Image by Zak Mauger/LAT
Leclerc fastest, Hamilton crashes in second Canadian GP practice
Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari one-two in the second practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton hit the wall and missed significant track time.
Hamilton had been quickest as Mercedes started the weekend strongly on Friday morning, but he was on his eighth lap of FP2 when he slid wide at Turn 8 and clouted the wall. The championship leader was trying to catch the slide but had not corrected the car quickly enough and hit the wall hard with the right-rear corner, causing damage that forced him to limp extremely slowly back to the pits.
That Hamilton got the car back was impressive given the strength of the impact, but Mercedes opted to change the whole rear end as a precaution and he did not return to the track.
https://twitter.com/F1/status/1137083807037661184
It would have been interesting to see Hamilton’s pace in qualifying trim given Ferrari’s performance, as Leclerc led the way in a turnaround from FP1. This morning, Ferrari was the best part of a second off the pace, but Leclerc’s second timed lap saw him produce a 1m12.177s to lead teammate Sebastian Vettel by 0.074s.
Valtteri Bottas was third quickest on the soft tire runs, 0.134s off Leclerc’s time, while there was a surprisingly strong performance from Carlos Sainz as he ended up fourth for McLaren, 0.376s adrift of the fastest lap.
Sainz’s time is slightly tempered by the fact that Max Verstappen backed off on his soft tire attempt after hitting the 'Wall of Champions,' with the Dutchman referencing how close he was to teammate Pierre Gasly at the time as a potential reason. Verstappen only brushed the wall but felt the impact to be strong enough to back off completely and return to the pits, leaving him down in 13th place without a representative time.
https://twitter.com/F1/status/1137069437557911552
That Gasly was only one place ahead of Verstappen was disappointing for Red Bull, meaning it was Kevin Magnussen in the Haas who was closest to Sainz but still some 0.4s adrift of the McLaren.
Hamilton ended up sixth due to not running again, with Sergio Perez in seventh ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll. Although Stroll will have been encouraged by the pace as he seeks to escape Q1 for the first time this season, the Canadian was involved in an unnecessary incident late in the session as he did not leave Romain Grosjean enough space under braking for the final chicane and tapped the Haas, forcing Grosjean to cut the corner. The incident will be investigated after the session.
Magnussen also finds himself under investigation, facing a trip to the stewards to explain why he failed to rejoin the track correctly after going wide at one stage.
After a strong FP1 -- aided by using the soft tire -- Kimi Raikkonen slipped back to 16th, while teammate Antonio Giovinazzi was 18th after missing the start of the session while the team changed his gearbox as a result of a crash in the first session.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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