Late flying lap puts Force India driver at the top of the timesheet in rain-hit session. Force Indias Paul di Resta popped at the top of the leaderboard in the last few seconds of a rain-affected FP1 at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
First practice at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was dominated by the conditions, which saw rain fall steadily in the lead up to the sessionbut the rain held off during the session itself, and thus drivers went through the whole range of tyres as a dry line formed.
The early laps were on the full wet tyre, followed by the bulk of the session being run on the intermediates. Toro Rossos Jean-Eric Vergne appeared on Pirellis experimental slick tyre shortly after the hour mark but pronounced it too wet. Sebastian Vettel tried on the medium shortly afterwards on his Red Bull but struggled to match his time on the inters. Only in the last ten minutes did the majority of the field appear on dry tyres, by which point the track was sufficiently dry for them to be marginally quicker than the inters.
That triggered big changes to the leaderboard. Jenson Button went into P1 with a lap of 1:21.551, the first runner to do so on slicks but several runners went under that mark in the last minute of the session, with Di Resta, anonymous to that point, being the man at the top when the chequered flag signalled the end of proceedings.
Di Restas time of 1:21.020 was six seconds away from a good, dry practice time of 2012, indicating how marginal the surface was. Several drivers had spins and minor excursions during that last ten minutes, with Williams Pastor Maldonado hitting the wall and shattering his nosecone at Turn Four.
Earlier in the session Jules Bianchi had been the only casualty, taking to the escape road at that same chicane, struggling to turn his Marussia around and being asked to switch off his engine by his pit crew. The intermediate running had seen Nico Rosberg for Mercedes continuing his strong form with a series of fastest laps, though as the session went on Vettel overhauled him and would finish FP1 with the fastest time on the inters.
Canadian Grand Prix first practice times
1 Paul di Resta Force India 1:21.0202 Jenson Button McLaren 1:21.108 0.0883 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:21.258 0.2384 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:21.308 0.2885 Kimi Rikknen Lotus 1:21.608 0.5886 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:22.068 1.0487 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:22.402 1.3828 Sergio Prez McLaren 1:22.587 1.5679 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:23.047 2.02710 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:23.131 2.11111 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:23.341 2.32112 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:23.352 2.33213 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:23.386 2.36614 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:23.417 2.39715 Esteban Gutirrez Sauber 1:23.957 2.93716 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.054 4.03417 Nico Hlkenberg Sauber 1:25.354 4.33418 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:25.753 4.73319 Max Chilton Marussia 1:25.821 4.80120 Alexander Rossi Caterham 1:27.143 6.12321 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:27.522 6.50222 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:29.306 8.286
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