[deetjohn]

This weekend is the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, one of the F1 fraternity’s favourite races and a solid favourite with many drivers. Ferrari has a major upgrade here, as does Red Bull’s engine partner Renault.


Circuit Layout


Looking towards L’Epingle

Turn3


As an island street track, Montreal is only used for racing twice year. The surface has low levels of grip and is always dirty at the start of the weekend. Accurately predicting its improvement in grip is critical to race strategy here. The long back straight and tight hairpin make overtaking easy, which pushes teams towards making more stops; but with walls lining the track, there is a high chance of safety cars (due to accident debris) and safety cars undermine multi-stop strategies.

But it’s also a difficult race to win, as strategy is really important here. It has high (56%) chance of a safety car, which often turns races on their heads, a short pit lane, which means fast stops and an unusual track surface – low grip and used for racing only twice a year.

The Wall of Champions
Turn 13, the last corner at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve which leads on to the start-finish straight, is a tricky chicane which has become known as the Wall of Champions due to the number of F1 greats it has caught out over the years.




Race Strategy Briefing




Courtesy: JA on F1, montrealinpictures

[zenren]

TV Timings IST

FP1- 19:25 - SS4/HD2
FP2- 23:25 - SS4/HD2
FP3- 19:25 - SS4/HD2

Qualifying- 22:20 - SS4/HD2

Race- 23:25 - SS4/HD2

Weather Forecast:
FRI - WET
SAT - DRY
SUN - DRY

[mayankk]

My take on the winners?

Hamilton
Rosberg
Magnussen

Vettel retires.
17 ran.

[GTO]

This is one of Hamilton's favourite circuits and, as Button says, he'll be untouchable here.

I was hoping for an entertaining battle between Fonso & Kimi this season, but the poor Finn has been beaten by Fernando in each race so far. Not entirely to do with bad luck either. Ferrari's technical director recently commented that Kimi is simply driving slower than Fernando. Alonso is like Schumacher; no team mate ever beat him (except Hamilton during the McLaren days).

Really looking forward to the Canadian GP as I prefer late night GPs over the afternoon / evening timings. Plus, it's the first I saw in person. View from my 2003 seat below:

[Nitrous Power]

Practice 1 results:

1. Alonso
2. Hamilton
3. Roseburg
4. Vettle

Let's see how the practice 2 shapes up. It will be too early to say but looks like upgrades brought by Ferrari are working as expected.

[MaserQ]

Friday practice is not always the best indicator but it does look as if Ferrari have found a few tenths with the latest updates. Renault are not doing too bad as well, considering the slight deficit in power on a quick circuit.

[mp417]

Business as usual in FP2.



My prediction for Race:
Hamilton
Rosberg
Ricciardo

[ecenandu]

Never expected Nico to beat Hamilton. Anyways, really looking forward for the race tomorrow!! My prediction for tomorrow
Hamilton
Alonso
Massa

[D33-PAC]

Very dissapointed as a hardcore LH fan. Thought for sure Ros would be crushed in Q3.

This is the bitter part of being a HAM fan , it seems Nico is a worthy adversary.

The sweet part of this bittersweet ordeal is that this makes for a much more entertaining race !

[zenren]

HAM-ROS battle will be interesting tonight since HAM seems to have a better pace and starts behind ROS. My money is on Hamilton eventually getting past Rosberg. Chances of a Mercedes crashing out are not too small either.

Bottas might throw in a surprise considering he has made his tyres last a lot longer than others. He might lead the race for a few laps. 3rd place battle looks like a fierce one Williams, Red Bull and Ferrari evenly paced in terms of the race pace.

Ferrari sent Kimi out a little too late for the final timed lap since it was obvious others would come out on track around the same time he started his flying lap and be on his path. However, P8 was probably the slot he would have managed even if he had a good lap - so not much of a disaster. Expect HUL to do one stop less to improve the position. He'll probably try to gain a couple of places at the start.

Safety car chances: I would expect at least 1 intervention, if not 2 during race and this could be the crucial factor in the outcome.

[Hatari]

Interesting Quali... Nico did a good job of staying calm and putting in the last couple of laps while Lewis was pushing for more. The fight should last the entire race between them. The only place to overtake is the last chicane. A few years ago, Alonso had done a great job by saving KERS on the straight and using it just after the WoC and in the run up to the first corner. This year thats not an option.

Looking forward to seeing how much difference DRS makes for the 2 Mercs when racing each other. Overtaking into the last chicane is tricky. I have a feeling we will see some close shaves.

Seb pulled out the extra hundreths that was the difference. I feel he will get taken on the straights by the leading Williams as soon as DRS is activated. As he will not have DRS from the Mercs in front. The diff in Quali was 12 km/hr, assuming 11-13 km/hr for DRS should take it to 23-25, which is substantial. He would then need to use the tow so the next Williams doesnt follow right away.

Ferrari 4th fastest team here.. though it should be a good fight between them, Williams and Red Bull.

[deetjohn]

Well, well, well. Great performance by Nico to snatch the Pole from Lewis yesterday. Don't think anyone expected it. Nico said he worked very hard to get the maximum out of the lap at Canada. And Lewis locked up and lost the line on his hot lap to blow it.

Anyways, overtaking is easy peacy at Canada and I am sure it will be great fight today. Maybe like a MotoGP race where the cars swapping places every lap.

And a stellar lap from Vettel to spoil it for Williams. The latter looks the second best on raw pace. Waiting for the race to see if the upgrades by Ferrari has really brought in some good gains.

[treadmark]

Originally Posted by Hatari

Seb pulled out the extra hundreths that was the difference. I feel he will get taken on the straights by the leading Williams as soon as DRS is activated. As he will not have DRS from the Mercs in front. The diff in Quali was 12 km/hr, assuming 11-13 km/hr for DRS should take it to 23-25, which is substantial. He would then need to use the tow so the next Williams doesnt follow right away.

In fact Vettel told this during Q&A section post qualification

Sebastian Vettel is expecting the Mercedes-powered cars around him on the Canadian Grand Prix grid to have an advantage over him on Montreal's long straights in Sunday's race. He said "Williams is very strong here and they have a quick car down the straights. Generally I think the Mercedes-powered cars are looking forward to the straights tomorrow"

Cheers!

[a*ed]

2nd retirement of the season for Hamilton! Seems to be a brake problem. Massa currently leading! What a turn around for him!

[a*ed]

OMG! Ricciardo takes lead into the penultimate lap from Rosberg! Vettel overtakes Perez to take 3rd. And Massa takes out Perez and they both crash into the barriers and they barely miss Vettel! First victory for Ricciardo!! Awesome race by Perez until he got taken away by Massa!