Canadian GP - FP1 - Mercedes looking strong with Vettel new victim to wall of champions

Friday Practice Session - 1, Grand Prix du Canada, Canadian Grand Prix, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal

As the two week break is over, from the world best circuit Monaco, here we are in Montreal. And it seems Mercedes upgrades and Button prediction are coming true and Mercedes is looking strong enough to taste the first podium of the season. Button suggested that Mercedes gain up to 20 km/h from their DRS rear wing, whereas most others gain only 12 km/h.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel became the latest Formula One world champion to hammer into the Wall of Champions - so named after it claimed Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill in the same race in 1999.

Nico Rosberg lead the session in the later part of the race from rejuvenated Massa who lead the mid part of the session.

Nico lapped in 1min 15sec and was almost 6tenth of a second faster than Ferrari Fernando Alonso.

It looks like Mercedes and Ferrari are now able to compete with Mclaren and Red Bull.

Michael Schumacher was third fastest with Massa following him for 4th.

The pace setter Mercedes and Ferrari are followed by Button and Hamilton Mclaren's.

Rubens Barrichello amazed his Williams team with the 7th fastest time and Force India Paul Di Resta raised hope for points for the team as he finished 8th in the first session.

Nick Heidfeld in the leading Renault was 9th fastest only and reserve driver of Force India Nico Hulkenberg completing the Top 10 for the first session.

Sergio Perez, passed the medical test after his huge accident during Q3 in Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago.

With 27laps in session 1, Sergio Perez finished 11th on the timesheet. But soon after the first session, he declared that he is not feeling well and has been declared unfit to race. He will be replaced by Pedro De La Rosa for the rest of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Mark Webber in the Red Bull does not seem to set the pace and was only 12th fastest in the first session with 30laps onboard. Jaime Alguersuari finished the session at 13th.

Vitaly Petrov who also had a huge crash in Monaco Grand Prix during the last few laps of the session was only 14th fastest.

Daniel Ricciardo was not able to overshadow their counterparts in the Toro Rosso this time in Canada and was only 15th on the timesheet followed by World Champion Sebastian Vettel who was out of the session after the crash into the Wall of Champions.

He was unhurt and car also seemed to be less damaged with broken front wing and right front suspension. Red Bull will try to bring Vettel out again in 2nd session.

Maldonado in the second Williams was only 17th.

All the three backmarkers teams lapped in the 1min 19sec zone with closely separated from each other on time-sheets. But Lotus clearly ahead of Virgin and then HRT.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1min 15.591sec		32
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1min 16.139sec	0.548	27
3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1min 18.549sec	0.958	30
4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1min 16.658sec	1.067	26
5	Jenson Button	Mclaren - Mercedes	1min 16.676sec	1.085	20
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mclaren - Mercedes	1min 16.842sec	1.251	19
7	Rubens Barrichello	Williams - Cosworth	1min 16.990sec	1.399	28
8	Paul Di Resta	Force India - Mercedes	1min 17.294sec	1.703	26
9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1min 17.445sec	1.854	28
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India - Mercedes	1min 17.549sec	1.958	20
11	Sergio Perez	Sauber - Ferrari	1min 17.662sec	2.071	27
12	Mark Webber	Red Bull - Renault	1min 17.820sec	2.229	30
13	Jaime Alguersuari	STR - Ferrari	1min 18.458sec	2.867	31
14	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1min 18.506sec	2.915	15
15	Daniel Ricciardo	STR - Ferrari	1min 18.648sec	3.057	35
16	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull - Renault	1min 18.852sec	3.261	8
17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams - Cosworth	1min 18.932sec	3.341	20
18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus - Renault	1min 19.274sec	3.683	29
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus - Renault	1min 19.422sec	3.831	30
20	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber - Ferrari	1min 19.577sec	3.986	26
21	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin - Cosworth	1min 19.838sec	4.247	31
22	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT - Cosworth	1min 19.960sec	4.369	23
23	Timo Glock	Virgin - Cosworth	1min 20.520sec	4.929	21
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT - Cosworth	1min 20.839sec	5.248	27

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