> 2007 Canadian Grand Prix

A preview of this weekend's race. To help all you people make a better choice in FAntasy F1.

In both the practice sessions till now, Alonso has been on top.

The first practice session saw Hamilton in 2nd place, Kimi in 3rd and Massa in 4th.

The 2nd practice session saw Alonso in 1st, Massa in 2nd, Hamilton in 3rd and Kimi in 4th.

There is very little to choose between the two teams.

This is the resukts sheet for the second practice session


News
Practice 2: Alonso shows them who's boss
Friday, 08, June, 2007, 20:41
Click to enlarge

As if to make a point after the hullabaloo over McLaren's team orders at Monaco, Fernando Alonso showed the paddock who is boss by dominating both free practice sessions for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Having set the fastest time in first practice, he lapped more than half a second quicker than anyone in the second 90 minutes.

McLaren looked on top throughout the first day in Montreal, and despite the expected resurgence from Ferrari, Felipe Massa could not match the world champion's blistering pace.

In fact until the dying minutes of the session both Ferrari's were nowhere and it was a last ditch effort by the Brazilian that finally split the McLarens.

Lewis Hamilton was third quickest while Kimi Raikkonen was fourth – nearly a second behind Alonso.

BMW's power showed through on the low downforce track as Nick Heidfeld lapped just 0.2s slower than Raikkonen's Ferrari.

The German had been as high as third until the red cars late showing.

Nico Rosberg put some smiles on Williams team faces after he spent the most of the second half of the session in the top four.

It was a fantastic effort when you consider that the other three Toyota-powered cars were 17th, 18th and 19th respectively (Alex Wurz, Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher)!

Rubens Barrichello broke into the top ten for Honda with eighth place, while Giancarlo Fisichella will have been disappointed with ninth after all of Renault's pre-event predictions about turning corners.

The Italian's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen continued his demoralising run of luck by clouting the wall at Turn 8, breaking his front suspension in the process.

The Finn ended the session stone last.

Mark Webber did a splendid job for Red Bull.

Out on the track early, he set a scorching time even the McLarens couldn't match initialy. Then to rub it in he went faster still.

But as the big teams begun to wind up, so Webber's challenge faded and he eventually ended up ninth.

Takuma Sato maintained Super Aguri's promising morning pace with 10th fastest ahead of David Coulthard in the second Red Bull and Robert Kubica, who was playing catch up after his problems in the first session.

Jenson Button was 13th ahead of Vitantonio Liuzzi, Anthony Davidson and Scott Speed.

Christijan Albers ended the day a happy Dutchman after shading Adrian Sutil in both sessions – evidence that he has finally got to grips with this year's tyres.


Montreal free practice session 2 times

1. ALONSO McLaren 1m16.550s

2. MASSA Ferrari 1m17.090s

3. HAMILTON McLaren 1m17.307s

4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m17.515s

5. HEIDFELD BMW 1m17.827s

6. ROSBERG Williams 1m17.992s

7. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m18.108s

8. FISICHELLA Renault 1m18.130s

9. WEBBER Red Bull 1m18.181s

10. SATO Super Aguri 1m18.309s

11. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m18.316s

12. KUBICA BMW 1m18.399s

13. BUTTON Honda 1m18.474s

14. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m18.493s

15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m18.545s

16. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m18.602s

17. WURZ Williams 1m18.871s

18. TRULLI Toyota 1m18.895s

19. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m19.331s

20. ALBERS Spyker 1m19.453s

21. SUTIL Spyker 1m19.662s

22. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m20.519s


Even Massa was not consistent. He split the two McLarens only in the dying moments of the session.

It does look like the McLarens have the edge but there is a very real chance that Ferrari might show there real faster pace in qualifying and on raceday.

The BMWs will be strong here as they are very powerful and it will help in this low-downforce track.....

OK... qualifying is done.

1. HAMILTON McLaren
2. ALONSO Mclaren

3. HEIDFELD BMW

4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
5. MASSA Ferrari
6. WEBBER Red Bull
7. ROSBERG Williams

8. KUBICA BMW
9. FISICHELLA Renault

10. TRULLI Toyota

11. SATO Super Aguri
12. LIUZZI Toro Rosso

13. BARRICHELLO Honda

14. COULTHARD Red Bull

15. BUTTON Honda

16. SPEED Toro Rosso

17. DAVIDSON Super Aguri

18. SCHUMACHER Toyota

19. WURZ Williams
20. SUTIL Spyker

21. ALBERS Spyker
22. KOVALAINEN Renault


Hamilton gets his first pole position of his fledgling career.
“It came down to this: we had to pull it out at the last minute,” he beamed from the top-three press conference.

