Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace in second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, but with a reduced margin over Mercedes’ closest rivals.
Sebastian Vettel lapped a quarter of a second off Hamilton’s pace, both using the ultra-soft compound. Nico Rosberg ended up over half a second down on his team mate in this place. The Red Bull pair were the only other cars to get within a second of Hamilton, Max Verstappen edging Daniel Ricciardo by 12 thousandths.
However the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen could only manage the eight-best time after being the last to run on the ultra-soft rubber. Raikkonen pitted to have his DRS flap inspected by the team at the end of his quickest run.
He narrowly failed to beat the McLaren of Jenson Button, who made a late start to the session following his engine problems in first practice. Button grazed the wall at turn four as he chased improvements on the ultra-softs and ended up equalling the time of sixth-placed Valtteri Bottas to within on thousandth of a second.
The field was tightly-packed behind the leading Williams with nine cars covered by 0.346 seconds, including both Toro Rossos and both Force Indias.
Renault could only manage a best of 16th place with their upgraded engine. Kevin Magnussen was over three-quarters of a second faster than Jolyon Palmer, who had only the Manor pair behind him at the end of Friday’s running.
Second practice visual gaps
Lewis Hamilton – 1’14.212
+0.257 Sebastian Vettel – 1’14.469
+0.526 Nico Rosberg – 1’14.738
+0.944 Max Verstappen – 1’15.156
+0.956 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’15.168
+1.001 Valtteri Bottas – 1’15.213
+1.022 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’15.234
+1.109 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’15.321
+1.198 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’15.410
+1.238 Fernando Alonso – 1’15.450
+1.281 Sergio Perez – 1’15.493
+1.301 Felipe Massa – 1’15.513
+1.347 Daniil Kvyat – 1’15.559
+1.881 Romain Grosjean – 1’16.093
+2.043 Kevin Magnussen – 1’16.255
+2.370 Felipe Nasr – 1’16.582
+2.379 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’16.591
+2.690 Marcus Ericsson – 1’16.902
+2.789 Jolyon Palmer – 1’17.001
+2.811 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’17.023
+3.211 Rio Haryanto – 1’17.423
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
2016 Canadian Grand Prix
- Hamilton edges Bottas for Driver of the Weekend win
- F1 underwhelms at popular Montreal
- 2016 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2016 Canadian Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix
Kobe (@im-a-kobe)
10th June 2016, 20:44
Hamilton is just 2 seconds off the fastest ever lap here. (2004 Qualifying 2, 1:12.275)
Will it be broken this year?
Jerejj
10th June 2016, 20:50
Possibly.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
10th June 2016, 20:54
For sure! It’s a power track, and engines are better than ever.
Armchair Expert (@foreverred)
10th June 2016, 21:03
@im-a-kobe … And in 2004 you were allowed a new engine every race, the engine/car was lighter also.
Im sure if you could have a new V6h every race they’ll be much faster than they are currently showing.
Proteus (@proteus)
10th June 2016, 21:17
and u forgot that stupid DRS enables higher speeds of current cars, and that they have much stickier tyres with no grooves , and how much more CFD research is on the car. Modern hybrids are still no match to classic V10s, which managed to do much more with a lot less. Not to mention that power steering was far less effective back in the day.
lockup (@)
10th June 2016, 21:52
If you ran a V10 on 100kg/hr it would develop maybe 500 bhp or something. Did they even have variable valve timing? Primitive, by comparison.
markp
10th June 2016, 22:05
How did v20’swimming give more for less. They used more fuel, had larger capacity engines, more cylinders but no more power?
Those grooved tyres were very sticky if you made a slick off those compounds speeds would be crazy.
anon
10th June 2016, 22:23
@lockup, since you ask, the 3.0L V10’s never had variable valve timing – they were, if anything, a step backwards from the previous 3.5L era, where I believe that Honda did equip their V12 engine with a variable valve timing system in late 1991 and in 1992 in an effort to combat the high fuel consumption of those engines (in part because of Senna running out of fuel in the 1991 British and German GP’s).
@proteus, I’m not sure I understand your comment about producing more from less – in terms of power, the estimated power output of the current V6’s are more than a match for the V10’s (based on data released by Toyota and BMW from that era).
lockup (@)
10th June 2016, 23:50
Thanks @anon, I had a vague memory that was so.
I love these current motors, personally. I like the noise, the relevance and the insane, instant torque.
EF1
11th June 2016, 1:48
@lockup hahahaha yes they did have variable valve timing – lol Honda had that on road cars in 1992!! Also you are forgetting something when comparing the engines……BOOST! Saying they are ‘Primitive’ is a bit of a joke, did you know F1 was banned by regs from using direct injection even with the v8’s? Otherwise you can bet they would have been using that even with the v10’s too.
Let me put it this way. Imagine a turbo, direct injected, hybrid 3.0 V10. Even using 100kg/hour fuel rate the power output would be astronomical compared to the current engines + even with turbo a v10 will sound glorious, not the ‘cat in a bag’ sound of the current v6’s.
David
10th June 2016, 21:27
So are the new engines truly more reliable? Or are they just babied leading us to believe they are more reliable? How do we measure improvements to reliability if we are not subjecting the engines to the same punishment?
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
10th June 2016, 20:55
Considering last year quali times were 1:14s I would say the best possibility would be 1.12.800 or something close to that.
