The Canadian Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1

Paul di Resta flies out of his garage. He was fastest this morning

in the session. This is pre-practice two, and if you joined us earlier,

you will see that the weather has cleared up. The drivers are on the

track, so let's get to it. All Cars are out on the circuit. The

track is bone dry here in Montreal. We are looking forward to some great

action here. Always a good crowd in Montreal. A few empty seats, ticket

sales perhaps slightly more sluggish than they have been in recent years.

But over 300,000 people were becoming through over the course of

the three days the weekend. To Raikkonen has been the first to set

a competitive time. Paul di Resta was an 1: 21.0. The track has dried

out completely now. One or two puddles here, particularly on the

acclaimed exit, but it looks as though turn on is dry. Absolutely.

These drivers have to relearn the track because it is so different to

this morning. Drivers are getting act limited to the track --

acclimated. Look out for the plain black tyre of Pirelli. Speaking of

tyres, Jenny has some news. Down here in the pitlane, Sergio Perez

has been wheeled back into his garage. He was the only driver in

the first session this morning to set a time on those tyres. But they

have just sent him back out again on those tyres. They have a tripod

system looking down at that time. You can tell that they are black and

unmarked. You can tell which ones they are. Those are the development

tyres. By my reckoning, we used about five of those this morning out

of the 176 that they brought here. So there are still a fair few for

them to get through today if they want to. My understanding is that

they are harder compound that Pirelli brought here. But the idea

is that it is a sure action aimed at trying to fix a problem we saw in

the Bahrain and Spanish Grand Prix of tyre delamination. There has been

discussion in the paddock over the lunch break over what tyre it is.

The development tyres, originally Pirelli wanted to bring them here to

race, but after all the disagreements in Monaco over the

Mercedes test on Pirelli, they decided to take a decision to run

the old tyres here and evaluate the new ones. Can you shed some light on

its? They have put another pair of rear development tyres on the car.

They are different construction, as you say. The current slick tyre is a

steel construction. It changes the bonding agent between the tread and

the carcass of the tyre. But most of these teams are looking to see what

aerodynamic influence they have. McLaren have tried the development

version up front, which is theoretically the same time as they

are running currently. It is interesting, the depths they go to

these days to get the best. mentioned that they are scheduled to

get the competitive introduction at Silverstone, but it is not sure that

that will happen, because the teams are going well on the existing 2013

tyres. They don't want to change the tyres. They want to stay with what

they started the season with. Lotus believe they have good tyres, and

they don't believe it is right to change them midway through the

season. Alexander, it is interesting that Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull

start talking about safety being the main reason why we need these new

tyres. Once again, the tyres are becoming a political football.