“It’s not easy, especially when you have a two-time world champion hunting you down – but I did it, I stayed strong today.

“I owe it all to the team, and I’m very happy with it.”

Hamilton struggled to match team-mate Fernando Alonso’s pace on Friday as he got to grips with the unfamiliar track – but signalled that he would be challenging for pole when he topped the times on Saturday morning.

“We worked very hard to get the car set up right,” he related.

“Yesterday was a good day – I stayed out of the barrier, which is always good!

“For that final lap the car was sweet, I had a very good gap, the tyres were perfect and I really just had to pull it all out.”

Whereas on previous occasions Hamilton has made the slightest of mistakes under pressure in Q3, this time it was Alonso who slipped up and Lewis who was inch-perfect.

“The most important thing was that each sector was consistent,” he said.

“I know Fernando was quite quick at the beginning, but at the end of the day I didn’t make a mistake and got the time, so I’m just thrilled.”

Speaking about his thoughts as he barrelled down the back straight approaching the treacherous final chicane, Hamilton said: “You do a very neat lap and you know it’s going to be quick, and you’re coming up to that last corner at 210 [mph] or whatever, and you think ‘shoot, just don’t mess it up’.

“I came in there quicker than I’d ever been – I nearly brushed the wall on the exit, but that’s all part of it.

“I was so chuffed when I came across the line and they told me I was P1.”


Alonso is 2nd. The BMW os Nick Heidfeld surprised everyone by taking a stunning 3rd place. Raikkonen is 4th with his teammate Massa 5th.

Kovalainen was a huge shock. He was unable to qualify any better than 19th. But he is starting from 22nd. Dead last. Because he had his engine changed on Saturday morning. He got a 10-place penalty.

Ferrari now say that all their hopes for the race rest on strategy. There is a confidence among the drivers that they will do much better during the race. Both Raikkonen and Massa echoed this.

"Of course I would have preferred to have been further forward on the starting grid, but we know we have a competitive car when running at race pace and as far as today's result is concerned, there is always the unknown factor concerning the fuel levels of those fighting it out in Q3," said Raikkonen.

"I didn't have any particular problems today, but I lacked a bit of speed when compared to our closest rivals.

"However, before getting upset about it, we must wait and see how the race goes.

"We will do our utmost to get the best result possible."

Massa, who was out-qualfied by his team-mate for the first time since Australia, hinted that he felt the same way.

"We certainly cannot be happy with this result, but let's wait for tomorrow's race to produce a true picture of the situation, especially in terms of what strategies the teams have opted to go with," he said.

"Our car is very good in terms of its race pace and with a bit of luck it might be possible to make up a few places at the start."

Raikkonen's race engineer Chris Dyer admitted that Ferrari had not got the best of the car in qualifying.

"We struggled a little bit in the last sector," he told ITV Sport.

"We couldn't really get the set-up dialled in. So we will have a think tonight and hopefully we can improve the situation and the strategy will play into our hands.

"I think Kimi is reasonably happy," he added.

"He would like to be on pole but I think we've improved the situation over the last few races and I think he is now getting to a more comfortable situation.

"We just have to get the most out of it tomorrow."

carry on Kimi

Great days for Mclaren finally. Hopefully we will have a Mclaren 1-2 today and kimi will blow his engine

_______________________________________
Safin's Signature:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw

stop dreaming..will u?

dreaming??
its a reality now.. stop being a kimi fan, he is a disaster

_______________________________________
Safin's Signature:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw

^ thats downright pathetic, hoping on a engine blow-out for kimi so that McLaren can win.

its pretty dangerous you know to mix two and two and get 5.
the hoping was for Mclaren, the blowout has nothing to do with it. Its something you associate with Kimi thats all. (with Mclaren also, but obviously i won't say that)

Pathetic, sure in your book, in my book ferrari is pathetic.

_______________________________________
Safin's Signature:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw

Too many things for one race right

we have had accidents, a safety car driver who is jealous (sorry zhop, copied zhops quote ) and keeps coming out, debris flowing around and if all that wasn't enough, we have fisichella and massa black flagged now for exiting the pits on red light

And hey what a good pit side by side racing by alonso and Kimi

_______________________________________
Safin's Signature:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw