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After a
disappointing Monaco Grand Prix where Bruno Senna scored a single point the
Williams F1 team would look at turning things around for the 2012 Canadian
Grand Prix. The opening Friday practice would see the weather dry with
Pirelli bringing their soft and super soft tyres for this event. For the
Williams team this session would see them focus on aero work. There would be
a rush of drivers taking to the track for their installation laps with
Vettel last out. Raikkonen, Grosjean, Vergne, and Perez would all return to
the track with Raikkonen setting a 1m:20.347 followed by Grosjean with a
1m:20.295. Perez was third with a 1m:25.205. The times would start to come
down with Raikkonen now fastest with a 1m:18.703 and Grosjean a 1m:19.429.
More drivers were coming out with Ricciardo, Pic, Rosberg, and Bruno Senna
for Williams all taking to the track.
Grosjean would set a 1m:17.988 followed by a 1m:17.386. Raikkonen was still
second from Vergne, Perez, Kobayashi, and in sixth Ricciardo. Grosjean would
pit with Raikkonen setting a 1m:17.188 to again be fastest. Bruno was in
ninth with a 1m:23.499 More drivers had left the pits including Schumacher,
Massa, Di Resta, Hamilton, and De la Rosa. Rosberg was now fastest with a
1m:16.837 while Bruno would have a moment seeing him take to the grass at
Turn nine but he was able to continue. All the drivers were out on the soft
tyre for their first runs. Hamilton was in sixth followed by Schumacher as Kobayashi moved up to third with a
1m:17.341. Bruno was now in tenth with a time of 1m:20.132. Pastor Maldonado
had yet to take to the track as Alonso moved up to seventh with a 1m:18.996.
Raikkonen and Perez would pit as reports started to come in saying that
drops of rain were falling. Hamilton was now second with a 1m:17.035 while
Bruno had dropped to thirteenth but he was on a better lap. So was Hamilton
seeing him set a 1m:16.080 to be fastest by 0.757. Rosberg had pitted as
Schumacher moved up to third with a 1m:16.947. Bruno's lap was a 1m:19.326
but he would drop to fourteenth as others improved. Hamilton would pit as
Kobayashi improved to be second with a time of 1m:16.457. Pastor was now
back out on the track while Bruno would pit. Webber was also out on the
track as the track emptied. Massa was now third with a time of 1m:16.619.
Pastor and Webber would set fairly slow first laps seeing them nineteenth
and eighteenth. With just under a hour reaming the order was Hamilton from
Kobayashi, Massa, Rosberg, Schumacher, Alonso, Raikkonen, Grosjean,
Hulkenberg, and Perez in tenth. Pastor would improve with a 1m:18.720 to be thirteenth.
Bruno was now in seventeenth. Webber would move up to tenth seeing Pastor
and Bruno drop one place. Rosberg was back out as Pastor moved up to eighth
with a 1m:17.180. Bruno was now in nineteenth while Pastor would drop to
ninth as Webber moved up to seventh with a time of 1m:17.095. Grosjean was
out on the track and was in fifth with a 1m:16.890. Pastor had now dropped
to tenth. Vettel would join Webber and would set a 1m:16.989 to move him up
to seventh from his initial fourteenth. Rosberg was now second with a
1m:16.153 while Vettel would improve to be fourth but this would become
fifth as Webber set a 1m:16.347 to be third.
Pastor would pit as Perez moved up to eighth with a 1m:16.843. Button was
now out on the track joining Pic and Glock in not having set a time.
Team-mate Hamilton would also come back out as Webber pitted. Bruno was back
out and would go straight on at Turn three. He would turn onto the grass and
would continue. Schumacher was now up to third with a 1m:16.310. Vettel's
next lap would see him improve to be second with a 1m:16.143. Bruno was told
that his DRS was only working intermittently and to stop using it. Button
was now sixth, 1m:16.347, followed by Kobayashi, Massa, Perez, and Grosjean
in tenth. Raikkonen would be the first driver to run with the super-soft's.
With Hamilton on a quick lap the session would be stopped as a result of
Kovalainen crashing heavily at Turn nine. He would get out of his car but the car was badly damaged. He had run wide
at Turn eight seeing him crash into the barriers doing a major amount of
damage to the right front.
With thirty five minutes remaining the track was now empty as the marshals
started the job of removing the Caterham and cleaning up the debris. Many
drivers would remain in their cars ready to come back out. With the restart
of the session the track would again be very busy as drivers tried to make
up for lost time. Rosberg would go fastest with a 1m:15.782 but Hamilton
would return to the top of the times with a 1m:15..564. Vettel was third
from Schumacher and Webber. Pastor was in thirteenth and Bruno twentieth.
Hamilton would pit while for Williams Pastor would improve to be eleventh
with a 1m:16.859. Vettel would take a trip across the grass at Turn nine.
After their runs drivers would start to return to their pits while Alonso
would be on a quicker lap seeing him move up to third, 1m:15.842. Pastor
would pit, currently in eleventh. Bruno continued to be well off the pace
over three seconds off the quickest time. Vettel would set a 1m:16.010 but
was still fourth.
Button was unlikely to come back out as his car was in his garage with the
rear wing a gearbox removed. Kobayashi would jump up to fourth, 1m:16.000,
seeing Vettel now fifth. Di Resta was now eleventh, 1m:16.657, seeing Pastor
drop one place. Hamilton would come back out along with Pastor. Ricciardo
would set a 1m:17.731 to now be seventeenth. It was announced that an
incident between Vettel and Bruno at Turn fourteen would be investigated
after the session. Vettel had passed Bruno at the final chicane bringing the
event to the attention of the stewards. With six minutes remaining Bruno had
dropped to twenty first seeing him behind De la Rosa. Rosberg and Hulkenberg
were back out on the super soft tyre. Both Lotus cars had run on the tyre
earlier in the session but had not seen them produce any quick lap times.
But for Hulkenberg he would use the tyres to good effect moving up to sixth
with a 1m:16.146.
Despite their slow times both Williams drivers were focusing on obtaining as
much data as possible while it was dry. Webber was now fourth with a time of
1m:15.897. Vettel was out on the softer tyre and would set a 1m:15.801 to be
third. It was confirmed that Button had a clutch issue with his McLaren.
Vettel would be hindered by traffic seeing him lose time on his next lap.
The session would come to an end with Hamilton still fastest from Rosberg
but on his last lap Vettel would move into second with a 1m:15.682. Rosberg
was now third from Alonso, Webber, Hulkenberg, Kobayashi, Perez, Schumacher,
and Button in tenth. Pastor and Bruno would finish in thirteenth and twenty
first. |
