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Nico Rosberg’s pole streak was ended in Montreal when he had to settle for fourth, but only after radio problems badly compromised his session.

Rosberg was unable to get any information from the team and ultimately didn’t manage to do a time at the end due to a misunderstanding.

“My excuse today is I didn’t have my radio working, except for a very short space on the straight,” said Rosberg. “But the team didn’t know that, so it was more or less like having no radio. So I had no information, and that made it really difficult with these conditions.

“I didn’t have KERS working, because I didn’t have the right setting, I didn’t have brake temperatures up, and all these things. So that was my problem today. Actually fourth place is good, considering the circumstances. I was expecting a lot worse, because I didn’t even manage to do a lap in the end.

“If it would have been a normal, dry qualifying then it’s not that important, because you can tell me in the garage what I need to do, and it’s OK. Of course, it’s not ideal, but it would have been more or less OK. But with these conditions you just need so much information.

“Even in the end I was told two laps in the garage, and it turned out it was three laps that I had [left]. By the time I got to the end of my second I thought it was finished, and that was a very poor lap, and then starting the third I was just stuck on the gearbox of the Lotus [Raikkonen]. So I completely wasted that run and didn’t get a lap time in.”

He added: “I’m saying all my excuses for the day, but at the same time Lewis did a great job, so it would have been diffcult to beat Lewis anyways today.”

Rosberg implied that he was hoping for a wet race, given that the team still has its tyres issues.

“The car is really good in the wet, as in the dry, on one lap. In the wet it’s good even for a longer run, in the dry a longer run is still our weakness, tyre degradation. There are other teams that are stronger than us for sure. We need to manage it as best as possible for us and make the most of it, starting position wise it’s looking great, so maybe we can use that to our advantage, and finish well.”

Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo have both been penalised two places on the grid for the Canadian GP.

In the end they lose only one place as Kimi’s offence was deemed to have happened first, so by the time the grid is shuffled he actually gains one back from Ricciardo’s penalty and vice versa!

They were deemed to have not started from the fast lane in the pits when Q2 was resumed following the red flag for Felipe Massa’s accident. The 15 remaining cars all waited at the end of the pitlane with several drivers taking the ‘inside’ line and passing others.

Raikkonen jumped from fourth in the queue to second, and Ricciardo from sixth to fourth. No action was taken against Pastor Maldonado, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez, none of whom gained places. In fact Pastor managed to lose one…

The grid now reads 9th HUL, 10th RAI, 11th RIC, 12th PER.

Valtteri Bottas stunned the Montreal pitlane by qualifying a superb third for the Canadian GP, having been fast throughout the damp session.

The Finn was fourth in both Q1 and Q2 as the weather hid the usual deficiencies of his Williams.

“Of course it means a lot,” said Bottas. “It’s way more up in the grid than what we really could ever imagine. It’s been so difficult, the first six races for us and it will be a nice boost for the team. We really got everything quite right today.

“I don’t think we expected to be on the first or second row. I think everyone in our team was hoping for rain because there’s always a chance if you get the timing right, get everything right, you can maybe finish a bit higher than where the car is sometimes. But yes, the race is tomorrow. If it’s dry, for sure it’s going to be difficult, it’s not going to be easy, so let’s see.”

Inevitably he’s hoping for more rain on Sunday.

“I think the fact is in the dry the car doesn’t belong to P3 at the moment, so yeah, of course some rain would help us, like it did in the qualifying. Because I think we found, for the Inter tyres especially, a quite good way of how to really work the tyre, the right temperatures and everything – so I hope so.”

Felipe Massa will start the Canadian GP in 16th place after crashing out of the damp Q2 session.

It was the Ferrari driver’s third major accident in recent weeks after the two in Monaco, albeit not quite as spectacular as its predecessors.

“I didn’t see the video yet, but people tell me I braked over the white line,” said Massa. “Maybe it’s possible, because when I braked I just went sideways straight away. I’m really disappointed with what happened. It’s like a movie you know, three things happened straight away like that. I’m very disappointed, not happy, but the race is tomorrow, so we need to concentrate on tomorrow, and try to do a good race tomorrow.

“We don’t gain anything by going to the past, we need to go to the present and the future. It’s true that it’s not nice to start in the back, but it’s also true that this is a race, this is a track that every year many things happen during the race, so we need to concentrate on that and try to do a good race tomorrow.”

Massa said he had suffered no physical after effects.

“Physically it’s fine, this crash was nothing compared to Monaco, much slower. The crash I had here is more… psychological than physical! So we have to forget about that and start a different thing. I think the pace was OK today, the biggest problem was the evolution. When it was very wet it was not easy, when it was a dry line it was OK for us. We’ll see how the conditions are going to be tomorrow.”

Christian Horner reiterated today that Red Bull firmly believes that it was the responsibility of Mercedes to obey the FIA’s rules related to testing.

Horner said he trusted that the FIA tribunal would come to the correct conclusion.

