MONTREAL – The Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel set the pace on the opening day of Canadian Grand Prix weekend Friday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Leclerc set the fastest time of the day in the second practice with a fast time of 1:12.177, besting his Ferrari teammate Vettel by .074 of a second. Valtteri Bottas was third for Mercedes, .134 of a second behind Leclerc’s fastest lap.
Reigning Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton looked to be the pace setter early Friday when he led the opening practice by nearly a second over Leclerc. However, things turned sour for Hamilton during the second practice.
Hamilton had a big moment of oversteer in turn eight during a fast lap, which led to him slamming the wall in turn nine with his Mercedes. He limped his car back to the pits, where his Mercedes team replaced the entire rear end of the car.
Hamilton was unable to turn another lap in the second practice, leaving him sixth overall as a result.
“I made a mistake in FP2 and damaged the car,” Hamilton admitted. “The boys tried really hard to fix it, but there wasn’t enough time. I don’t remember the last time I missed a whole session before. It’s definitely not great to watch the session from the garage; it feels like sitting in the headmaster’s office, wishing to be back in class. It was an innocent mistake, I was doing multiple laps on the medium tire and was really trying to find the limit.
“Obviously I went slightly over, I had a big snap out of turn nine and was drifting for a long time, hoping I wouldn’t hit the wall. But these things happen; you just have to put it behind straight away you and get back on the horse.”
Behind Bottas in third, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. set an impressive fast lap to take fourth overall. The Haas of Kevin Magnussen ended the day fifth fastest.