MONTREAL: World championship leader Sebastian Vettel blamed ‘mistakes’ by Lewis Hamilton for hampering his progress as his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen topped the times in Friday’s second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The four-time world champion German said he did not blame the Mercedes driver, but said it was “annoying” that his rhythm was broken as the pair prepared for their seventh contest in an increasingly-competitive season. “I think towards the end I understood what we need, what the car needs, what we’re planning to do, so it should be a better day tomorrow,” he told reporters after the session.
“All in all it’s been a tricky session, quite slippery on the track.
“And it was a bit annoying. I was stuck behind him. I wanted to get a good feel to the car so I’d leave a gap.
“Then he would do a mistake, so it’s unfortunate, but it was mistakes. It was breaking a bit the rhythm, but we understood.”
“The problem was when you try to do consecutive laps, with traffic, it’s not ideal. I’m pretty sure he didn’t do them on purpose — he was trying to do the same and get a feeling for the car.
“But it was slippery today and easy to do mistakes. I think I spun twice, but I think it will get better during the weekend. The circuit usually improves a lot here.”
Vettel wound up third fastest behind Raikkonen and Hamilton as Ferrari and Mercedes traded fastest laps in a closely-fought day’s action at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The Finn, who finished a disappointed and controversial second in Ferrari’s one-two triumph at last month’s Monaco Grand Prix, clocked a best lap in one minute and 12,935 seconds to outpace the Briton, who was fastest in the morning’s opening session, by 0.215 seconds.
Hamilton, who trails Vettel by 25 points in the drivers championship after a disappointing Monaco GP where Ferrari scored a resounding one-two triumph, was encouraged by Mercedes’ form. “It’s been a pretty good first day for the team,” he said. “The Ferraris are looking fast here and, as the times show, it’s super close at the top right now.”
Four-time champion German Vettel was third fastest in the second Ferrari ahead of Finn Valtteri Bottas, who was fourth in the second Mercedes. — AFP
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