Canada – Massa’s upswing continues
Felipe Massa has endured a lot of criticism in the last 18 months. And perhaps deservedly so. His performance in 2011 fell far short of what was required, and the first few races of 2012 were much the same. But he may be coming right.
Monaco was Massa’s first competitive race of 2012. After qualifying seventh, he finished a strong sixth, very much on the pace of the leaders. But that was just one race and it was at Monaco, the most unusual of all tracks on the calendar.
In Canada, Massa’s newfound form continued with sixth in qualifying. In the race, he was immediately quick, passing Nico Rosberg soon after a good start. His early progress was ended by a spin in the first corner of lap six – his own mistake. Unfortunately, the spin damaged his tyres, which caused Ferrari to change his strategy and ultimately ended his challenge for good points. He finished tenth.
Massa’s spin in Canada is a good sign. It shows that he is pushing hard. He is not tentative, not cautious, not lacking confidence. Rather, he is going for it aggressively on the track, giving everything he has in the pursuit of results. That attitude is far more significant than his fairly mediocre finishing position.
Confidence and commitment are everything in racing. Massa seems to be re-discovering his comfort zone, and it shows on the track. If this trend continues, Massa should move steadily up the grid throughout the season. Ferrari could certainly use him alongside Alonso at the front of the field.
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Ferrari should have known better
In a desperate and spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to win yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix, Ferrari tried to get one set of soft tyres to last 51 laps on Fernando Alonso’s car.
Alonso was running second when Lewis Hamilton pitted 20 laps from the end of the race. Hamilton had a slow pitstop, which could have played into Alonso’s hands if he had chosen to pit immediately. Instead, Ferrari chose to keep him out until the end of the race, hoping that his tyres would hold together long enough to defend against the charging Hamilton.
Ultimately, the strategy failed. Alonso finished fifth after his tyres dropped off significantly and he found himself lapping over three seconds off the pace. He was passed by Grosjean, Perez and then Vettel, who had tried to stay out but elected to pit when Hamilton had passed him. Alonso would probably have finished second if he had pitted when Hamilton did. Instead, he ended up off the podium, struggling for grip in the final laps.
This is not the first time a driver has tried to stay out too long on one set of tyres this season. Kimi Raikkonen showed quite emphatically how badly that can go when he fell back from second to 14th in China as he suddenly found himself with no rear grip. It had to be tried once, but that should have been enough to convince all of the teams that it was a bad idea.
Ferrari saw what happened to Raikkonen in China. They also saw that Hamilton was a second a lap quicker than Alonso on his fresh tyres. It was inevitable that Hamilton would catch and pass Alonso. It was simply a question of when. Ferrari should have realised that they were in fact racing Vettel, Grosjean and Perez, not Hamilton. Had they pulled Alonso into the pits, the likely result would have been a podium and an extended Championship lead for Alonso. Instead, they got fifth place and Alonso is now running second in the Drivers’ Championship.
It was poor strategy call, a desperate attempt to achieve the unachievable. At this stage of the season, consistent results are more important than wins. A team as experienced as Ferrari really should have known better.
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What’s going on at Mercedes?
Mercedes are having a very mixed-up season. The car is quick in the right conditions, but the two sides of the garage have had remarkably different seasons.
Nico Rosberg is having the season of his life. Pole position and victory in China, second in Monaco, plus three other top 10 finishes mean he is fifth in the Drivers’ Championship, just 21 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton.
Michael Schumacher, on the other hand, is having the worst season of his illustrious career. In seven races, he has had five retirements, only one of which can be called his fault – he crashed out in Spain – and two tenth place finishes, meaning he has just two points to his name.
In Australia, Schumacher’s gearbox failed. China saw him retire with a loose wheel after a pitstop. His race ended early in Monaco with a fuel pressure problem. Yesterday in Canada, the DRS on his Mercedes stuck open, an unusual issue in any Formula One car.
What is happening to Mercedes? One side of the garage is doing well, the other side is struggling to make it to the chequered flag. As Formula One heads to Valencia for the European Grand Prix, it is time for Schumacher’s team to provide some explanations.
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Hamilton storms to victory in Canada
Lewis Hamilton has won the Canadian Grand Prix to become the seventh winner in seven races this season.
Sebastian Vettel led the field away from pole position, and maintained his lead until the first round of pitstops. Vettel blinked first, which put Hamilton in the lead before he in turn pitted to hand the lead to Fernando Alonso. Alonso put in a series of quick laps before he came in, and managed to get out in the lead. However, Hamilton was close behind on warmer tyres and managed to pass Alonso with the benefit of DRS.
On lap 50, Hamilton pitted from the lead, expecting Alonso and Vettel to follow suit. It soon became clear that neither the Ferrari nor the Red Bull intended to change tyres, which meant Hamilton would have to catch and pass them on the track. He duly set about chasing down Vettel, reeling him in at a second or more per lap. With 8 laps to go, Hamilton eased past Vettel in the DRS zone. Two laps later, Hamilton rocketed past Alonso to take the lead, which he easily held to the chequered flag.
Behind Hamilton, there was plenty of action. Alonso had elected to stay out on his worn-out tyres, while Vettel chose to pit as soon as Hamilton had passed him. Alonso therefore became a soft target for those behind him who still had some rubber left. Grosjean and Perez made quick work of the Ferrari to take up the second and third places on the podium. Vettel proved the worth of his pitstop by passing Alonso to take 4th place.
