Mercedes back on top ahead of Red Bull and Ferrari

2014 Canadian Grand Prix second practice

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The Mercedes pair occupied their usual place at the top of the times at the second of second practice, but with less than half a second in hand over their closest pursuer.

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg exchanged quickest times and Hamilton ended up quickest with a 1’16.118 – almost two-tenths of a second quicker than Rosberg.

The Ferrari pair led the charge against the Mercedes drivers to begin with: Fernando Alonso set a 1’16.701 which was narrowly beaten by team mate Kimi Raikkonen shortly afterwards.

Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, postponed his run on the quicker super-soft tyre until the latter stages of the session. Once he did his run the Red Bull driver took up third place, within half a second of Hamilton’s time.

Behind the Ferrari came a clutch of Mercedes-powered cars: the two Williams drivers followed by the McLaren pair. Kevin Magnussen almost collided with Adrian Sutil when the Sauber driver, on his super-soft lap, caught the McLaren who was travelling slowly at the final chicane.

Marcus Ericsson’s session ended early when he pulled over with a technical problem at turn three. Jean-Eric Vergne went down the same escape road later in the session but was able to reverse out and continue, albeit struggling with a loss of power.

Kimi Raikkonen also reported a power shortfall on his car as the session came to an end.

At the bottom of the times was Jules Bianchi, who only managed three laps following his crash in the first session.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’16.11842
26Nico RosbergMercedes1’16.2930.17539
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’16.5730.45526
47Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’16.6480.53031
514Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’16.7010.58327
619Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’16.7740.65637
777Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’16.8930.77537
820Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’17.0520.93442
922Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’17.0590.94138
1025Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’17.1801.06240
118Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’17.6261.50828
123Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’17.6441.52636
1327Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’17.7121.59435
1411Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’17.8191.70133
1513Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’17.8681.75027
1699Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’17.9641.84647
1721Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’18.3402.22243
184Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’18.6932.57534
1926Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’18.7322.6149
2010Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’20.2444.12638
219Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’22.4186.30013
2217Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’32.12716.0093

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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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 “Mercedes back on top ahead of Red Bull and Ferrari”

  1. Vettel set his lap very late so it unrepresentative. Ferrari look good.

    1. Yeah that’s the impression I got, they were pretty slow when running at the same time as others. I still think they’ll pick up some pace before quali, probably around 5th/6th behind at least Alonso, maybe a Williams.

  2. Tom (@11mcgratht)
    6th June 2014, 20:44

    I’m just thinking, if Hamilton continues at his current rate he will finish the season with 13 wins – equaling schumacher and vettel’s record

  3. I feel very sorry for Kobayashi. He deserves to drive a more competitive car than the Caterham. His podium in Japan is still one of my favorite moments watching F1. Tony Fernandes said he wouldn’t fund the team next year if they came last in the constructors again. Unless the Caterham has a miraculous update, you’d have to say this is Kamui’s last year in F1 too. Shame.

    1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      6th June 2014, 20:54

      If rumors are true, the team could be sold, so there maybe an outside chance that Kamui gets another shot, but it seems rather unlikely.

    2. The solution to that is obvious.

      We all buy Caterham.

      1. I like this idea. All we need is a million people to contribute £500 each.

        1. How do you run it?

          1. That’s the tricky part, not everyone will agree with the way the team is run, so they’d want their money back. Maybe have a list of candidates for chairman and have a poll to decide.

          2. @keithcollantine would have to be in there running it, means the forum would go to gell but hey! We’d be F1 owners ,

            Oh dear , imagine the press conference if all the owners showed up !
            My 500 quid is ready !!!

    3. I wish you would stop banging on about Kobayashi he if he was so good he would have convincingly beat Perez.

      1. Unwise comment. You clearly have something against Kamui because he was faster than Perez more times than not, and was more unfortunate in the races. Perez’s best qually position at sauber was 4th. Kobayashi had two 3rd’s and a 2nd where he got wiped out by the big grosjean crash at Spa which you probably don’t remember either. Dispite these events Kamui trailed Perez in the standings by only 6 points. Anything else you want me to clarify?

