World champion fastest before going out in wet conditions and aquaplaning off the track; Vettel and Raikkonen second and third fastest for Ferrari, with Rosberg's Mercedes P4
Saturday 6 June 2015 10:10, UK
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in second practice for the Canadian GP but then crashed out of the session after heavy rain arrived in Montreal.
The weather forecast, which saw teams cramming as much work as possible into the opening minutes of the session, was realised about halfway through when heavy rain started falling at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
By that stage, Hamilton was fastest thanks to a 1:15.988 lap around the 4.361km track. But as the conditions worsened and drivers, almost to a man, stepped out of their cars, Mercedes decided to send the world champion and team-mate Nico Rosberg out again.
The crowd whooped their appreciation as Hamilton and Rosberg took to the sodden track, with Mercedes’ intention to gain feedback on starting in such conditions.
However, they sent both W06s out on intermediate tyres rather than full wets, a decision that was hardly vindicated when Hamilton lost control braking for the Turn 10 hairpin and aquaplaned into the barriers.
As Hamilton climbed from the car and a tractor then prised his car out of the tyre barrier with a yank - causing, as it turned out, some minor damage to the rear as well - the session was red-flagged.
"You learn a lot about the clutch calibration, we knew that a big weather was coming so we’d rather do it on the inters - you can give them back," Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
"And then he just aquaplaned off. A little mistake that cost us the front wing, hopefully not more.”
Unusually for a P2 session, cars had immediately gone out on option tyres as the grey clouds gathered, with Sebastian Vettel ending up second fastest, 0.316s slower than Hamilton.
Kimi Raikkonen was just 0.006s slower than his team-mate in third and with Rosberg P4, Ferrari upped the ante after a relatively sluggish start in P1.
Although Mercedes have brought engine upgrades this weekend, their closest rivals have gambled on even bigger changes involving the use of development ‘tokens'.
A comparison of long runs made before the rain arrived – Vettel’s nine-lap average was 1:19; Hamilton’s was 1:19.5 over eight laps; Raikkonen averaged 1:18.5 across nine laps on softs; while Rosberg’s average was 1:19.5 over six laps – also suggests the possibility of a favourable weekend in store for the Scuderia.
Further down the order, Lotus and Williams locked out the next four places, with Pastor Maldonado fifth ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean and Felipe Massa.
Red Bull pair Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo completed the top ten ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, whose Force India suffered a puncture early on in the session.
Fernando Alonso was 15th fastest in his McLaren-Honda, meanwhile, with team-mate Jenson Button 18th.
Times:
1. L Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.988
2. S Vettel Ferrari 1:16.304
3. K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:16.310
4. N Rosberg Mercedes 1:16.440
5. P Maldonado Lotus 1:16.600
6. V Bottas Williams 1:16.849
7. R Grosjean Lotus 1:16.864
8. F Massa Williams 1:17.041
9. D Kvyat Red Bull 1:17.092
10. D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:17.111
11. N Hulkenberg Force India 1:17.120
12. M Ericsson Sauber 1:17.261
13. C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:17.318
14. S Perez Force India 1:17.367
15. F Alonso McLaren 1:17.627
16. M Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:17.657
17. F Nasr Sauber 1:17.751
18. J Button McLaren 1:18.135
19. R Merhi Manor 1:19.531
20. W Stevens Manor 1:19.734
