Sebastian Vettel caused a surprise in the second free practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal and secured fourth place. The Aston Martin driver ended up just 0.315 seconds behind Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz (both Ferrari).
Vettel reported towards the middle of the training session that something was loose in the footwell of his car. But apart from that, the German experienced a very positive first day of training. His teammate Lance Stroll (12th), who is contesting his home Grand Prix in Canada, was almost a second behind him.
Nevertheless, Vettel is not one of the favorites for pole position. Verstappen, who had complained about “clipping” in the first free practice session, set a best time of 1:14.127 minutes and took the Ferrari drivers 0.082 and 0.225 seconds respectively.
Fernando Alonso (Alpine) dropped from third to fifth place from first to second practice. The Spaniard was just 0.416 seconds off the best time. Only behind him was there a small gap of another three tenths of a second to Pierre Gasly (6th/AlphaTauri).
Sergio Pérez, who was very competitive recently in Monte Carlo and Baku, fell sharply behind his teammate Verstappen on Friday. In the end, he was 1.040 seconds short. That meant eleventh place, ahead of local hero Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes / +1.294).
Mercedes tests new underbody
Mercedes is testing a new underbody with a large hole in the floor panel for the first time in Canada. Hamilton had installed this in the first practice session, but switched back to the old variant in the second – and was thus 0.450 seconds slower than George Russell (7th).
Hamilton wasn’t satisfied. The “porpoising” is still there, and none of the many set-ups tried really satisfied him. Five minutes before the end of the session, he radioed: “This car is now undrivable, man!”
On the other hand, the result of Mick Schumacher was pleasing: Although he was 0.017 seconds slower than Kevin Magnussen in FT2, the Haas duo finished in positions 14 and 15. Schumacher was only 1.389 seconds behind Verstappen’s best time.