Grand Prix 2016 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Battle for the drivers championship recommenced in Monaco and next we are off to one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite and most productive races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Only Michael Schumacher has won more races at this track than Lewis.

But wait, Red Bull are having a resurgence and back in 2014 Daniel Ricciardo recorded his maiden win. Only kidding, expect this to be a battle royal between the two Mercedes drivers for both pole and the race win. Lewis has exorcised some demons after Monaco and Nico looked to be back to the sort of form he had at the start of the 2015 season.

Red Bull are taking the fight to be "best of the rest" to Ferrari and with the upgraded Renault engine might even have gone past the Scuderia. Canada has not been a happy hunting ground for either Vettel or Raikkonen and it will be very interesting to see how the red cars stack up against the fizzy drink machines. What money on Max Verstappen have some sort of interaction with the Wall of Champions at least once during the weekend.

Williams must hope that Canada will better suit their cars than Monaco did. Force India are pushing them to be next best after the big three and will be boosted by Sergio Perez's podium in the principality. Toro Rosso can certainly mix it with Williams and Force India but last years Ferrari engine might not have quite enough puff to allow them to keep up on the faster sections.

McLaren look to be getting some form back with both cars scoring points in Monaco. Haas and Renault will be next up. Jolyon Palmer will have to get a wiggle on or I suspect he might well be out of a driver at some point in the near future.

Last, and probably least, Sauber and Manor will be at the back. After the fun between the two Sauber drivers in Monte Carlo I expect them to be a little more circumspect in Canada. Over at Manor, Pascal Wehrlein needs to up his game against Rio Haryanto if he wants a better drive for next year.

Canada often gives us a fun race, I wonder what we will get this year?

 

[teabagyokel]

KekeTheKing - I know my position is that all three incidents in the last three races should not be penalised, because:

it's motor racing, We got to Interlagos and he pushed me wide, and that's what I expect. I would have done exactly the same thing. I was like good on you man."

I grow weary of the idea that Hamilton did not run Rosberg off the road in both Austin and Montreal. He did. He's created the crash-or-yield.

It's motor racing. Rosberg expected that, and would have done exactly the same. Good on Hamilton, man.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Gary Anderson's thoughts published on Autosport online:

So another grand prix, another 'moment' between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

What happened showed exactly why Rosberg, who is out-of-contract at the end of the year, should head for pastures new. That might sound like strange advice, but it makes a lot of sense.

When they collided at Spa in 2014, it was Rosberg that seemed to get the blame. After that, if there was any risk of contact between the two, he was the driver that more often than not took the evasive action.

The same thing seems to be happening again. Since the first-lap incident in the recent Spanish Grand Prix, Rosberg has simply not been the same driver who had won seven grands prix on the bounce.

We all saw in Montreal that he had got around the outside of Hamilton, was front-wheel to front-wheel with him and should have had the inside line for the Turn 2 right-hander. But Hamilton didn't leave him any room. So what happened to leaving a car's width if a car is there?

Had Rosberg held his ground, both of them would have been off. But he backed out of it, went over the runoff area and ruined his race.



In Spain, Hamilton's front tyre was never ahead of Rosberg's rear tyre. But in Canada, Rosberg had his front tyre level with Hamilton's front and had every right to be there.

Hamilton said he had lots of understeer and that is what made him run wide into Rosberg. It's the same excuse as Austin last year and if it had been someone else he wasn't so sure of on the outside of him I am pretty sure he would have allowed more space.

But he knows Rosberg is easy meat and the Mercedes management will favour his side of the argument. So it's not a surprise this has happened again.

 

[The Pits]

pah, from the man who thought the 2012 McLaren looked uncompetitive!!

 

[Dartman]

If you look very closely at the Hamilton /Rosberg incident, Rosberg is steering off the circuit whilst there is still room, Hamilton does not close the gap until Rosberg has left the circuit and is behind Hamilton. The question now is did Hamilton drift wide as the wheels banged, or did Rosberg turn in and hit Hamilton and straighten out , then he left the circuit before the gap shut to less than one cars width. It may well have been a clever attempt to either unstable Hamilton's car in a first corner incident or produce a penalty for Hamilton, more than likely Rosberg entered too fast and had to bail out.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I've read various versions of the events at turn one but I have to say calling it a clever attempt by Rosberg to get Hamilton a penalty is about as far out there as it's possible to be.