Absolutely. In Formula One, there is always something going on in terms

of a bit of drama. I can tell you from driving on the tyre that it is

a difficult tyre and I understand the respect that some cars may be

struggling with it, just because the tyre is so sensitive. The fact that

Red Bull are blaming it on a safety issue, there might be something to

say about that with the tyre delamination is we have had in the

past. It is nothing specific to this year's tyre. There are two sides to

the story. We certainly don't want to see any more delamination is. It

is bad for the image of the sport and certainly bad for the image of

Pirelli. The people who want to maintain the status quo would say

that in none of these delaminations has the tyre deflated. It has stayed

in faded and the driver has been able to get back to the pits. So

there is a question as to how you define safe. Some of the

delaminations were made different by the team because there was no rubber

left on the tyre. Lewis Hamilton, missing the apex of the second

chicane. He managed to get back onto the track. Mark Webber heads the

time sheet after ten minutes. Hamilton was on the fastest first

sector of anybody so far when he made a mistake. There is the

patrician face of the Mercedes team boss, must draw on. He seems very

calm this weekend. He is certainly willing to talk. He has been open

about certain aspects of the test that happened with the Pirelli tyres

in Barcelona in mid-May, just after the Spanish Grand Prix. The FIA has

summoned him to appear before the international tribunal. He says that

will happen sometime in the next few weeks. Mercedes say that will be the

opportunity to tell their side of the story. Looking at Mark Webber's

Red Bull, I mentioned the Day-glo paint around the rear part, between

the rear wheels of the car. They will be measuring the airflow from

that one. The car would be cutting 200 miles an hour at this point, and

they will get an idea of how the new parts they fitted to the rear of

that Red Bull are working. The team will take photographs of those and

then wipe the parts clear and send the car back out again. Lewis

Hamilton is now on the early part of a lap. Looks like a flat on the

right front of Paul di Resta as he almost goes into the wall of

champions and starts another lap. He was quickest this morning. Carrying

on from what you were saying about the Day-glo paint, it is quite

ingenious, because normally we see the teams covering the front with

that Day-glo paint. The airflow then washes that Day-glo paint to where

it goes on the car. In Red Bull's case, it is going on the brake

locks. They have a windscreen washer bottle, so they can press a button

and released that fluid and get the airflow at 240 kilometres an hour

rather than at 60 or 70 kilometres an hour. You try and understand the

car more, but you want to understand it at certain speeds to make the

best. That paint to settle, so it does not give you the real

information. For me, that is amazing. It is difficult to

correlate how much the paint is coming off, because as you lead --

leave the lane, it does settle. So trust Red Bull to come up with

something clever. The teams will be using that quickly. I will

definitely be telling Caterham about that. It is a classic example of the

innovation at work in Formula One. Of course, the resources are quite

nice to have as well, but it does not sound expensive. It is more

about having the ingenuity to pull it off. Quite a lot of drivers

missing breaking points. Everyone is pushing hard because the grip level

has changed on the racing services this morning. A lot of drivers are

missing apex is not just on the development tyre, but also on this

medium tyre. Is that just drivers finding the limit? I think so. This

Montreal circuit is always known as very low grip. It is difficult to

build type temperature. It is a similar characteristic to Monaco. We

are running the same compounds here. The teams have some idea of what to

expect, but it is difficult to gauge temperatures, considering it rained

all morning. We are approaching the quarter hour mark in this second

free practice session, ahead of Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix. Sergio

Perez closes the DRS wing. You are allowed to use it in the same zones

during practice and qualifying that UI allowed to use it in the race.

You can use it in the long Main Street that leads down to the final

chicane, and then you are allowed a second bite of the cherry along the

pit straight. Some would argue that Canada of all circuits is a place

where you don't need an DRS zone, because it is easy to overtake

anywhere. Absolute key, any track where there are big braking zones,

it will be easy to overtake. The one thing about DRS and how it is

different from last year is that as a driver, I don't refer it, because

last year you were doing more things while driving because you had to

open the DRS as you came round the corner. Now, you almost have to wait

until you get to point, and then you can open it again. You are always

having to think, make sure I crossed the line and open it. It not

automatic any more. From my said of things, it is a bit fresh rating,

but I am sure you get used to it. Another thing that rewards the

multitasker in Formula One. The first female driver coming in can't

come soon enough in that respect. Paul di Resta fastest at this stage.

Felipe Massa now second. Fernando Alonso exits the final corner and

comes through to complete another lap, just over half a second slower

than the second. Max Chilton going along reasonably nicely in the

Marussia. Jules Bianchi is recovering from that incident where

his gearbox had a problem when he tried to put it into reverse. It is

interesting looking at the red wills, Sebastian Vettel with yet

another tinge of helmet design, looking more like a drinks scan

every day. Vettel has been on pole here a couple of days, but Red Bull

seem to struggle at this track to translate pole position into

winning. They have never won in Montreal. Why is that? In Other cars

have had better race pace than the Red Bull. Red Bull has not always

had the best race pace. Other cars have been able to push and do the

undercut in terms of pitstop strategy. I think another notable

thing is the fact that neither Nico Rosberg Lewis have been outqualified

by their team-mate here so it will be interesting to see who gets the

better of Mercedes because both of them have points to prove. Massa is

fastest, Alonso and Sutil, let's go down to the pit lane and hear from

Jenny and Gary. Della Bobbin we were talking about development tyres.

What the teams will be getting for, the least they can expect to do is

about 20 laps to get some accurate information because that is the

race? Yes, they are looking for tyre degradation. You are looking at this

distance -- stiffness of the tyre. That means the stiffness of the

tyre, if it is softer, it will change the characteristics. When the

tyre has deflected more its profile changes. Those are the two main

things. The other important thing is how it dissipates across the tread.

The problem we have had so far is it has not dissipated the temperature

well between tender and the compound and they are trying to get into the

carcass of the tyre quicker. When it comes to the make-up of the car, you

have the floor, things that could get in the way of the tyre.

detail of the tyre around the floor is important. If the tyre has a

different profile it will change the detail of the floor. They want to

recognise the tyre change and go back to it at the factory. The whole

question of whether you should, even if you could, whether you should

change tyre specifications halfway through the seasons, it is a big

talking point this weekend and in the days that follow this weekend

before Silverstone. It is a hot talking point going into the British

Grand Prix. I know that Lotus and Force India are very reluctant to

support the mid-season tyre change. You can understand why. They have a

vested interest in it. They are the two teams that have engineered the

best to operate with the tyres we started the season with. It was the

same for everybody at the beginning of the year. They have engineered

their cars. It is important to work on that side of the car as it is to

have the best class leading aerodynamics. It is a difficult,

such -- philosophical decision. It appears it is possible for the teams

to filibuster, if you like, to lock it, to hold off the introduction of

the tyres and it will get hotter topic of this weekend and the weeks

that followed go on. Massa is fastest on the development tire. He

has gone into the pit lane, come back out again. We will see what

kind of tyres he is on in a moment. Di Resta is second, Webber third,

Perez force, that all fifth, sixth in the pits is Fernando Alonso. He

was using a set of development tyres. Sutil is seventh after a good

run in Monaco. He needed that. Mark Webber looks like he has had a spin.

