Di Resta heads times in damp first practice

2013 Canadian Grand Prix first practice

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Paul di Resta ended the first practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix on top for Force India.

The first session of the weekend began with a wet track but as the rain had stopped the drivers were able to begin their programmes quickly. After installation laps on full wet weather tyres they discovered the track was already in good enough shape for intermediate tyres to be viable.

The track continued to dry throughout the 90 minutes of running but the final minutes of the session were disrupted when Pastor Maldonado crashed at turn four, bringing out the yellow flags.

With the track improving rapidly Di Resta posted the best time of 1’21.020, less than a tenth of a second faster than second-placed Jenson Button.

Romain Grosjean was third ahead of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

Having been fastest for much of the session when the track was wet Nico Rosberg ended up seventh fastest behind Daniel Ricciardo. Sebastian Vettel, also led the times for a while and ended up ninth behind Sergio Perez. Mark Webber completed the top ten.

Lewis Hamilton was well down in 15th. Earlier in the session he took to the grass on the approach to the final chicane as he came across Webber and Massa going slowly on the way into the corner.

It wasn’t until the final few minutes that drivers were able to switch to slicks, including Pirelli’s new development tyres. Shortly after then Maldonado lost control of his car at turn three and hit the wall at turn-four head-on.

Despite the challenging conditions he was the only driver to hit the barrier. Jules Bianchi’s session came to an early end when he went off at turn three and stopped in the escape road.

Adrian Sutil also lost control of his Force India at the exit of the turn ten hairpin but kept it out of the barriers.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
114Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’21.02010
25Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’21.1080.08820
38Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’21.2580.23821
43Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’21.3080.28816
57Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’21.6080.58822
619Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’22.0681.04818
79Nico RosbergMercedes1’22.4021.38222
86Sergio PerezMcLaren1’22.5871.56717
91Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’23.0472.02726
102Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’23.1312.11116
114Felipe MassaFerrari1’23.3412.32113
1217Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’23.3522.33217
1318Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’23.3862.36619
1415Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’23.4172.39719
1512Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’23.9572.93733
1610Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’25.0544.03421
1711Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’25.3544.33422
1821Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’25.7534.73321
1923Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’25.8214.80119
2020Alexander RossiCaterham-Renault1’27.1436.12320
2116Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’27.5226.50211
2222Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’29.3068.2868

2013 Canadian Grand Prix

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Image © Force India

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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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31 comments on “Di Resta heads times in damp first practice”

  1. Maldonadoh has proved FIA&Williams’ nose crash test was genuine.

    1. yep. Crashtested by Maldonad(TM)

  2. Love seeing the progress of Force India this year!!

    1. They are doing well, not moaning about the tyres, just getting on with the job. well done to them.

    2. Not necessarily a sign of that. Conditions changed lap by lap and there were too much traffic in the end.

  3. Jenson definitely does well in rains in this track. I am sure he is hoping for more and more of it.

    1. it was as much an effect as being amongst the last 4 out there to improve on their pace @tmax.

  4. Is there a track Maldonado has not gone off of yet this season?

  5. My loyalty is red. But I do hope to see Grosjean and Perez high in the points this race. And if it rains, come on Bianchi, you can do it!!!

  6. Ah. My question has been answered. In spite of the weather the teams did get in some running on the development tires, maybe will be able to do some more this afternoon, weather permitting of course, and then should have them for Britain. Just wasn’t sure if the inclement weather would have meant the use of the new tires being put off to Friday of Britain, and then full use of them for the race (Germany I think) after that.

    1. I’m convinced you work for Mercedes.

      1. @ivano what took you so long? :)

        1. I know, I feel like a Marussia now. ;)

  7. Rosberg faster then Hamilton again in the wet, it now seems routine. Hamilton at one point was considered a rain-meister because of his silverstone win in the wet. but most wet events since then have shown he is not a rain-meister at all.
    i think with the rain, this might be a mercedes weekend again as both drivers can qualify high and maybe not worry about dry tyre-wear. it will be interesting which driver finishes up on top if it is wet all weekend – with hamilton so often fast at montreal, if rosberg can beat him again here, it will certainly lift his standing in the f1 world so much more – just in one race.

    1. Ben (@scuderia29)
      7th June 2013, 18:18

      @kpcart ive never understood why people thought of hamilton as a rain-meister

      1. @scuderia29

        Me too. Especially after China 2007.

        1. I’ve always thought he was pretty crap in the wet too

      2. Traverse (@)
        7th June 2013, 18:33

        Fuji 07, Silverstone 08 and (to a lesser extent) Monaco 08 went someway towards solidifying the notion of Ham’s rain mastery.

        1. o_0

          2 and half races… ???

          1. Traverse (@)
            7th June 2013, 19:46

            …Well how many wet races has Button won to earn his rain master reputation?

          2. @hellotraverse

            5 – Mal 09, Aus & Chi 10, Can 11, Bra 12.

            Although I never said he’s a rain miester, only implied he’s pretty much on it these days when it rains.

    2. there is no such thing as rain-masters anymore. now it’s all about finding the best setup for the car.

      1. @latvian

        Button seems to always be at his best when it rains… many of McLaren wins came in the rare wet races.

        1. *many of his McLaren wins

        2. Yet Korea 2010 was a disaster for him. But I think Button does well in conditions when the grip improves, in other words the track dries.

    3. For me there will only be two Rain-meisters. First era Schumacher and Senna.

  8. I haven’t followed Practice 1, and can’t follow the others as well, but the differences between team mates are not normal, another indication for me of the influence of the wet track.

    1. Friday practice is also a small indication of actual race pace, regardless wet or dry, it’s the day when teams mainly concentrate on set up.

  9. Am I the only one increasingly impressed by VDG? Even though he’s a fellow Dutchman I wasn’t supporting him at all, but it seems like he’s more comfortable in the car and the team now.

    1. VD-who? ;)

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