by Pirelli for testing for upcoming Valenica race. These means they could all go yet even quicker when using super soft tyres !!

          2. Button used the soft (yellow). David Croft just didn’t see that when he was commentating on it.

            I wish they would have a solid band of colour on the tyres at all times and then on the timing sheet add the tyre colour as part of the graphics.

      2. Pretty sure they said on the radio that when the two Ferraris were fastest they had been out on the options. More tyre info sure would be nice but I’m guessing it’s not available?

    3. 1’15.591 x 107% = 1’20.882

      Narain Karthikeyan’s 1’20.839 indicates it might get tough for him. Liuzzi’s HRT looks “well on pace” though.

      1. Beat me to the 107, but yes they are cutting it a bit close but there just going to get faster, we shall see

    4. Hope Massa do well here. We need old Massa to comeback. Schumacher as well.

      1. It would be nice to see Ferrari and Mercedes battling: Nico in search of his first win, Michael in search of his 92nd win and his first since his comeback, Felipe in search of his 12th win and hhis first since Brazil 2008, Fernando in search of his 27th win, and his first of 2011.

        1. Yeah, that would be nice. But in reality it will be Vettel cruising to his 16th win.

    5. Conspiracy! Vetted crashed there on purpose…
      Haha

      1. I heard from another site that the F1 ratings are down so they’ve ‘encouraged’ Red Bull to make it more interesting.

        1. Rubbish!

          If anything, by most peoples standards, they’re making it less interesting!

    6. Anyone got the speeds through the speed traps?

      I missed all of FP1 got home for the last ten minutes but the red button wasn’t working :-(

      1. Here’s the top 5 teams speeds, Renault again impressive top speed have.

        1. Vitaly PetroV 329.1
        11. Sebastian Vettel 320.1
        13. Felipe Massa 319.7
        19. Michael Schumacher 317.6
        23. Lewis Hamilton 315.5

        1. Expect more to come from the Mclarens when DRS is online.

    7. Did anyone see the marshal fall over on the BBC onboard feed. Take a look at the BBC highlights.

      Funniest thing ive seen all day!

      1. his friends are going to be making fun of him for that for a long time im sure

        1. any link???

          1. will probably have to wait until BBC I.Player show it…..But i’m sure it will be on Twitter soon.

            1. its at 19 seconds by the way…

            2. Speedtv com has posted it…

    8. It was a hard fall for the poor marshall. I hope it doesn’t leave him with arthiritis in his knee joints.

      1. A fall doesn’t give you arthritis out of nowhere! :o Its mostly genetic..

    9. Vettel lost his cool and Nico Rosberg was hot on it today!

      1. All the people spinning were on the softs I think. Could be a crazy race if they go off and there is just no grip.

        1. It’ll improve a lot over the weekend as the rubber starts to get laid (no pun intended!). The tyre situation will only get clearer by FP3. But yes, you could never rule out the bizarre at Montreal..

    10. Well, heres hoping for the Mercedes guys. And also for Mac. Not too sure about Renault, the car hasn’t been up there with my expectations, although I want Kubica to unlock its potential if he races this season.

      cheers :)

    11. Judging by the semi indicative FP1 results, Mclaren look strong and Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes seem to be running similar pace. But then again.. its only FP1

      1. there’s a .6 sec difference betn pole n 2nd place. That’s a huge gap. I just hope there isnt a rbr on pole at the end of FP3.

    12. How long were the tyres lasting today?

    13. Keith,
      I’m wondering if it possible for your site to keep the adverts, but get rid of them automatically starting with the sound blaring. It’s making it difficult to enjoy your otherwise exemplory site.
      I mean no offense to you personally.
      I also was wondering if it possuible to post web fed links at the top of your “live” page so to make it much easier to open the web casts.
      Thanks,
      Barry

      1. Please send details of the ads via the contact form and I’ll look into it.

    14. Just watched the highlights from last year on the BBC, I’d forgot what a great race it was. Hope we get some more of that this weekend.

      1. Montreal last year was arguably the best race of the season. Imo, its only been equalled by this year’s Chinese GP thus far. Lets see, just a day to go :)

        1. This year’s Monaco could well have been judged into the list of all-time classics if not for the darned restart. FIA anyone?

      1. Just so I know, why was my post moved? I like to post in the most appropriate place.

    15. BBC: “Nico Rosberg may have been fastest in first practice but he says he is worried about his Mercedes “destroying” the tyres during the race. ”

      It looks like its gonna be another bad weekend for Mercedes…

    16. PLEEEASE Mercedes don’t have another disappointing weekend. They tend to do well in practise but lose it towards quali and in the race.

      I can’t imagine Vettel is at all perturbed by smashing into the wall…rite of passage!

    17. He clearly did it on purpose. He loves his stats, does Seb, and I’m sure he didn’t consider himself a true champion until he ploughed into that wall!

    18. Am i the only one who think that getting on the podium for the Red Bull this weekend will be tough.They are not traditionally good as far as pace is concerned on low downforce circuit.

    19. Definitely a fix, BIG ONE — HULLLLLLLOOOOOOO !?!?

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