Which chicane is that? Turn six. It is the second chicane. Turn six and

seven, the left-hander. Leading down to the third chicane, the one that

leads into the hairpin. It is a very strange circuit. Let's look at what

happened to Webber. He got too hot on the brakes. He made the

transition to the right side of the track very late and it may have

locked the rear tyres. He was lucky. He was just a bit slow to get back

to the right and maybe braked too late. It shows you how far I'm --

find the margins. It looks like it is something anybody could do at any

moment yet it was enough to swing the back of the car out. You are

dancing on ice. Absolutely. It is exaggerated right now with the track

conditions as we talked about and the core temperatures and also

because of the development tyre. Last year's tyre, the rear tyres

were weaker so it is possible the Red Bull may be struggling to make

it work and may have oversteer. Simple things like that can happen.

On a normal track it is not a big deal but whether walls are so close

it can be sketchy. Alexander Rossi, development driver for the catering

team who was out there this morning. Let's get a response from Gary.

I am here. Just looking at the back of Jenson Button. A lot of work has

gone on in that area. Jenny has more idea than me. We are stood at the

front of the McLaren garage and they have got what you can see at the

moment, a very large, purple Love light that shines down. They are

looking at the rear wing and the exhaust. That is a UV light, which

will reflect what is happening in the paint that has been daubed on

the back. Yes, everyone is taking pictures, there was spray around

from the wet curbs. They make it stand out and get better pictures.

They are trying to understand what the airflow is doing and trying to

make sure that the modelling they do offer car accurate so all this stuff

is about gathering as much data as possible. Watching his car come in,

looking at the result, it was pretty messy. Alexander will tell you, if

you lose -- if you use it normally, it comes in is a big mess. It is

difficult to see anything out of it. Gary, spell out for us, all the work

going on, the incredible technology and innovation and ultraviolet light

and all the rest of it, how much, what kind of gain are they hoping to

make here with the things they are testing out? Against a stopwatch,

what is it worth? Each team, goes into every meeting thinking they can

find attends the second. A 10th of a second, you are looking at

aerodynamic force and that 10th of a second would be 12 or 14 telegrams

of downforce, more downforce on the car without any drag. If you could

find that every weekend, every Grand Prix, that extra 12 or 14 kilograms,

you would go about one tenth of a second faster. McLaren is looking at

where they have gone wrong, they have to find the problem before they

can fix the problem. As opposed to just keep developing what is a good

package. It is different, what each team is trying to achieve. McLaren,

understanding, Red Bull and Mercedes and Lotus, about trying to find the

10th of a second. It is a moving target, working in Montreal because

this is the circuit and season that has the biggest temperature

fluctuations between the lowest temperatures and the highest

temperatures. It can be anything between 15 degrees and 35 degrees

here and it can change from day to day. If you get one of the apps on

your phone and put it on mock -- on Montreal, you will see an enormous

fluctuation in temperature. That is reflected in the tech -- track

temperatures, which makes it a difficult track for the engineers to

figure out what is going on and how you need to set up the car. It is

one thing they talk about, a frustrating place here. But when you

get it right it can be very rewarding. It is something McLaren

have specialised in down the years. Winners of the last three

consecutive Montreal Grand Prix is, fine -- partly thanks to Lewis

Hamilton who is a specialist around this rain track -- racetrack. The

other was in the pouring rain in 2011, Jenson Button, the four our

Grand Prix where he passed Sebastian Vettel on the final lap in the

extraordinary day when it rained on the heels of Notre Dame. Approaching

the half-hour mark in the second free practice session. We are with

you, Felipe Massey leads the way. -- Felipe Massa. And it is Paul di

Resta, Sergio Perez, four tenths of a second off the benchmark of Massa.

