Raikkonen fastest on Friday afternoon in Canada

Andrew Lewin 09/06/2017 at 20:4909/06/2017 at 21:01

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in Free Practice 2 in Montreal ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.

The Finn's best lap time of 1:12.935s was just a little over a tenth of a second off last year's pole position time. Raikkonen was 0.215s faster than the morning pace setter Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.

Their team mates Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas were third and fourth place respectively. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fifth fastest before suffering an engine failure twenty minutes before the end of the session. That resulted in the session being briefly red flagged while the stricken RB13 was recovered from turn 7.

Felipe Massa was sixth fastest for Williams ahead of another impressive showing for Force India driver Esteban Ocon in seventh.

Air and track temperatures had picked up a couple of degrees compared to the morning as drivers headed back out after lunch onto the still-dusty track. However the skies over the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve remained overcast for most of Free Practice 2, the sun finally breaking out only at the very end of the day's activity.

Having missing out on first practice with an engine failure, Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz was the first driver to set a time and was one of the most industrious drivers in FP2, completing 43 laps. However it was the Ferraris who were soon setting the pace, Raikkonen going top with 1:14.456s on supersofts and Vettel less than a tenth behind in the first ten minutes of the session. The pair continued to trade the top spot back and forth as they shaved more tenths of a second off their lap times.

Eventually the two Mercedes drivers joined the fun, Bottas initially dividing the two Ferraris by slipping into second place despite being on the soft (prime) compound. Hamilton soon went top with a time of 1:13.955s, before the Ferraris made the move to ultrasofts. Raikkonen and Vettel soon pulled a second clear of the rest of the field, until Mercedes also changed to the qualifying tyre to close things up to a little over a couple of tenths.

Pushing hard from the start, Vettel soon enjoyed a lairy early moment across the kerbs in the final chicane and came close to encountering the wall of champions. McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne also escaped contact albeit by spinning while exiting of the chicane, while Marcus Ericsson later made a positively sparkling impact with the wall with the right rear wheel of his Sauber.

The updated power unit component list for Canada

Elsewhere, Nico Hulkenberg brushed the wall on the exit of turn 9 in the Renault. Turn 6 was another corner that continued to catch out the unwary, Romain Grosjean twice locking up and spinning on successive laps which he blamed on a braking system issue. "I can't spin two times in the same corner!" he told Haas over the team radio.

Grosjean later spun in turn 2, seemingly a result of growing frustration with the situation. In this case he was in good company, Bottas also losing the back end of the Mercedes in the same section later in the session, and minutes later Vettel also followed in their skid marks.

Force India's Sergio Perez found it just as difficult to navigate the chicane and similarly went for a spin. Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat likewise had their problems with the corner.

Daniel Ricciardo was another driver experiencing technical issues. He reported a loss of power on his Red Bull that was subsequently diagnosed as an engine mechanical issue, ending his session. Fernando Alonso also found his track time somewhat curtailed again, with McLaren labouring to fix the hydraulic issue that had wrecked his morning session. He did finally get out on track with half an hour remaining to make some runs on ultrasoft tyres.

There were a number of incidents where drivers complained that hot laps were impeded. One incident between Sainz and Haas' Kevin Magnussen was referred to the stewards for subsequent investigation. Hamilton also asked to be patched through to race director Charlie Whiting to make his own complaint about an unidentified rival. Vettel in turn was unhappy with Hamilton continually backing off after aborted flying laps.

There was a curious incident when Raikkonen radioed a warning that photographers were working in a dangerous position in turn 2. It coincided with the red flag for Verstappen's breakdown. Away from the track, a Williams pit crew member had to receive medical attention after Felipe Massa's car was rolled back over his foot.

Free Practice 2 results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:12.935s		41
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:13.150s	+ 0.215s	41
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:13.200s	+ 0.265s	41
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:13.310s	+ 0.375s	42
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:13.388s	+ 0.453s	25
6	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:14.063s	+ 1.128s	38
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:14.245s	+ 1.310s	19
8	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:14.299s	+ 1.364s	46
9	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:14.461s	+ 1.526s	38
10	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:14.501s	+ 1.566s	41
11	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:14.566s	+ 1.631s	33
12	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:14.604s	+ 1.669s	38
13	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:14.621s	+ 1.686s	43
14	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:14.676s	+ 1.741s	35
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:15.072s	+ 2.137s	8
16	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:15.127s	+ 2.192s	40
17	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:15.240s	+ 2.305s	40
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:15.611s	+ 2.676s	31
19	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:15.624s	+ 2.689s	20
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	1:16.308s	+ 3.373s	31