John H (@john-h)
10th June 2016, 21:01
This is exactly why cars should be 2 seconds faster and not 4 as talked about next season. The wider cars and tyres should do that, extra downforce is not required at all to get back to 2004 speeds (with low fuel).
Robbie (@robbie)
10th June 2016, 22:31
For me it is not about single lap times, it is about how fast they are during the race, which is about how much conservation they are doing vs actual pushing, which also relates to the feat they are achieving (or not having to) in this format, and the new format next year. To me they need to be faster throughout races so that we have drivers taxed physically and mentally by the end of a couple of hours of, preferably, wheel to wheel racing, and not processions. I don’t believe they are taxed enough, and the drivers have said as much.
CareyPatrick (@careypatrick)
10th June 2016, 22:44
Maybe. Depending on how well the track rubbers in, it could happen. The times between FP1 and FP2 are quite similar, so its really down to how much the track is willing to give. Montreal is only used sparingly, so its usually pretty green on Fri. If it does not rain and the temps are right, they may dip into the 1:12’s. I went to this race from 1992 thru 2006, and every year its the same, but different. I’ve been so hot, my wife’s knee caps were sweating, and so chilled I couldn’t drink my Molson’s. If its hot and dry, then there’s a good chance. On a side note, its good to see the Manor’s within 1 sec of the Renaults and Saubers. Those Mercedes engines should be used to good effect this weekend. God, I miss going to this race, stupid Bernie.
lockup (@)
10th June 2016, 20:57
Max looking like he knows no fear…
Johnny H.
10th June 2016, 21:00
Max is just getting used to the car. Give hime 3-4 more races and he will finally master the RB.
ia
10th June 2016, 22:06
Some people are missing the fear gene
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
10th June 2016, 20:59
So what is this then? Lewis Hamilton trashing Rosberg fairly much.
Has the tide now shifted and Lewis will do a 4 win in a row? Looks intresting this now :D… Then again Lewis is mighty here every year.
Ed
10th June 2016, 21:13
Rosberg’s wins this year were circunstantial.
Not saying he wouldn’t have won yet, but he is behind Hamilton on practices and qualifyings just like last year. Hamilton’s bad starts and bad reliability have a huge part on this 4 win streak of him.
I doubt he will ever do another one again.
Tata
10th June 2016, 21:48
– Rosberg’s wins this year were circunstantial. I doubt he will ever do another one again.
That’s quite a lot to sum up from two practice sessions. Rosberg has won every race since Austin purely on merit. No ifs and buts. He is a strong driver and following what we have seen of both men, they tend to hide a litle during practice only to unleash their best during quali. Could it be due to the open policy at Mercedes?
Nothing indicates Nico cannot be on pole or win the race no matter where he starts. And nothing also says Lewis will not continue to struggle with his clutch and getting involved in first lap clashes.
So let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Lewis has only managed to string a win together this year.
Robbie (@robbie)
10th June 2016, 23:37
As indicated by a newer article just posted on this site, LH and NR were on different settings for downforce, with NR 10 kph faster than LH in the speed traps, so no, this is not LH ‘trashing’ NR…it’s practice…and a team working like a team.
Kgn11
11th June 2016, 0:32
Drivers running different downforce levels is nothing new, maybe that’s each driver’s preference
Robbie (@robbie)
11th June 2016, 13:11
As Keith implies, they were likely trying different setups and their performance would likely converge. The setup they gave LH seems faster so they will likely forgo top speed trap speeds that NR was hitting in favour of more downforce than they had given NR to trial. Or it will be a compromise somewhere in the middle.
ColdFly F1 (@)
10th June 2016, 21:06
Most interesting bit is to have 11 cars within 0.4sec of each other.
This might become the most interesting Q2 in a long time.
But then again if all the speeds are so similar then why not start off on the Softs and stay out until the Ultra’s can take you home.
Johannes (@johanness)
10th June 2016, 21:37
Seb doing what Seb does best
markp
10th June 2016, 22:09
Hopefully Ferrari put Red Bull back to where they belong and can be close to Merc……then q3 and Ferrari go slower than q2 end up 5th and 6th and ruin my weekend. At least I have just under 24 hours to be reasonably happy.
Woody (@woodyd91)
11th June 2016, 1:40
Life of a Ferrari fan! Cheer up, Have a beer, better yet have a Heineken…
markp
11th June 2016, 11:43
I prefer Warka beer. I’ll take any beer though. Still p3 to impress and q1 and q2 then the dreaded q3.
EF1
11th June 2016, 1:51
Any chance of finding out what tyres everyone set their times on? Or where I could find this info? Thanks.
Henrik
11th June 2016, 9:24
Superficially it might appear as being half a second quicker, Hamilton is thrashing Rosberg . A more detailed look reveals the interesting fact that Rosberg was quickest of all in sector three (i.e. the best overtaking part of the track) as well as being able to run a full 29 laps on the purple ultrasofts which could mean that he’s planning a one-stopper.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
11th June 2016, 13:56
Many F1 supporters and commentators have placed Williams at the sharp end of the midfield pack for Canada. But it is surprising to see that a McLaren has matched the time of Williams today. Although set-ups may be different, but it is very encouraging to see this development. Hope reliability will not be an issue for qualifying or race.