He has never had a win here, Felipe Massa. Vettel is fifth, Alonso

sixth, Sutil seventh, Hamilton eighth, on a quick lap at the

moment, Lewis Hamilton. We will look and see his time Massey comes across

the line now. This should take him fastest. It does not, his final

sector a bit of a disappointment. Let's hear from Jenny, with

Ferrari's third driver, Pedro de la Rosa. Not the weather we were hoping

for, we would have liked it drier. You have new parts on the car. A new

front wing? Yes, they are so limited in the dry conditions and even

though the track, it gets better and better every lap, we'd need the

first run, trying to new tyres and now we are changing the front

wearing -- front wing as well. It was specific for Canada, needing to

drive it before tomorrow. They are getting ready to send out Fernando

Alonso one medium tyres. It will get loud. What is the general mood for

Ferrari? You have had a couple of results, in Monaco, it did not go as

you would have hoped? Monaco was strange because we were not

expecting it, not what we expected, but Canada is very different. It is

a new aero package, that downforce level is different and we have a car

on the straight, so this is one of our biggest and strongest points. We

were surprised about Monaco. We don't know why, we just need to work

a little bit harder on the areas we are weak and obviously on ago is one

of these types of tracks, it is not our best. You can hear a car firing

up in the background. Talk to me about the tyres. I believe you had a

test on one of the older cars that Ferrari had and you with a driver

who tested out the tyres. What did you learn? The test was OK, the

Mercedes one has to go to a tribunal but yours was all right? No, I don't

really understand if it is all right or not. We were not really testing

any tyres but it is a situation with the FIA, something for them to

resolve. It is not for us to comment or resolve, we are doing the best

possible job at Monaco. Thank you, Pedro. An interesting answer from

Pedro de la Rosa, he was not expecting that, was he? Ferrari have

not said who the driver was who did the test, which took place before

the Spanish Grand Prix that Fernando Alonso one, in a Ferrari. They

definitely used a 2011 car, which is within the sporting regulations, you

are allowed to test with a two -year-old car. There is very little

you can learn from it. I am delighted to say that the team

principal of Mercedes is joining us from the Mercedes pit wall. A great

initiative for him to do that. I am glad at least it is dry for this

afternoon. You have seen Lewis Hamilton, your driver, set the

fastest time on a set of tyres that was six laps old. It looks like it

is going well? Yes, it is pretty cold and getting the tyres up to

temperature is a big issue at the moment. It is pretty bumpy. The

lower level of downforce, just settling in. It is a typical track,

we were just saying, for the engineers. The temperatures

fluctuate a lot and there is a lot of track improvement over the course

of the weekend. Tell us what a moving target this places? Yes, it

is. We know the sort of balance changes that generally involve over

the few days, so it is not a track we use very much, but we need to see

what it is like when we get off to the other tyre. The front tyre has a

low wear rate and there is not a lot of rubber going down. It will be

quite an evolution but the key thing is making sure you are out there all

the time. If you miss, you will hurt yourself. Is give the viewers and

listeners an understanding of what you are trying to get through in a

session like this afternoon? The conditions hopefully are more or

less the same, it is the same time of day of the Grand Prix on Sunday

so what would you hope to achieve in this 90 minutes? Primarily focused

on the race. You will see we're not there yet but you will see ourselves

and others will start to increase the fuel load. They will start to

check out all the systems at the higher fuel load, brakes article

here. The writer writes, that sort of thing. It increases the fuel

load. Really starting on Rhys Webb. I think these days because of the

nature of the tyres, everybody is focused on on race work and the

qualifying gets picked up as best you can afterwards. It is getting

the car right for the race. The conditions we have at the moment are

not what we were expecting on Sunday, we were expecting it to be

warmer on Sunday. The engineers will have two sift through a lot of

adjustments of what we have learnt today to Sunday. Saturday is not a

high fuel they normally. It is getting ready for qualifying. Today

is the race prep. Lewis Hamilton sets a new fastest time and Gary

Anderson has a question for you. of the things that Lewis has been

saying, he has not comes to terms with yet is the breaking on the car

and this is one of those circuits where it is vitally important. You

trying to do anything on that? How are you trying to understand it?

are trying to understand the dynamics of the system. So not major

things at the moment. We moved over to different weight material this

year. -- different brake material. Perhaps the team are getting used to

that as well. Some subtle changes that will help, I hope, to make it

more comfortable. Does that mean you are running two different brake

set-ups, one for Nico Rosberg and then the new material for Lewis?

Know, in fact, once we tried the new material with Nico Rosberg, he was

happy with that as well. They are a bit different. We want them both

happy. We appreciate you taking time to talk to us. We will let you get

back on with your work. So, Hamilton is fastest at 1: 15.62. Massa is

second for Ferrari, a time set earlier in the session. Nico Rosberg

is third. Giedo van der Garde is the fastest of the so-called new teams,

if you like. We were talking about Hamilton, Alexander Rossi, and

braking. It was interesting, listening to Ross, that they have

managed to chew the car into something that Hamilton had not

requested, and Nico Rosberg is learning to deal with that as well.

I was a bit surprised to hear that they had changed the brake material

on both cars. It seems that Ross said it was a better option. But I

do know the different brake materials that are available are

very different. So to get those two at their maximum can be tricky.

of the problems is that there are a lot of exclusive deals that go on

between teams and suppliers. If you move from one team to another as

Hamilton did, you can't go back to the brake material you used with

your previous team, because they have an exclusive agreement with

their supplier. Talking of rape material, one of Lewis's

characteristics of driving, I have seen the brake trace of Lewis's

car. He does really use the brakes in that first part. Other drivers

let the car settle itself a bit. The way Rosberg drives the car, I can

understand why he would have a wider tolerance of what he wanted from the

brakes than Lewis. Lewis will say himself that he is one of the latest

breakers, so that does change the characteristics. From a driver's

perspective on Alexander, do you like to stand on the brakes

straightaway, or are you more progressive with the brake pedal?