Alonso held on to finish 5th, just ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. Webber, Raikkonen, Kobayashi and Massa rounded out the top ten.
Michael Schumacher’s run of bad luck continued with another retirement. His DRS stuck open, which meant he had plenty of straight-line speed, but absolutely no cornering grip, and he was forced to retire the car. With five retirements from seven races, the seven-time World Champion is having a thoroughly miserable season.
Williams seem to have recovered their previous poor form after winning in Spain. Maldonado finished 13th today, and Senna could only manage 17th. Similarly, Jenson Button’s season seems to be falling apart. The 2009 World Champion struggled to keep his tyres together and made three stops on the way to his second successive 16th place – not an ideal result for the team-mate of the race winner.
Hamilton’s win puts him in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship, just two points ahead of Alonso, and 1 further point ahead of Vettel. Mark Webber in fourth is just nine points behind Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg is 21 points off the championship lead.
The teams now pack up and head back to Europe for the next round in Valencia. With 13 races to go, the Drivers’ Championship is wide open. Will there be an eighth winner in eight races? We’ll find out in two weeks time.
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Canadian Grand Prix – Qualfiying prediction impossible
2012 has seen some of the tightest results in history. The cars and drivers are so evenly matched, it has become very difficult to predict who will be competitive. Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix this afternoon could see just about anyone on pole.
As expected, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes have been quick all weekend. Lotus were a little off the pace on Friday, but have shown their pace in third practice earlier today. The surprise package of the weekend, however, is Ferrari. After a difficult start to the season, the team from Maranello has improved massively through the last few races, and today Fernando Alonso was just 0.006s off the pace in second. Massa made a mistake on his quickest lap, which means his sixth place is not representative of what he can do in qualifying.
The top 15 cars were separated by just 0.885 seconds in third practice. And that did not include the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who stopped on track on his installation lap with a clutch problem.
So a qualifying prediction is difficult. It could be Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Webber, Schumacher, Maldonado or any one of another 10 drivers. It is likely that there will be at least one or two big names who fail to make it into Q3, and it is probable that almost everyone will have to use the supersoft tyres in Q2, perhaps even Q1.
Follow @chrisonf1 for live Twitter commentary during today’s qualifying session.
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Canadian Grand Prix – Hamilton dominates Friday practice
Lewis Hamilton has topped the times in the first two practice sessions for the Canadian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver led almost the entire first session, and then set the pace early in the second session and stayed at the top of the times.
Behind Hamilton, the times were very close, as has become the norm in 2012. The top 13 drivers were separated by less than three quarters of a second in Free Practice 2, which suggests that we are in for a very close and exciting qualifying session tomorrow.
The day’s proceedings were dictated by the threat of rain. A few of the teams chose to use the supersoft option tyres in FP1, as they expected FP2 to be wet. In the end, although there were a few drops of rain in the first session, the running time remained mostly dry. The heavens opened shortly after the end of FP2, the promised thunderstorms finally arriving.
With walls so close to the track, it was inevitable that there would be one or two accidents. The first came in FP1, when Heikki Kovalainen lost the back end of his Caterham and hit the wall on the exit of turn nine. Although the suspension on the right hand side of the car was destroyed, the team managed to repair the car in time for Kovalainen to complete 24 laps in FP2.
Bruno Senna became the first driver to hit the “Wall of Champions” this weekend in FP2 when he carried too much speed into the final chicane and his car swapped ends on the exit. A big impact resulted in extensive damage to the front and rear of his Williams, meaning the team will have their work cut out to get his car ready for tomorrow morning’s practice session.
Although Hamilton appeared to have a comfortable Friday, Jenson Button had a nightmare day in the other McLaren. The team identified a problem with the gearbox early in FP1, which took until mid-way through FP2 to solve. Button completed only 14 laps in FP2, ending up ninth, just over half a second off the pace of his team-mate.
McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, Force India and Sauber all look quick. Lotus were surprisingly slow given their strong start to the season, but it is possible that they have yet to show their true pace. Qualifying tomorrow afternoon will reveal the pecking order. At this point, Hamilton is a good bet for pole position.
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Schumi bullish for Canada
“The characteristics of the circuit should suit us, and we are counting on our car performing well there.”
“I’m very confident on this one. If you take the comeback time from the start to now, probably this is the closest that we can be of having a good result this weekend.”
Michael Schumacher is sure that his Mercedes W03 will be competitive in Montreal this weekend. The seven-time World Champion has yet to even stand on the podium since his return to Formula One in 2010, but this weekend provides his best opportunity yet for a race victory.
The 2012 Mercedes is clearly quick. Nico Rosberg has already taken a pole position and a victory in China this year. Schumacher topped the times in Monaco qualifying two weeks ago, and was running quickly in seventh place before a fuel pressure problem ended his challenge. If the car is reliable, this weekend should be competitive for the Silver Arrows.
If he wins this weekend, it will be the eighth time Schumacher has triumphed in Canada, which will equal his own record for most wins at a single race – he has already won the French Grand Prix eight times. At this point of his career, any achievement would break a record he already owns. Whether he takes pole, sets the fastest lap, stands on the podium or wins the race, Schumacher is well poised to once again re-write the record books in Canada.
