Acton Unwinds At the Practice Session in Canadian GP
Red Bull is in dominating mood once again as Sebastian Vettel ended the lap with the fastest time at the second practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday afternoon. The second practice round at the Canadian Grand Prix started in the afternoon with all the expected zeal and zest. It took only a total of 1 minute and 16.877 sec for Vettel to cover the lap, whereas the only other driver to match his speed and guile was Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who consumed 1 minute and 16.963 seconds.
However, as it was indicated, most of the drivers centered on race running which was hardly visible from the results. A majority of the fastest laps were set early in the period of 90 minutes.
Michael Schumacher’s team mate, Nico Rosberg was the first pace setter with a total time of 1 minute and 17.151 seconds for the Mercedes team. He was successful to set up the third fastest lap at the practice rounds. Mark Webber of Red Bull, who lost his victory at the Turkish Grand Prix owing to an unfortunate crash with his own teammate, stood at the forth place with 1 minute and 17.273 seconds. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who is very enthusiastic and optimistic for his performance at Montreal, covered the distance in 1 minute 17.401 seconds, ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil who took 1 minute and 17.415 seconds. The aggressive Champions of the Turkish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton of McLaren covered in 1m 17.522s. Renault's Robert Kubica who stands currently at the sixth place in the driver’s championship ended in 1 minute and 17.529 seconds. Racing sensation Michael Schumacher covered the same distance in 1 minute and 17.688 seconds, leading Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi who needed 1 minute and 17.903 seconds to cover the lap. Jenson Button, who secured the second podium position in Turkey last month, took 1 minute and 17.961 seconds to the finish the distance.
Team Williams, which currently stand at the seventh place at the Constructor’s Championship with just 8 points so far, seemed hopeful of a good performance. The performance of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg seemed better than what they had shown in the previous races this season, with seven and one points respectively. Here, the 12th and 13th place was claimed by both the drivers with 1 minute 18.385 seconds and 1 minute 18.447 seconds respectively, leaving Renault’s Vitaly Petrov one position behind with a time of 1 minute 18.582 seconds. BMW Sauber was not very promising with their Pedro de la Rosa, ending with 1 minute 18.658 seconds while teammate Kamui Kobayashi on 1 minute 19.142 seconds. Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso stands with just a single point for this season so far ending on 1 minute 19.168 seconds whereas Jaime Alguersuari on 1 minute 19.274 seconds.
What socked all at the practice session was the speed of Heikki Kovalainen of the Lotus team, who was able to pull through in 1 minute 19.969 seconds for 19th place, which is very encouraging for him for the weekend’s race. Another surprising strong performance of the afternoon was shown by Karun Chandhok in the revitalized HRT, who was able to make it in 1 minute 20.879 seconds, ahead of his team mate Bruno Senna who took 1 minute 21.097 seconds. Jarno Trulli though missed most part of the session for technical gremlins, ended on 1 minute 21.346 second, right ahead of Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi, of the Virgins, finishing on 1 minute 21.488 seconds and 1 minute 21.577 seconds respectively.
At the practice, winds served a cool and covered afternoon with much slippery roads. This ever threatening track of Canada with its tight chicanes and hairpin, made the drivers push harder than normal. Despite the cruel reputation of the track, luckily no significant accidents took place and it is hoped that there would not be any in tomorrow’s final race as well.
There are a lot many hopes, expectations and predictions but only one night left to unwind after the today’s practice session. The race is anticipated to be a tough competition between the Red Bulls and the McLarens, with Hamilton trying to repeat his victory and Webber trying to safeguard his driver’s Championship.
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