|
 The Mercedes driver put Monaco disappointment behind him to set the
pace in a dry morning session before the heavens opened in the
afternoon and rendered the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve undriveable.
Hamilton was caught out in the deluge after going out on
intermediate tyres, a mere passenger as he braked into the hairpin
turn 10 with the car carrying straight on into the barriers at
reduced speed.
The red flags came out with about 40 minutes remaining, 10 minutes
after the rain first started falling.
"The ending might have been so-so but it's generally been a pretty
good day," said Hamilton.
"I made a couple of mistakes -- pushing too hard and going over the
kerbs at the final chicane and then what happened at the end there.
"Looking at the replays, I wasn't going that fast. But it was like
sheet ice into Turn 10 so the car aquaplaned and I went off," he
added.
Mercedes technical head Paddy Lowe said the car had also suffered
some minor damage to the rear of the car caused by the recovery
tractor swinging it around but all would be well for Saturday's
qualifying.
If the times meant little, Hamilton still needed the morale boost
after a pitstop blunder cost him a surefire win in Monaco 12 days
ago and handed victory to team mate Nico Rosberg instead.
His fastest lap in the morning of one minute 16.212 seconds was
0.415 quicker than Rosberg's fastest effort, and he improved that in
the afternoon to 1:15.988 despite crunching over the kerbs.
Mercedes were again the team to beat, at a track whose long
straights reward engine performance but put a heavy burden on
brakes, but Ferrari also looked competitive.
Hamilton, a three-times Canadian GP winner who leads Rosberg by 10
points after six races, had a late spin at the hairpin before lunch
but without consequence.
[to top of second column] |
Mercedes-engined cars filled the top four slots in the cloudy
opening session, after morning rain, with Romain Grosjean's
third-placed Lotus more than one and a half seconds slower than
Hamilton
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was fifth fastest, behind Nico
Hulkenberg's Force India, and then second in the afternoon with team
mate Kimi Raikkonen third ahead of Rosberg.
"I don't know exactly where we are with our speed but for sure
Ferrari seems to be a threat. They were very quick today," said
Rosberg.
Fernando Alonso, still chasing his first points of the season, was
ninth in the morning for Honda-powered McLaren while Dutch
17-year-old Max Verstappen was 10th for Renault-engined Toro Rosso.
Verstappen's Spanish rookie team mate Carlos Sainz had a more
troubled first session and had to be pushed back to the garage after
stopping at the end of the pitlane. He also spun earlier in the
morning.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Justin Palmer and Pritha
Sarkar)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
