Grand Prix 2010 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So after a break last year while certain "Contract" issues were resolved Canada returns to the calendar, bringing with it everyone's favourite wall. How many drivers will fall foul of it this year we wonder.

The good news for the circuit organisers is that the GP is a sell out which justifies the amount of effort that they put into ensuring that the track would remain a highlight of the season.

As for the teams, it's widely acknowledged that this track should play into the hands of McLaren who, with their F-Duct, should have the advantage when it comes to straight line speed. Red Bull's drivers have agreed to disagree about whose fault it was and its all smiles for the cameras but you can almost guarantee that on the track they will be even more determined. We've seen this situation several times before, Piquet/Mansell and Hamiltion/Alonso for example, where team mates at war have thrown away a clear car advantage and let a third driver in to pinch the championship.

Ferrari will be desperate to recover from a poor Turkish GP while Mercedes will look to continue their recent improvement and finish ahead of the scarlet cars. Schumacher is one of the champions who left a little too much paint on the "wall" and with a Merc' that still doesn't seem to be handling the way he'd like it, will he do it again. Renault will once again be pushing both of them all the way.

In the mid field, Sauber are finally starting to claw there way back towards the front end and now look to be able to compete with Force India while Toro Rosso have shown signs that they can find some speed from their car. Jaime Unspellable recently taking the fastest lap of the race may have been a huge boost and he has shown signs, now that he has had a chance to get more experience behind the wheel that he may be capable of doing a job.

Williams. Oh dear. With Sauber pulling themselves up to the back of Force India it would seem that Williams are now stuck fighting it out with STR for the crumbs from the top table. With that last win for the team looking further and further away and no sign of another any time soon, these are troubled times. That it's been over a decade since JV's title and watching yet another excellent Adrian Newey designed car further down the pit lane must just rub more salt into the wound.

Finally the newbies, Lotus continue their development of the T127 however the recent gains made over the last couple of races are likely to slow again as Mike Gascgoyne insists his team will be concentrating on the development of next years car. The real story among the newbies is the continued improvement of HRT having out-qualified one of the Virgin cars in Turkey. Is this a sign of the chaos surrounding the Virgin team or is this a sign that HRT have made a leap in technical performance since their chaotic début. They must be confident that they have what it takes to improve since they recently severed their links to Dallara and are going it alone when it comes to chassis development. Finally at Virgin, the signs that they are heading the way of Nick Wirth's previous foray into F1 cannot be ignored. With the Virgin brand on the cars it's well known that for Sir Richard, failure is not an option. They need to sort out their woes quickly otherwise it could be back to "Manor" racing next year or something worse.

So that's the state of play, let's hope Canada continues the recent run of great races.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I am at a loss to understand why there have been so few attempts - if any - to qualify in P3 with the prime tyre. I have seen Lewis perform far better on the prime so often this season, it baffles the hell out of me why he's not done it. :s

At all the dry races so far when they make that first pitstop the fresh set of prime tyres always appears to be so much quicker than the worn set of options. Surely someone's got to take a punt on it this race?
...or perhaps they'll all do it :thinking:
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Very few (if any?) drivers using the super soft tyres were able to match the time Lewis Hamilton set on the harder tyres during P3.

So if Lewis is prepared to be beaten for pole and be on the 1st or 2nd row then he might just use the medium tyres for qualifying which will enable him to run longer for the first stint.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Just checked and Lewis' fastest time on the medium was 1:16.259 on lap 10 which is quicker than everyone else's time on both tyres.

So Lewis has to at least consider using the medium for Qualifying.

Yes there was a yellow flag on the last lap so most people aborted their final hot lap but from what I saw, no-one was going to equal that time anyway.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

A stunning pole lap from Lewis Hamilton and in doing so continues his perfect qualifying record at Canada.

The first time a Red Bull car hasn't been P1 for the race so far this season.

And how nice was it to see a little light relief at the end with Lewis sitting out of his car and pushing it along the circuit?
Let's hope the stewards don't take a dim view of it.

Tomorrow should be a great race with the top 10 using different tyres for the first time this year.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I like the call by McLaren. If Lewis can stay at the front, he should be able to make the Options last better than someone in the pack.

And if the forecast for rain is accurate, it wont matter anyway, and Lewis can romp away from the field. Until the Safety Car that is.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

:s I am at a bit of a loss to know why McLaren would elect to start the race on the slower tyre. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. The weather and safety car are perhaps where McLaren's thoughts are... strange none of the other teams felt the same way though. :dunno:
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I guess their thinking is as long as Lewis can stay in front then Red Bull lose the advantage of the faster tyre.
That's what Jenson seems to be banking on judging by his comments.

Also, if a safety car comes out early then he gets a free pit stop almost.

Once again Mark out-qualified Seb.

Two Force Indias in the top 10 too! An excellent result for one of the fastest improving team on the grid.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Typical bloody FIA

Lewis has been reprimanded and hit with a fine of $10,000 for:
"exceeding the maximum time as defined in Document 15 - Race Directors' Note to Teams of 11 June 2010, 19:06."

