Lewis Hamilton wasn’t joking when he said Mercedes may have found its “North Star”, the one that will allow it to relaunch the race for the Formula 1 championship.
Hamilton led the charge for the German team, which set the two best times after the first day of free practice at the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on Friday.
The seven-time world champion recorded a time of one minute and 13.718 seconds (1:13.718), before torrential rain fell on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit in the last 10 minutes of the session.
A day earlier, Hamilton said he was confident Mercedes would make progress this weekend – especially after climbing to the podium with team-mate George Russell for the first time this season at the final race in Spanish Grand Prix.
“The result in Barcelona has put smiles on faces across the team, but a swallow doesn’t make a spring,” Mercedes technical director James Allison said on Friday.
“The drivers are more satisfied with the braking, but there is still a lot of work to do to compete with the front of the grid,” he added. At least we got some good feedback on the efforts to generate these improvements. »
His teammate, George Russell, set the second time, at 27 thousandths of a second. Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. followed in third place, 0.126 seconds behind.
“We’ve found our North Star — we now know which way we need to go — and while we still don’t have all the solutions to our problems, we believe as a team we can get there,” explained the Briton on Thursday, galvanized.
Hamilton often enjoys success at the Canadian Grand Prix; he has triumphed there seven times since the beginning of his illustrious career. This harvest allows him to share the record in this area with Michael Schumacher, and he likes to tell anyone who wants to hear that he loves this track.
“It’s one of the drivers’ favorite circuits, for sure,” said the 38-year-old driver. It’s the city, its energy… I recently asked a Canadian: “Is the city always like this, even when we’re not there?” The energy is always wonderful. And the crowd has always been great, from the very beginning.
“This track, with its long, long straights, still feels like a go-kart track,” Hamilton added.
The top-5 was completed in order by Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
Max Verstappen, the reigning two-time world champion, followed in sixth place at 0.424 seconds.
The Red Bull driver will again be the favorite to win this weekend, having won five of the first seven rounds of the season. The 25-year-old Dutchman is also the defending champion of the event, and he didn’t seem too worried about the results of the day.
“I think we still have a bit of work to do, because our car doesn’t react very well to bumps or curbs. It’s not that bad, but obviously a few things will need to be worked out,” said Verstappen.
“It will probably be rainy tomorrow (Saturday), so it should lead to some surprises during qualifying,” he added. Then we’ll see how it goes on Sunday. »
For his part, Quebecer Lance Stroll had to settle for ninth time, 0.701 seconds behind Hamilton.
Moreover, the second free practice session was marked by a few interruptions.
The engine of Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas car notably gave up the ghost after about 30 minutes, leaving a thick cloud of black smoke in its wake. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) was also forced to immobilize his car at the edge of the track a few minutes later, due to an electronic problem.
Exceptionally, the second free practice session was extended by 30 minutes due to a technical problem at the circuit. F1 also decided that it would start 30 minutes earlier, at 4.30 p.m. local time, rather than 5 p.m., as planned.
A third free practice session will take place on Saturday morning, followed by qualifying in the afternoon.
The Canadian Grand Prix is the eighth round of the F1 season.
Verstappen dominates the drivers’ championship with 170 points, ahead of Sergio Perez (117) and Alonso (99). Stroll is eighth with 35 points.
In the constructors’ championship, Red Bull dominates with 287 points. Mercedes took advantage of the Spanish Grand Prix to overtake second-placed Aston Martin with 152 points.
A camera problem
The day could have turned into a nightmare for the organizers of the Canadian Grand Prix.
A failure of the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit’s security camera network forced the marshals to shorten the first free practice session to just three minutes.
A problem with the synchronization of the images, which would be around 30 seconds between the moment an event occurs on the track and the moment the marshals become aware of it at the control tower, would have been at the origin of the situation, according to the publicist for the Canadian Grand Prix promotion group, Sandrine Garneau-Lebel.
Thus, for safety reasons, the marshals asked the pilots to return quietly to the pits, until the problem was resolved.
Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas still had time to set the fastest lap of the session — for what it’s worth.