Sebastian Vettel topped the times on Friday afternoon in Montreal, but like most drivers he struggled towards the end of the session when he had severe graining on the option tyres.
That made life difficult for everyone, and few drivers were really able to set representative times. In the circumstances Vettel was understably cautious about his potential for the weekend.
“Friday lap times are not that important obviously,” he said. “All that matters is that you are on top of the ranking after qualy and on Sunday after the race. So we’ll see. I think we are in decent shape, so it’s looking good, I feel comfortable in the car.
“Obviously it’s very slippery. For two years we didn’t have a race here, so the circuit needs time. But I think it was already much better in the afternoon than in the morning.”
Vettel said he was really struggling with the tyres: “Everybody is, I think it looked quite funny. If you had a look in the end when people put a bit more fuel and stayed out a bit longer all of us were sliding probably. It was more like rallycross than F1…”
Adam Cooper F1 