And they wonder why people are switching off from F1
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Sorry Bro,

For the first time, I really must disagree with you. The FIA regs require that cars go out with enough fuel to make their qualifying effort and return to the pits with at least a litre of fuel remaining in the car so it can be analyzed. If McLaren messed up their computation and sent Hamilton out with insufficient fuel, they SHOULD be penalized. Shutting off your motor and coasting is NOT an acceptable option. Imagine the outcry here and elsewhere if it had been Schumacher, not Hamilton!
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Well personally I wouldn't have thought any different if it was Schumacher, or Alonso ;)

Seeing Hamilton sitting on his car took me back years to when Nigel Mansell gave Ayrton Senna a lift back to the pits at Silverstone.

I think this is what F1 needs more of, to not take itself so seriously.
Hell, the drivers can't even do doughnuts now without being penalised for it.

 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Brogan said:
Typical bloody FIA

Lewis has been reprimanded and hit with a fine of $10,000 for:
"exceeding the maximum time as defined in Document 15 - Race Directors' Note to Teams of 11 June 2010, 19:06."

And they wonder why people are switching off from F1

WTF? :censored:
The utter stupidity of the FIA continues to amaze me. :o :o :o :censored: :censored: :o

Of course, F1 fans aren't the only ones the FIA has managed to :censored: over this year. Thursday, in the runup to the LeMans 24, the ACO(LeMans' sanctioning body) basically gave Jean Todt and the FIA the finger by announcing the 2011 regulations for LeMans-organized races, effectively eliminating the GT1 category(to be fair, though, the GT1 class has all but disappeared from endurance racing) and giving a bit of a black eye to the FIA's GT1 Championship(which makes up the entire 8-car GT1 field this year at la Sarthe.........).

I'm beginning to think Jean Todt and Brian Barnhart(the IRL's president of operations) are related due to their sometimes banally stupid actions............. :o :o :o
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

snowy said:
:s I am at a bit of a loss to know why McLaren would elect to start the race on the slower tyre. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. The weather and safety car are perhaps where McLaren's thoughts are... strange none of the other teams felt the same way though. :dunno:

I'm not absolutely positive about this, but I believe the Red Bulls and Kubica's Renault were the only cars to set their best Q3 time on the Prime tires. I think everybody else in the top 10 will be starting on the Options.

As far as the slap on the wrist that Lewis and McLaren received for FuelGate, it's definitely money well spent.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I think you're right Keke, almost everyone used the super softs in Q3, it was Red Bull who went against the grain.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I find it a little bit ridiculous that this decision has been made to fine Hamilton.

Inherently, I agree that antics such as that should not be be allowed. We do not want a situation where all the cars are stopping on track at the end of qualifying. However, Hamilton is not the first driver of the season who has stopped his car out on track at the end of qualifying, or the race.

It just happens to be him that gets made an example of again...
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I dopn't see the fine as a problem. They broke the rules, they get fined, simple really. I'm sure McLaren thought it was worth it..
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

BBC Sport's Sarah Holt in Montreal:

"There were a few raised eyebrows after qualifying when pole position man Lewis Hamilton used his muscles to push his car back to the McLaren pits after the team told him he probably didn't have enough in the tank to make it back AND still be able to provide the FIA with the requisite fuel sample. The team were fined $10,000 for contravening an FIA memo which says the cars have to be driven back to the pits. Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: 'We didn't set out to do this. It wasn't Lewis' fault - a mistake was made. The regulations require us to provide a sample so we felt that was the dominant requirement rather than a memo which isn't in the rules. There's nothing in the regulations that say you have to return to the garage after qualification.' Some of McLaren's rivals were disgruntled about it because it mean Hamilton had had an advantage in qualifying because his car was lighter than it should have been. But at a team managers' meeting on race morning the teams were shown the radio transcripts and have now accepted that it was a genuine mistake. Apparently, the fuel man misheard a request for more fuel and put in an extra 0.2kg rather than an extra 2kg. Nevertheless, now the issue has been raised race director Charlie Whiting is expected to issue a rule clarification to ensure teams don't try to exploit this in the future."

Once again a rule clarification is issued after something Hamilton does.

Anyone seeing a pattern here?
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Mark Webber dropped to 7th on the grid due to a gearbox change.

I suppose that's one way of getting Vettel in front of him ;)
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

An absolutely superb race.

It could have been any one of 4 or 5 drivers on the top step.

More of the same please.

A special mention for Schumacher though - I saw at least 3 questionable moves which ended up with drivers getting damaged cars and/or pushed onto the grass.

Oh and no safety car for a change.

Edit: I was surprised Lewis wasn't penalised for the pit release but at least he and Fernando showed Vettel how it's done.
 
Re: 2010 Canadian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Brogan said:
A special mention for Schumacher though - I saw at least 3 questionable moves which ended up with drivers getting damaged cars and/or pushed onto the grass.
.

I've always wondered how Schumacher would have fared on a level playing field - without team orders and FIA interference (not penalising dubious moves). I doubt that it would have been 7 WDC if he had relied on his own "ability". Bit like a snail - only quick when he has a balsa shell!
 
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