 

[racecub]

Gary Anderson seems to ignore certain factors when coming to his conclusions

 

[Hamberg]

Gary Anderson seems to ignore certain factors when coming to his conclusions

Such as?

 

[racecub]

I've only read the excerpt above that cider and toast posted. as the article is a pay to read article.

I don't see any reference Rosberg's car being in harvesting mode in Spain, without which there would have been no incident.

He doesn't refer to the clutch issues both cars suffered with, Hamilton to a greater extent in Canada

He doesn't mention Hamilton being sandwiched between Rosberg and Vettel in Canada

He omits it say that in Spain the incident was investigated and declared a racing incident, Canada wasn't seen as necessary to investigate.

He says Mercedes management will favour Hamilton. How does he know that? Lauda came out and blamed Hamilton in Spain.

If Rosberg leaves Mercedes where would he go? He doesn't address that issue at all.

 

[cider_and_toast]

In fairness he talks about Rosberg's options later in the article. I didn't want to post the whole thing for a number of obvious reasons.

As for the Vettel, Hamilton, Rosberg sandwich, are you referring to this years Canadian GP? Vettel was ahead of Hamilton before turn 1 wasn't he?

 

[Dartman]

I've read various versions of the events at turn one but I have to say calling it a clever attempt by Rosberg to get Hamilton a penalty is about as far out there as it's possible to be.

Well OK, an attempt, turned out if that was the case it wasn't clever

 

[Kewee]

racecub ..... Vettel was completely clear of both Hamilton and Rosberg before they reached turn one. Regarding the incident in Spain, the rear light on Rosbergs car was on indicating he was harvesting.

 

[racecub]

If Andersen talks about more in the full article, then fair enough, I've only read the comments above as its a pay to read article, and they seemed very lacking to make the case for Rosberg leaving the current best team.

Kewee i confess I was watching that race on a poor buffering internet connection. I thought Hamilton Had Vettel on one side, if that's not the case I retract that comment.
I understand about the harvesting light.....and I think it's integral to the incident. Hamilton has said he went for the overtake on seeing Rosberg's car derating. Knowing he had an issue Rosberg defended 'robustly'. Yet it's Hamilton's robust defending in Canada ( that wasn't investigated by the stewards) that Anderson comments on.

 

[teabagyokel]

Difficult to imagine that Rosberg should consider his own robust defence when making career choices. He won't be his own team-mate.

 

[racecub]

No he won't be his own team mate, but he will have a team mate. And what's to say that team mate won't offer just as robust a defence as Hamilton does? These are top,drivers they will offer robust defences. They will do all they legally can to gain or maintain an advantage. So why is Anderson surprised that Hamilton does this ? Rosberg does it too.
Let's just look at Rosberg's other options.

Ferrari - partnering Vettel. I think Vettel would offer robust defence. He's also adept at getting the team supporting his needs.

Red Bull - (not going to happen because Danny's re-signed) but let's assume that hasn't happened and he went there? Will Max defend robustly? Yes, and some. We had an example of it last Sunday and Rosberg had no answers.

McLaren - they could come good. So he goes there with Alonso. Will Alonso roll over? I doubt it.

Beyond those teams he has little chance of a race win never mind a championship challenge.

Anderson also says Rosberg is easy meat because Merc management will favour Hamilton. Well evidence this year suggests the opposite. The driver blamed for an incident publiclly is Hamiltin in Spain.

And lastly, Rosberg is trying to negotiate a three year extension. So he knows where he's best off.,

 

[Hamberg]

Maybe he's counting on Hamilton going to Ferrari within those three years. That's possibly his best shot.

Although Rosberg is leading the WDC and has more wins this year. I love the way we are talking as though he's already lost!

 

[teabagyokel]

And what's to say that team mate won't offer just as robust a defence as Hamilton does?

Depends on where he goes, and what contract his team-mate will be shackled to.

 

[Il_leone]

I think Mercedes board don't really want to agree a 3 year deal seen they want to promote Wehrlein into the main team eventually

the other consideration is what salary is Rosberg demanding. He is not on Hamilton's wage

 

[Kewee]

Rosberg can't really expect to match Hamilton's wage, Hamilton has won two World Championships in Mercedes badged cars. Success is a powerful bargaining tool, not so easy when your second at the end of the season.

 

[teabagyokel]

Hamilton has won two World Championships in Mercedes badged cars

3 with the engine.

 

[Kewee]

teabagyokel ...... True teabag, but the ones that will matter to Mercedes are the two in their factory cars.