“Our feelings were fairly clear because we raised a protest about it in Monaco,” said Horner. “So we believe that it is the responsibility of the entrant to comply with the regulations, so when it came to light that a test with a current car had taken place, our interpretation of the regulations is that that was in clear breach of them, and therefore we raised a protest prior to the race for it to be dealt with as an issues by the FIA.

“It’s really an issue between the team and the FIA. Obviously Pirelli have asked several teams to test, ourselves included, but we have declined to do so because we felt that it wasn’t in line with the regulations, certainly with a current car. That’s the situation.

“It’s gone to the Tribunal and we trust in the FIA to make the appropriate decisions regarding it. I think the important thing is that there needs to be absolute clarity moving forward in terms of what you can do and what you can’t do going forward, you know, what is testing and what isn’t testing. I think that’s more crucial than anything, it is to be fully resolved.”

Horner reiterated that any team would learn a lot running a 2013 car, even in a tyre test.

“When you’re not allowed to test, when you have limited mileage, when the rules are written as they are, when you run a current car of course fthe way that Formula One is, with the way that the amount of technology and with the amount of data analysis there is, you’re always learning. Whether it be reliability, whether it be endurance, whether it be performance.

“So, of course, even if you’re testing a component for a supplier, you’re learning. I think Formula One has moved an awfully long way over the last few years to ensure fairness and equality to all of the entrants. I think that if a team does carry out 1000km of additional testing with a current car, you’re going to learn something.”

Pirelli boss Paul Hembery failed to appear at the FIA Friday Press Conference today after taking legal advice from company lawyers, thus avoiding a session which focussed totally on the test controversy.

He did appear later at Pirelli’s own press gathering, under controlled conditions, with no questions allowed regarding the upcoming case. However, inevitably the conversation did drift towards the subject.

“We’re going to a tribunal,” he said of the silence. “And if ever you’re going to a tribunal any lawyer will tell you at that point you have a formal process to follow, which we’re happy to follow, we’re supportive and following. We’ll speak about everything at the tribunal, that’s the point of a tribunal.”

Asked if he was looking forward to it, he said: “Of course we are. We want to be able to demonstrate our point of view, our situation. It’s not nice sometimes to hear things that you know are maybe quite wide of the mark. I guess when you’re quiet, then people can also use their imagination.

“The point of a tribunal, a well run tribunal I’m sure it will be because the FIA has put in a new process, is to look at all the data, and all the facts. There a lot of context that needs to be taken into account.”

He was also asked if his position was under threat from the Pirelli board: “They’re very happy, they’ve got no worries.”

Ross Brawn has insisted that sporting integrity is vital to Mercedes, and says that the full facts of the testing controversy will come out on the FIA’s International Tribunal.

Brawn was speaking to Eddie Jordan in a no-holds barred interview the former team boss conducted on Thursday – and after doing his homework EJ made sure that Brawn faced a tough grilling. The interview will be shown on the BBC on Saturday.

“Sporting integrity is vital to Mercedes,” said Brawn. “It would be easy for me to challenge that. When we get to the international tribunal and everything’s explained, people can make a judgement when they know the facts. I’m not going to pre-empt those facts. It’s unfortunate to be making judgements before the facts are known.”

Inevitably many of the questions focussed on the level of secrecy surrounding the test.

“It was a Pirelli test, on the Wednesday to Friday after the race. It couldn’t be held any closer to the weekend because people were packing up.

“On the Tuesday there were still motorhomes begin dissembled, garages being taken apart, and there we were in our full regalia with the trucks and the Pirelli trucks and everything. There was no secrecy involved; it was privacy.”

Brawn was adamant that the secrecy angle has been overplayed.

“The reason for the drivers’ helmets is it was a Pirelli test, they organised the security, they organised all the arrangements. We didn’t want to bring attention to the drivers, we didn’t want to have to put security there, we didn’t want to have to put minders.

“The easiest way for us was to not bring attention to what drivers were in the car, only for those reasons. We have always been very open about the drivers.

“The drivers are irrelevant – there’s nothing in the sporting regulations, nothing in the arrangements for these tests that controls which drivers are in the car. There was no issue there. It was purely privacy and nothing more.”
Brawn made it clear that it wasn’t the responsibility of Mercedes to tell the other teams that the test was going on, even though it’s standard practice for teams to tell each other about filming days and so on.

“It was a Pirelli test, we don’t believe we had an obligation to inform other teams, if Pirelli wanted to inform other teams that’s up to them. We’re comfortable it was a Pirelli test requested by Pirelli. It’s for Pirelli to decide what they want to do with it.”

Intriguingly Nico Rosberg admitted this weekend that the drivers did know what tyres they were running, but Brawn has played that down.

“They had some awareness of the tyres but that’s the awareness you have togive a driver if tyre testing. If you want to be effective in testing you have to give the driver some guidance of what you are looking for. It wasn’t: ‘This is the tyre we’re using at the next race.’