The way Formula One cars work, you do have to have a certain amount of

very high peak pressure. How high that goes varies from driver to

drive. Heikki Kovalainen did not do it as much last year, for example.

You can make both ways work. But that is why there are different

materials to be maximised by different drivers. On some tracks,

being able to jump on the pedal heavily is a big benefit. But when

you come to a track where there are not very big stops, like Monaco, the

softer approach may be better. Without doubt, Hamilton has been

coming to terms with it. One of the problems has been getting the tyres

to the perfect temperature to start qualifying. That was big story in

Monte Carlo. We are talking very fine margins here, but that is all

it takes for these Pirellis to lose a 10th of a second. That was what

handed the initiative to Rosberg. He has never been out qualified four

times in a row by a team-mate, Lewis Hamilton. He is on three at the

moment. Who will get the upper hand? We are looking at Adrian Sutil

taking off, flying through the air. No frying parts that we can see, but

he has certainly taken a bit of paint of the top of the curb as the

car gets airborne, all four wheels off the ground. Probably a foot off

the ground. You can see everything bouncing and clattering like a

cartoon car as it hits the road again and all four wheels come back

into contact. There are a few bits of detritus left behind. That will

have shaken his fillings! Yeah, I can't explain how much of a headache

you get when you have a takeoff like that. I would be very surprised if

the left rear suspension did not take a hit with that. When you saw

the car land again, the ex-mount of extension on the left rear corner

was massive. It is such a jarring effect, because the cars are so is

this. You are very much advised to keep it on the ground. We are

approaching the 40 minute mark in this second practice session.

Sebastian Vettel is out on the supersoft part, the one that will be

the qualifying tyre for tomorrow afternoon in the first stint for the

top ten cars on the grid. Sebastian Vettel has twice been in poll

position. Goes a bit late into the hairpin. Just 45 miles an hour at

the apex of that hairpin, where a lot of fans in Montreuil like to

cluster. They have seen some spectacular action. -- in Montreal.

He crosses the line to go fastest. It was not a perfect lap by

Sebastian Vettel, but enough to take him to the top of the timesheets.

is clear that the supersoft tyre will be substantially quicker,

especially when the temperatures seem to be true. There is a lot of

time to be found between the tyres this weekend. Generally speaking,

they do a long one to simulate the first stint of the Grand Prix. It

could be one of those Grand Prix is where the cars are a bit more gentle

on the tyres. The notices are able to make this race into stops,

whereas the ones that are more aggressive on the tyre like Mercedes

and Red Bull are obliged to do three. That was part of the story

last year. Here is Webber. The lap time is quicker than expected.

this supersoft tyre is one second quicker. Jennie is by the garage.

This year, Sauber are in trouble. Nico Hulkenberg was on the radio

earlier, saying that they are still throttling like hell on the KERS. He

was not happy earlier and he is certainly not happy now. They have

decided to change the brakes over. It is going to take quite a while.

It is similar to what you would do at home when changing over the brake

pads and discs. They are trying to give Nico Hulkenberg a better feel.

At the moment, he must be ruined the day he signed paper and pen and went

from one garage to the other. He moved from Force India to Sauber,

and now Force India are celebrating their 100th Grand Prix this weekend

and going well, whereas Sauber are nowhere. Force India have scored

points in all but one Grand Prix this season, and that was not really

their fault. 44 points on the board. All the rest has been particularly

consistent in point-scoring. Sauber just have five world championship

wins. It was here last year that Sergio Perez used very good strategy

and smooth driving to get himself on the podium. A better entry for

Webber to the hairpin, although he did have some traffic to navigate.

Is he going to beat his team-mate on this lap? Sebastian Vettel has

already set a time of 1: 15.37. This Canadian Grand Prix is not one of

his favourites. It is a Red Bull 1-2 at the moment, the two of them using

this supersoft tyre. Simon Rennie, his new engineer, tells Mark Webber

some information. Kimi Raikkonen is tucked up right behind his friend.

They could be team-mates next year if you believe the stories going

around the paddock. It seemed that Sebastian lost four tenths of a

second in the final sector coming up on Kimi. But that just proves the

evolution of the track. That was what Ross Brawn was telling us

about. It is colder day-to-day, and the track is improving. All day

long, they have been going back and forth on the new development. See

this forward element with the curve on it. If you look at the other side

of the wing, you will see how many slots there are. They allow out of

flow-through to try to keep the wind working consistently. That is

important on this circuit. Also back on the sideboard, there is a big

back hall. You will see this horizontal wing popping into a

vertical wing section. That is again to try and tidy up the airflow. It

is all for efficiency. This is the first time they have had all these

bits on one car. Fernando Alonso ran with the old side pod this morning.

