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| Hamilton takes the pole, followed by Rosberg and Vettel |
Everything is set up before the Canadian GP starting tonight at 19 GMT on one of the classic tracks of the season, Gilles Villeneuve. After the free practices and the qualifying yesterday we saw how the upgrades on the cars affected the teams' performance. With that many questions and notices have aroused.
Can Vettel Finally Strike?
This weekend started pretty well for Seb with him winning P3 and qualifying 3rd on the grid for today's race. Despites a collision on the last lap, he managed to finish only 0.1s above Hamilton and Rosberg. And as we have seen in previous races this season, Ferrari's race pace is always more competitive compared to their pace in fast laps. Taking into account the fact that tactics (and not the speed) are the most important aspect in Canada, Hamilton's pole does not mean anything for the battle during the race. In this track the tyre choice and the conservation of tyres during the race will be crucial because of the pressure on them on the turns after the high speed straights.
And compared to previous races, the gap between Vettel and the Mercedes' drivers is now really small. The gap in the beginning of the season used to be a 0.5s and now with this drop of 0.4s, the Ferrari seems to be much more competitive. That is due to the team bringing a suspension and power upgrade, and a new fuel from Shell. However, we only see the result in Vettel's performance with Kimi being 6th. This shows Seb's motivation to win his first title for the 2016 season and it would not be a surprise if he finally gets it. Even if he does not do it today, we may expect a victory from him in the near future.
Maybe Ricciardo will try to revenge for Monaco and Barcelona?
Even though he was way behind in the practices (P1-11th, P2,P3-6th) we saw a decent qualifying session for him yesterday. Brushing his tyres in the Wall of Champions did not stop him to finish 0.3s behind Hamilton. And his 4th grid position is pretty suitable for him to attack the first position at the start. Actually 2nd and 4th position are always better places for a first corner attack and we have seen many overtakes exactly from these positions. And if he manages to take this advantage it would be easy for him setting the pace for the rest of the race unless his team makes a third mistake in a row in terms of tactics. Though he was not much in the highlights until this point of the weekend, my bet is still on him, because he is maybe the best driver currently (despite the fact that his opponent's cars are much faster). His driving is absolutely flawless and precise, every move is perfect. He is one of the few drivers that has never crashed or even collided with another driver from the beginning of the season. We saw in the previous races how when overtaking he avoids the contact perfectly even when his opponents do not leave him much space. I think that in this circuit, the precise driving that he has may play a crucial role later in the race when the tires start to wear up.
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| Ricciardo takes 4th position on the grid |
Wall of Champions
With so many drivers that collided there this weekend, it seems that this is the most dangerous turn on the race. The qualifying ended there for Magnussen, Carlos Sainz, and many other were just millimeters away from doing the same. Thus maybe how the drivers take this turn will play a crucial role in tonight's race.
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