        1. Yeah maybe you should clarify why even being close to Perez is good? Perez has 3 podiums ill take that thank you. I can also give you examples of Perez getting taken out too so what is so good about Koba? Now if you’re saying he is like Perez then i agree but you go on like he is a god he would get a good kicking like Perez is vs the Hulk. Koba is a good passer that is it.

      2. In addition to Michael C’s points, Perez, unless I am mistaken, got a much favourable strategy in Malaysia (Perez’s podium), and when Kamui wanted to box for the wet tyres, the team kept him out and brought Perez in. Had it been Kobayashi he may have even won that race.

        1. Kobayashi retired in Malaysia so what would that matter.

      3. Agreed with Dan. Kobayashi is just overrated, if it were the Hulk I’d understand but come on, Kobayashi is no better than Perez and isn’t even that much better than Maldonado if I may be so bold to say so.

  4. And Max was 18th!!!

  5. According to BBC Ferrari switched the new floor (ran on Alonso’s car in FP1) to Raikkonen’s car. If true, this could mean Ferrari are a decent step closer. Who knows, looking forward to a good race.

    1. The big question is: who gets the new floor for the rest of the weekend?

      Not that I think this floor is the main reason for the newfound speed, they have a major ‘reliability’ update for the PU, which is showing better figures in the speed trap.

      1. I’d actually assume both cars. Ferrari probably just ran a back-to-back for both drivers so they could get a clear indication of a performance improvement. Sounds like it was a pretty significant improvement too. I still think Mercedes will win, but I’d like to see a good fight between Red Bull and Ferrari.

  6. To me it looks like the Ferrari power unit provides alot of raw power, probably equal to but not as finetuned as the Mecedes PU. The time difference is probably due to plain chassi and aero performance. The Ferrari still looks to be all over the place.
    Vettels late but quick lap was impressive and a bit unexpected, but at least he seems to be back on form. I really hope he won’t run into car problems again any time soon. That said i think they’re the 3rd best team (at best) this weekend.

    1. @me4me It does look like Ferrari might have a good drop of power, but it may be fuel consumption which is the bigger difference in the race, the Mercedes certainly seem to be managing fuel without difficulty in the races this year, Ferrari may have to manage this much more which over a race distance might mean the gap is still large.

  7. Alex McFarlane
    6th June 2014, 22:17

    Hamilton’s fastest lap was a shade quicker than last year’s fastest lap of the race. I can’t remember the weather for last year’s race but impressive nonetheless.

    Behind Mercedes, I think we could see a good battle between Red Bull and Ferrari. Obviously a lot depends on qualifying and reliability but Vettel and Alonso seemed to be on it in FP2.

    1. I think it only rained in Q3, or maybe it was the entira qualifying session.

      1. It rained throughout all of Qualifying and FP3 last year

    2. Bit disappointed, really. Had hoped that times would be right there with last year if not quicklier, but HAM’s P2 times would have only been good enough for 14th

      1. Alex McFarlane
        7th June 2014, 9:31

        Sorry, not sure I follow, what times are you comparing to?

  8. This was the first time in the season that I actually felt the lack of sound. I’ve only started watching in 2004, so I’ve always associated F1 with the high-pitched whine. And Montreal is my second-most favorite circuit (after Spa, of course). So not hearing the sound of the engine of Kimi’s Ferrari until he was just in front of the camera felt…well, a bit unsettling. Made Montreal feel a emptier than before.

    I still love these cars. They are much more fun to watch, with the drivers actually having to struggle to contain the power. But I can only feel a twinge of regret that THE sound is gone. But no worries…long live YouTube.

  9. Force India continues its woes over qualifying… Only their race pace looks good. It was contrary to speculations that Mercedes powered teams will have a significant advantage over others.

  10. I feel sad for Mclaren, we are to close reach mid season and they still haven’t announced a main sponsor. More importantly the car is just not fast enough.

Comments are closed.