About three years ago, Ferrari did not test their cars properly. Now

they are the ones who test them some new times before they sign them off.

They look like reasonable developments to me. There are

interesting picture beginning to evolve here. Mark Webber is on his

second lap on the supersoft tyres. He is slightly down, but only by

hundredths of a second. Mark Webber misses the wall of champions by

about six inches. In contrast, the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen is also on

the supersoft tyre, and he has had two flying laps. He is slow, half a

second slower than the benchmark pace set by the Red Bulls. It

appears that this Lotus, which is so gentle on its tyres, is struggling

to get temperature into the tyres to get a good qualifying lap. On the

third lap, he finally improves. Is still three tenths of a second

slower than the Red Bulls. The teams that benefit the most from going

easy on the tyres are the ones who succeed the most in the hot races.

It is a disadvantage they have here. The teams that don't put the

downforce all the way through the car and don't use the Pirelli to its

maximum will struggle this weekend. Lewis Hamilton is winding up to

start a quick lap. He is on the supersoft tyre. This is his first

lap on the tyre. He is forth at the moment. Let's monitor how much of an

improvement it gives him. He is entering turn three. You going to

turn five, flat out right hand and you have to be careful to get over

to the right for the braking. For a second gear chicane, the chicanes

are very similar, there is a wall gear chicane, the chicanes are very

similar, there is a wall on the exit to get close to without hitting it

and here, brake point is under the curb as much as possible. This track

is well known for the cars needing to be good on the brakes. This is

the most important corner on the track because the exit is leading

down to the longest straight. You will see him past the DRS line in a

second. He will open the DRS as he passes there and he had a lot of

time to think about the brake point for the final chicane. It is a quick

chicane. You enter in third gear. Get as close to the wall as you

dare. Onto the front straight again. Here he comes, Lewis Hamilton keeps

a straight line down the pit straight. He improves, goes fastest

and that is despite giving away over one tenth of a second in the first

sector. Nico Rosberg has also been on a lap, is it faster? It looks

like it is. No, it is not, he has lost time in the final sector. A

quarter of a second slower than Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton gave

something away there in the first sector, so the Mercedes got the

tyres up to temperature in the second and third sectors. Red Bull

did their times on the second flying lap on the super soft tyre and

Mercedes have gone out with Hamilton on on the first flying lap of nailed

it and beaten them. Hamilton from Webber from Rosberg at the first

flying lap of nailed it and beaten them. Hamilton from Webber from

Rosberg as we enter this critical phase in terms of deciding the

ultimate timesheets from this practice. It will be these runs

which decide it. It was sector one problems for Hamilton in the Monaco

qualifying, the same story we were talking about earlier, taking a

little while to get the front tyres up to temperature. Jenny. A quick

temperature and weather update for you. This is the critical part.

Technical directors have been critical and starting to put up

their hands to feel what is going on with the weather. A few spits and

spots of rain, very tiny but we are expecting a weather band to moving

towards the end of this session. Anyone who is not on the super

softs needs to think about it. drivers have not set a time on the

super soft. Jenson Button is one, Romain Grosjean, Valtteri Bottas,

Hulkenberg, the two Caterham s, waiting for the track to improve as

much as they can. A big lock up for Adrian Sutil. Gary. Going back to

the tyres, doing one lap or two, this is a unique circuit because you

spend a lot of time... Yes, that is one of the things I was going to

say, this circuit, because of its characteristics, long straights and

slow speed corners as such means the tyres don't work laterally that

hard. The cornering forces are not as high as normal circuits. When you

come out down the straight, the wheels are slipping, spinning by a

very small amount which keeps the rear tyre temperature but the front

tyres are doing nothing, just holding up the car so they get cold.

When you arrive at the last chicane it is easy for the front tyres to

have lost temperature and the rear tyres to have got too hot. Some

drivers take two laps, some do it on the first lap, it is to balance it,

to maintain the temperature on all four tyres to give you balanced

grid. Hamilton has got it right, the tyres are well matched, front and

rear. No rain expected at the moment, a few drops at times is the

weather radar forecast that has been given to the teams in the pit wall.

