FRIDAY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY 2013 Canadian Grand Prix Text & Photos By: Joey Franco
F RIDAY REPORT A wet first practice session on Friday saw Force India driver Paul Di Resta score abest lap time of 1:21.020, followed by Jenson Button at 1:21.108. The times weredrastically reduced on a much dryer surface during the second session with Ferrari sfernando Alonso s 1:14.818 lap time. It was an untypical Friday, affected by the extremely changeable weather, saidalonso. We can expect a very complicated weekend, because the weather is due toremain changeable right up to Sunday and judging the grip level will be difficult,both in qualifying and in the race. The controversial Barcelona tyre test in which the Mercedes F1 team were involvedin was a main topic of discussion during the Friday FIA press conference followingthe second round of free trials at this year s Canadian Grand Prix.Mercedes boss Ross Brawn has confirmed that the go ahead with the controversialtyre test last month was indeed his decision.brawn, who was present along with fellow team principals Martin Whitmarsh(McLaren), Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing), Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari), andmonisha Kaltenborn (Sauber) was quick to defend his decision.the Mercedes boss first statement was that the testing has been mislabeled as asecret test, rather than a private test. It wasn t a secret test. I think anyone whobelieves you can got to Barcelona and do three days of testing, or 1000km of testing,and not have anyone become aware of it is naïve, he said in front of the world press. 21
S ATURDAY REPORT The weather continued to be a factor throughout the entire Saturday free practice and qualifying sessions. During the last practice session, a gap of more than eight seconds separated the quickest pilot Mark Webber (1:17.895) and the slowest Jules Bianchi (1:26.195). Despite out of the ordinary temperature and weather, Red Bull s Sebastian Vettel managed to be in top form and captured pole position on intermediate tyres. Well it was very, very tricky, especially because you never knew what the conditions were like the next time you were out, said three time world champion Vettel. Mercedes pilot Lewis Hamilton nabbed the second spot on the grid. Hamilton did express his disappointment at not grabbing the top spot. Pole was definitely there, so it s a bit unfortunate but that s the way it goes. The surprive of the afternoon was a third place result by rookie Williams driver Valtteri Bottas. it means a lot, said the delighted Finnish driver. It s way more up in the grid than what we really could ever imagine It s been so difficult, the first six races for us and it will be a nice boost for the team F1 Traveler Magazine 2013
QUOTES OF THE DAY It s a well-deserved result for Valtteri and for the whole team and it gives us all a real boost after all the hard work everyone has been putting in. Mike Coughlan, Williams Technical Director We didn t have grip in these conditions so we did pretty much all we could do, but if there s no grip you can t go faster. In this weather it s difficult as sometimes the rain gets harder, sometimes the track is drying so you have to try to be out there when the circuit s at its best. P9 on the grid is not what we want so we ll have to see what we can do in the race tomorrow. Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus Driver: I m quite happy with eighth place. It was a tough qualifying session and very hard to judge the conditions. Some parts of the track were wet and other areas were dry, so it was difficult to know how much to push. I also struggled to get the heat in the tyres, so it was not easy to get it altogether for one lap. Adrian Sutil, Force India Driver 2012 FORMULA 1 CANADA GRAND PRIX 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 4.Nico Rosberg Mercedes 6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 8. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 10.Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 12. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1.Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 3. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 5.Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 7. Jean-Eric Vergne Ferrari 9. Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 11. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 14. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 16 Felipe Massa Ferrari 18. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 20. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 22. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 13. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 15.Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 17 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 19. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 21.Max Chilton Marussia- Cosworth 23
S U N D AY REPORT Sunday, June 9th reserved something that had not been seen in a while; the sun. A sunny day was the setting for a Sabastian Vettel dominated race. Vettel got off to a good start, built a comfortable gab, and was able to maintain that cusion until the very end. The German triple champion took the checkered flag 14 seconds ahead of Ferrari s Fernando Alonso. This marks the first time that Red Bull, or Vettel has won on Canadian soil. Obviously we ve had good races before but it didn t come together to win, said Vettel. Two years ago I was very close. I lost it in the last lap, it was my mistake, so made up for it today. Alonso, who started sixth on the grid, treated the Montreal crowd to one of his signature superstarts. The Ferrari pilot was able to get past Webber, Rosberg, and Hamilton. At the end I think the second place has a victory taste because we scored some good points after a very difficult weekend, he said. Mercedes GP pilot Lewis Hamilton finished just over a second behind Alonso, who he considered to be massively quick. It was very difficult to keep him behind I tried my best, I got close once he got past me, but he was just generally took quick for me. Robinson. Robinson passed away following an accident while Esteban Gutierez s vehicle was being towed off the circuit. Quotes of the day QUOTES OF THE DAY Incredible! I m very happy. The best result for me of course, but also the highest finishing position since Vettel s results for the team in 2008. It is even more satisfying, because it was a normal race in the dry, with no one going out in front of me so we achieved this position fair and square. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso driver Today, we absolutely had to make up for the difficult day we had yesterday, because we knew the more normal weather would allow us to demonstrate our true potential. The podium was in our sights and we can claim to have hit the target, in a race that was complicated from start to finish by our grid positions. Fernando produced an absolutely extraordinary performance, especially when taking into account that today, our competitors operated at a really high level. Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari Team Principal We fought hard to try and secure some points today but ultimately we just didn t have the pace in the car. I didn t get a great start which allowed a few cars to jump me on the first lap, and in the dry conditions we simply couldn t match the level of competitiveness we showed yesterday. The tyre wear in the first stint was also high which made Valtteri Bottas, Williams Driver: F1 Traveler Magazine 2013
2013 FORMULA 1 CANADA GRAND PRIX Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid 1 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 70 1:32:09.143 2 2 3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 70 +14.4 secs 6 3 10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 70 +15.9 secs 2 4 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 70 +25.7 secs 5 5 9 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 70 +69.7 secs 4 6 18 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 69 +1 Lap 7 7 14 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 69 +1 Lap 17 8 4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 69 +1 Lap 16 9 7 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 69 +1 Lap 10 10 15 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 69 +1 Lap 8 11 6 Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 69 +1 Lap 12 12 5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 69 +1 Lap 14 13 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 69 +1 Lap 22 14 17 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 69 +1 Lap 3 15 19 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 24 +1 Lap 13 16 16 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 68 +2 Laps 13 17 22 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 68 +2 Laps 19 18 20 Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 67 +3 Laps 18 19 23 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 67 +3 Laps 19 20 22 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 12 +2 Laps 20 21 22 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 12 +2 Laps 23 22 12 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 63 Accident 15 ret 11 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 45 Accident damage 9 ret 21 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 43 Accident 21 Note - Grosjean qualified 19th; penalised 10 grid spots for causing collision at previous round. Raikkonen and Ricciardo qualified ninth and tenth respectively; penalised two grid spots each for pit-exit infringements. 25