If in doubt add some rain, and at the first part of the Canadian GP weekend has employed the philosophy to very entertaining effect, and causing some rather interesting grid positions as everyone tried to compensate for the changing conditions. We were not plagued by the extreme downpours that washed out the race back in 2011 - although that was an exceptional event - today it was just enough to make things difficult and really inconsistent all the ingredients for a great session. In the end there was a familiar pair of faces on the front row, but that's where the familiarities came to a spectacular end, but more on that later on in the proceedings.
Frankly it is nice to go off the slick tyres because that's what all the complaints have been about all season - nobody has interestingly whined and shouted about the status of the intermediate or the wet tyres and there have been several rain affected practice and qualifying sessions already this year. In these conditions the irony is that all those teams that have been struggling with wear and lobbying Pirelli are doing much better in the damp cold conditions - another indication that perhaps it is their car that is the issue. Perhaps until the debarcle has finally been sorted out through tribunals and compound developments we should water all the tracks and keep teams and drivers off the questionable tyres.
Qualifying
When the coverage finally opened up at a race later in the day the track had a clear and well defined dry line - carved during FP3 slightly earlier on , but as the pre-session show and build-up continued the rain sneaked back when no-one was looking. But it was only enough to dampen the dry line and so all the teams went out at the start of the session looking to beat the rain and run slicks... and only completed an outlap before realising it was a bad idea. Several cars went off at the chicanes and Chilton - wanting to be different span at the hairpin, at least this time his actions didn't force anyone to build a fort.
Round 2 - this time all on intermediates and cars were still going everywhere - the grass in the 3-4 chicane had received more visitors than the turf could handle, and several tyre tracks were carved in the mud. Raikkonen, Bianchi and Bottas to name a few ran wide there, sensibly Perez decided to choose a different chicane to miss - staying clear of the Lotus driver. In terms of actual lap times the conventional names were up front with Mercedes and Red Bull doing well, while Lotus and Force India were struggling - being good on tyres was hurting them on pace. Both Paul Di Resta and Grosjean were in the relegation zone, but there was enough time to escape - Button and Sutil had managed the same feat. Except there was a small matter of some more rain, just to top things off preventing any improvement and meant Romain, and Paul joined the bottom teams in leaving qualifying.
Into Q2 now and the rain had stopped again, but had lasted long enough to erase the drying line and make the track damp once more, the Lotus engineers came over the radio to Raikkonen - after he'd been off again - to say the conditions were borderline for wet tyres. Turn three seemed to be the favourite place for cars to go off, Massa finding reverse to drive back from the escape road. At the top of proceedings it was Mercedes and Red Bull again, represented by Hamilton and Webber - joined interestingly by Jean-Eric Vergne. Vettel was in the middle of the top ten, probably still distracted by a pre-session track guide involving international sausages.... An order that seemed destined to be sealed as more rain arrived and everyone was now cutting the final chicane bouncing over the curbs and some taking to the air... what we needed was a break to allow the cloud to pass and re-ignite the session. While we waited for that - out of nowhere Valtteri Bottas drove his car up into 3rd place...
As in Monaco - we could relay on Felipe Massa to pause proceedings with a visit to the barrier - touching one of those white lines before turn three and slid into the tyres causing a red flag to clear away the broken Ferrari. The crash threw up an intriguing scenario, less than two minutes on the clock there was only time for one lap on track that was in better nick than it was before Massa binned it. Cars were lined up three wide at the pit exit headed by both Saubers and Raikkonen - the Finn was able to beat Hulkenberg, and settled in behind Gutierrez. A long queue of cars on a damp track for a single fast lap was surprisingly well behaved, a little too well behaved as Button didn't make it round in time to escape relegation. Yet both Torro Rossos and Sutil made it into Q3 at the expense of Perez and Maldonado.
Red Bull sat at the front of the queue ready for the start of Q3, but Webber didn't leave quite quick enough for Raikkonen's liking and was passed before entering the track - conditions had got slightly damper in the interval and lap times were back in the 1:28s. Vettel and Hamilton were duelling for pole while Rosberg ran off across the chicane at turn three compromising his lap - but surprise take two as Bottas put the Williams third on the grid, ahead of Webber. Unfortunately the final part of an enthralling session, was dampened - literally - as the rain made a subtle return, just enough to slow laps times preventing anyone for making progress up the field. Hamilton tried to make a late charge to take pole away from Vettel, but ran off at the final chicane, if it wasn't for a supreme drive from Bottas - the same two teams would occupy the front two rows (if only in a different order) as they did in Monaco. Alonso starts down in 6th, ahead of Vergne, Sutil, Raikkonen, and Ricciardo.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
When it rains and conditions become changeable, there is always the opportunity for cars and drivers to appear where we least expect them and that's where the bonus points come into play:
- 10pts - Valtteri Bottas - Because that was very impressive, Williams were having a crap year and that sets them up for a much better weekend.
- 8pts - Jean-Eric Vergne/Ricciardo - Both STR's in the top 10 on a track where the team has never qualified this far up at all
- 6pts - Adrian Sutil - Qualifying was average, but an epic jump over the curbs in practice and a powersliding save keeping it out of the wall and the car in front in Q1.
- 5pts - Charles Pic - Lead the bottom division and beat Romain Grosjean in a Lotus as well.
- 4pts - Sebastien Vettel - Because getting pole probably deserves points
- 3pts - Kimi Raikkonen - For passing people in the pit exit
- 2pts - Jules Bianchi - Deserves some sympathy points after seeing the plank of the car bounce off the orange curb in the final chicane because that looked painful
- 1pt - Max Chilton - For not being last... here's a pat on the back
Looking forward to tomorrow
An evening race at a track as invigorating as Canada is such as exciting prospect, which has been made all the more entertaining by having a re-arranged grid from the rain in today's qualifying session and some penalties carried forward from Monaco. Grosjean for example has a 10 place grid drop despite qualifying 19th - so on that basis the Frenchman should be starting from the bottom hairpin - and a driver with a record of hitting people starting from the back on a narrow track surrounded by walls... sounds fun to me. We also have Massa, Button and the aggressive Perez all starting outside of the top ten all of whom will be looking to charge forward and make the most of whatever conditions are going to arrive tomorrow. Because all those drivers are further back, we have the likes of Bottas, Vergne and Ricciardo in the middle of the top ten - which on race pace if the track stays dry all race may fade further back and the two groups may meet in the middle and unleash mayhem. All the ingredients are in place for an exceptional race, and during this constant state of unease about tyres and the legalities surrounding that Mercedes test. Tomorrow we get to ignore that, and have fun, a lot of it... until tomorrow farewell from me here at Blog HQ.
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