Out of the final corner, Felipe Massa, a great lap by Lewis

Hamilton, his second flying lap on the supersoft tyres. Team-mate

Rosberg has done 15.3, so not quite such rich pickings for him but

Hamilton seems to have got it hooked up. Alonso is on the supersoft

tyres. We must keep an eye on him. He has done a gentle lap on it and

we will see if he pushes it harder now. Slow through sector three,

Fernando Alonso, on that lap. Let's see if he picks up the pace. Romain

Grosjean, we are on board. Let's listen to his radio. There is

something wrong with the fuel pick-up, he was saying, Paul di

Resta. He has a problem with the engine cut out. This is where Kubica

had a huge accident a few years ago, he bounced back to win the following

year's Grand Prix in Montreal and you can hear from him in tomorrow's

programme, a great interview with one of the most popular men, five

o'clock, BBC One, Robert Kubica on the BBC talking about his arm

injury, his hopes of recovery and many other subjects as well. Out of

the final corner comes Romain Grosjean, trying to rebuild the

shutters -- shattered confidence after four accidents, the ninth

fastest for him in a Lotus. He is having the same problem that Kimi

Raikkonen has got, trying to get the tyres up to temperature. A massive

lock up from Jean-Eric Vergne as he tried to go outside the Marussia Tom

at breaking point. The bobbin he had much -- too much pressure, but he

got it in and got the exit and it is quite impressive and he will not

have lost too much time. How do you think he's getting on, Jean-Eric

Vergne? Is he finding his feet? big fan, I have raced against him a

lot and is used to live with him in Milton Keynes so he is doing a great

job and in Monaco especially last weekend, a week and a half ago, was

very impressive. You are one of the new generation that is coming

through, drivers in their early 20s, just pushing and nibbling away at

the heels of the drivers who like to think they have their feet under the

table, established in Formula one. Who is the best of your generation?

When I have been on a drive, he has been so impressive. Alonso goes P1.

That is quite an impressive lap. Jules is under the Ferrari win,

Jules Bianchi, he is one of the best drivers in the world. A good lap by

Alonso, just eclipsed Lewis Hamilton by fractions of a second. Going back

to what you are saying, any opportunity is an opportunity to be

grabbed in Formula one. It is a chance to showcase your talent. How

do you impress in a back of the grid car? It is all about your

performance on a weekend to weekend basis. Your benchmark is your

team-mate, so if you are able to be on top of your team-mates at, week

out, and show you are driving the car and driving the wheels of the

car and making it do things that other people did not think were

possible, that is all you have to do. Ford Jules Bianchi there is very

little light pressure because he because he knows he is not going to

win, he will not come close, so he has to drive as fast as he possibly

can and he is out of the limelight in terms of the media and can make

the most of the opportunity. You are looking for an opportunity into

Formula one, hoping it will come with the Caterham team. Do you feel

there will be movement at the end of the season? Some changes that might

allow you and your contemporary is to get in? Spitting with rain in the

pit lane. Yes, there are so many things uncertain and until it

actually happens it is difficult to comment on it but I would say I

would be disappointed if I didn't have a race seat in 2014. We wish

you well with that, Alexander Rossi, development driver with the

Caterham team and Gary Anderson is in the Mercedes garage. The guys are

working on the floor Trail beneath the front of the chassis and what

they are doing is changing the ballast. There is a piece of heavy

metal which can move the weight distribution back and forward. You

are allowed to move it about 1%. They can put a piece of aluminium or

heavy metal in there so guys are moving it. The other interesting

thing, on the front ring, you will see a sensor on the forward element

of the front wing, with the tube and the bigger end. It is measuring the

temperature in the front tyre. It is important to understand it. It is

illegal to run tomorrow but it is legal today, a test today. We're

talking about aerodynamic surfaces. There is a cable running across the

top of the wing, taped across the front of the car. Most people will

say doesn't not affect the aerodynamics and yes, it does, but

it is the under surface of the wing that does the work and creates the

downforce. The top surface is there to facilitate the work done by the

undersurface so if you put the cable on the bottom of the wing Tommy you

destroy it completely. By taking it across the top of the wing, it

doesn't do much harm and is more beneficial to understand how the

tyre is heating up. That is Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes that Gary

