05/06/2015
NEWS STORY
An encouraging start for Mercedes AMG Petronas in Montreal - despite afternoon washout at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Lewis topped the times in both sessions, with Nico finishing the morning in P2 and the afternoon in P4. The morning programme focused on low and high fuel running on the prime tyre. A condensed dry schedule in the afternoon focused on analysis of both compounds before rain interrupted the session. Lewis aquaplaned off the circuit at Turn 10 in wet conditions. Both F1 W06 Hybrids ran their second Power Unit of the 2015.
Lewis Hamilton: The ending might have been so-so but it's generally been a pretty good day. I made a couple of mistakes - pushing too hard and going over the kerbs at the final chicane and then what happened at the end there. Looking at the replays, I wasn't going that fast. But it was like sheet ice into Turn 10 so the car aquaplaned and I went off. It maybe wasn't the right call to go out but, with the weather as it eventually turned out, it didn't affect our running. I'm fine and it looks like it's just the front wing that was damaged to it's not the end of the world. In the dry, the car is feeling really good here and our long run pace was encouraging. Ferrari look like they've upped their pace so it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow - but I'm sure we'll still be strong. It's great to be back in Montreal and I'm feeling good for the weekend.
Nico Rosberg: For me, it was a decent day. We got some practice in for qualifying and the race and that all went well. At the end of session two, we went out again to practice some starts in the heavy rain. But the conditions were really tough out there. I don't know exactly where we are with our speed but for sure Ferrari seems to be a threat. They were very quick today.
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: That was a mixed bag today, like the weather. We had a strong first practice and looked competitive on the prime tyre. Then in FP2, we pulled the programme forward to get as much running done as possible before the rain came. We managed to compare the two tyres and do some high fuel running, which gave us some interesting results - and our competitors looked pretty strong in similar conditions, too, which we will have to analyse this evening to understand the competitive balance. We sent the boys out on intermediate tyres to do practice starts but the conditions worsened significantly as they went out, then Lewis aquaplaned off the circuit at Turn 10. The car didn't look too badly damaged so we'll repair it this evening and hope for a smoother day tomorrow.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): We had a good morning - running through our normal programme, looking at the car on low and high fuel and seeing where we are with fuel consumption and brakes in particular. We were anticipating rain around 30 minutes into P2, so we ran a very condensed programme on both tyre compounds to maximise dry running time. Race starts aside, we managed to gather all the data we needed. So, when the rain started we decided to head out just to get some practice starts done on the intermediate tyre, as this can be exchanged if you use it. Unfortunately Lewis aquaplaned off the circuit as the rain intensified, so we'll have some extra work to do tonight to check the car over and replace some parts but all should be well for tomorrow.
Check out our Friday gallery, here.