“Pirelli are building a jigsaw. We don’t know what is what. But it would be irresponsible to put a tyre on the car without giving the driver a bit of guidance of what it is, a new construction or whatever, and that’s what we want you to look for.”

Kimi Raikkonen made it clear today that he hasn’t forgotten his collision with Sergio Perez in Monaco, and hasn’t changed his position on what happened.

Raikkonen said after the race that someone should punch Perez, and while he hasn’t taken that opportunity, he is still unhappy about losing priceless points.

“There’s nothing else I could have done apart from just drive straight,” said Kimi. “Using my own line I could have easily made the corner, but obviously he comes too fast and can’t stop.

“My line was in the middle of the circuit anyhow, so there was definitely no way that he was going to get past me if I didn’t move over, and I don’t really feel I should move over if another guy comes too fast. I did that already five or six laps earlier or something, just purely because I saw that he comes too fast and he would have hit me.”

“That hurt in the points, but I don’t feel any different now. It doesn’t change the fact that he f##ked our race up. If you ask one year from now it’s still the same ending. Obviously we got one point back, but it doesn’t take away the fact that he wasn’t right.

“I knew that he was going to try, and that’s why I braked every lap in the same place, and just went over the middle of the circuit. For sure he knew where I was going to be, and which line I would take.”

Regarding the lack of action from the FIA, he said: “I spoke with the stewards, and they thought it was a racing thing. But I don’t really see it. They said that Idid nothing wrong, but obviously there has to be somebody who did wrong.

“But I don’t think it’s going to change anything. I know that Charlie [Whiting] spoke to Perez. I don’t know what they spoke about, but obviously I don’t think it’s going to change.”

Kimi admitted that he can trust some drivers and not others.

“I mean sometimes you have to be with some guys, because you cannot trust them. If I take the top maybe five guys, you trust them, and you know if you are there they are not going turn into you, or they are going to race fair.

“We can be hard but we can be fair. It’s OK to be aggressive, but you have to have some idea behind an overtaking manoeuvre, even if you are aggressive, and not just have a hope, ‘He’s going to move over.’ You know certain guys will race hard and fair, but some guys for sure you know what to expect.”

He also said he’s not too bothered about beating Michael Schumacher’s record of finishes in the points.

“I don’t care about that, I care more about the points. If it comes it comes, but it doesn’t change the fact that we only try and score points and do as well as we can, and we’ve been doing pretty well. Obviously sometimes we have harder races than others, that’s always going to happen during the year. But hopefully we’ll get back where we should be.”

Fernando Alonso says he has to start scoring big points again in order to keep his title challenge on track.

Alonso finished only seventh in Monaco, and with a couple of other bad races behind him, he is losing touch with leader Sebastian Vettel.

“We were hoping for some consistent results,” said Alonso in Canada today. “But in Monaco we did not pick up so many points, so now we need four or five races on the podium or at least very near the podium in order to recover some of the points we have lost.

“All the races are different and unique and this weekend will be a tricky one with the weather conditions. Anything can happen especially in the wet and we saw in qualifying in Monaco, that when the rain came, it was chaotic. It means that if you are not on track at the end if the track is drying, or if you have a problem with a yellow flag or you make a small mistake, then you are out.

“So it will be a case of maximum concentration to do well here and also in the coming races, at Silverstone, Germany and Hungary. So every Thursday it will be a case of saying the same thing, ‘we must score good points.’”

Alonso pointed out that he’s has his far share of bad luck already in 2013.

“We have had some unlucky situations this year, like when I had a slight touch in Malaysia which put me out of the race, while we have seen for example Hamilton and Vettel touching in Barcelona and they were both able to continue.

“However, in Monaco it was simply a case of not having the pace. At this stage of the season, we have two more points than last year, when we were leading the championship, so in a way we are doing a little bit better than last year. What is not so normal is the amount of points Sebastian  has scored in the last six races – a lot!

“We need to try and finish in front of him, because everyone has bad luck at some point and it will come to him as well. Kimi had his bad luck in Monaco with the accident, so that we are now only five points behind him.”

Meanwhile Alonso admitted that Montreal is not easy to get right.

“It’s true we’ve never had really great results here. Some of the inconsistency was down to strange circumstances, but it’s a circuit that’s a little bit tricky to understand, as it changes all through the weekend: not just the surface but also the wind can change a lot which affects your braking points, plus there is no room for mistakes, just like at a street circuit with the walls so close, but hopefully this year we can do a bit better.”

Mercedes issued a statement today saying it welcomes the FIA International Tribunal process – on the basis that it will give the team a chance to explain its side of the story.

The statement read: “Mercedes-Benz acknowledges the decision of the FIA to take the matter of the Pirelli Test before the International Tribunal.

“We welcome the opportunity to explain the full facts of the Pirelli Test in an open and transparent manner at the International Tribunal.

“Sporting integrity is of primary importance to Mercedes-Benz and we have the utmost confidence in the due process of the FIA.”