Anderson was talking about. Can I ask a daft question? Hamilton came

into the pits, they took the tyres off his car, took them away and are

now bringing them back again. Why do they do that? Do they keep them up

and bring them back? Is it to get better access to the car? With the

team set up, what they have is a routine. Behind you, we think he is

on high fuel, we have to stay ahead of Vettel. Everybody has that

routine jobs to do, so they will be planning. The fuel rig will go on to

the tire, the tyres will come off and the engineer will tell him what

they want to do as far as work is concerned. It is easy to get them

off and put them back on again, or put another setback on if that is

what they decide to do, they do not have to work at getting them off the

car. If everybody was stood around waiting for orders, you would have

all the work to do once it was sorted out but at least they have

halved before deciding what do. Jensen has -- Jenson Button is

hustling the McCarron, on the super soft tyre. He visits his qualifying

simulation lap through turns eight and nine. Through the curve towards

the hairpin bend, from 180 miles an hour he brakes, takes the car to 40

miles an hour through the apex and picks up through turn 11. Down the

long straight. I have had to walk along here this weekend and the

logistics are believable for stop unless you have a golf buggy, you

have to put in serious shoe leather. 200 miles an hour, turns

the car into 14. He misses the apex of the corner and not what he had in

mind. He did was go into the wall when he was on for a podium result

in BA are Honda, it is a place that can reward from an amazing victory

in 2011 but it can also buy you as it did the Honda days. Paul Di Resta

takes up his gloves and rests on the top of the steering wheel. He was

saying he is having some sort of gearbox issue, so at the moment the

guys have taken off the covers on the back of the car. They are

resting in front of it and are screwing up the back to have a look

at what is the problem. Gearboxes are a real problem. If they go, it

takes a long time to put it back together. He has had a word with his

race engineer, JP, and has the sheet in front of him so he is doing

information and reading but they wouldn't need to get this fixed.

Alexander Rossi in the commentary box and I are making -- analysing

the mistake of Jenson Button. What happened? I don't know, he may have

carried too much speed and because the wall is famous backed out of it

a bit but it looked like he was carrying a bit. The angle his car

was taking over the curb was a bit off and maybe the McLaren is that

sensitive over the curbs, if it is not right he could have a big

oversteer moment. He has experience and thought better of it and that is

what the run-off is for, to give you an experienced -- to give you an

escape path. He has an experience of going into the wall, and in North

America there is an expression there is two types of driver, those who

hit the wall and those who are going to. Half an hour remaining in the

session. Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari needs a strong result here

this weekend to get his championship challenge back on track against

Sebastian Vettel, ideally you would like Vettel to go away from here not

scoring too many points. It has been the Manchester united like

relentless consistency of Vettel that has meant he has a significant

lead in the drivers championship over Fernando Alonso and Kimi

Raikkonen, who are pursuing him. Vettel has a points after six races,

Kimi Raikkonen, 86, Alonso, 78. Alonso has more points at this stage

of the season than he had last year and he was leading the championship

last year. It shows you that Vettel really has had a cracking start to

this season, for all that he has complained bitterly about the tyres.

Hearing that makes me laugh, because they are the people who complain the

most and Red Bull is not happy unless they qualify on pole for

every race. Obviously Sebastien is making it work for him and I think

they may need to be a bit appreciative for the results they

have had because they are doing a very good job. Sutil did a little

run, he is in the pits at the moment. In the Force India. He is

worth keeping an eye on. This, on paper, is a track that should really

suit that team because they have always had a car that is very

slippery on the straight and pretty subtle in terms of rider over the

curb. It is not class leading but certainly a very slippery car down

the straights. As Gary Anderson was saying, if they play their cards

right and have some very smart strategy people now at Force India,

there is a guy called Mark Barnett, very, very smart on the race

strategy, he has played a few tricks and a few cards this season that has

got them strong results. Maybe on Sunday they can get themselves a

podium, the result they would love to get. 28 minutes of the session

remaining. We are into the long run phase of this practice two with

Alonso fastest, Bottas, helmet camera on-board for him, that

hopefully we will see plenty of that during the course of Sunday's Grand

Prix. It gives you an idea of how much head movement there is for the

drivers. There is not too many high energy corners. It will be

interesting to see a camera like that in turn three in Barcelona, in

terms of neck movement. Your neck does move a lot. This is as close to

a driver's view as you can get. The visibility is very limited. You can

see the top of the tyre, so you can tell if it is locked or not. But you

can't see the suspension. So as new cars evolve, you have to get used to

how much space you have to leave in front of you. As we have seen on so

many race starts, it is very easy to take off a piece of the wings. There

is a lot that goes into driving a lap. That is one of the things I

forget about, how long and wide your car is. The former director of the

Williams team used to say a Formula One culprit is a brutal

environment. Talk about how shaken up you get by driving one of these

things? It is not the most comfortable thing in the world, but

at the end of the day, you are doing one of the coolest things in the

world. So you can deal with a bit of discomfort to drive the car. It is a

small price to pay. And with technology and what has come along

in terms of making the seats more comfortable, it has come a long way.

But the space is so limited. And the vibrations that go through the car

gets overlooked quite a bit. The car is so stiff. When the cars move,

that is all going through you, through your arms, your legs and

your back. So when you are in the car after having been out of it for

a few weeks, it is an eye opening experience. But the human body can

adapt. What part of the body hurts most after a long stint in the car?

Probably your butt, to be honest. It takes quite an impact. A mass art is

very welcome afterwards! To get an idea of how much the cockpit of a

Formula One car has changed over the years, there is a fascinating

feature in BC one's coverage on Sunday at 6:15pm on BBC One. You get

to see the cockpit of a Mercedes, with a seat almost like an armchair

in comparison with the cars of today. It is hard to believe now,

all these years later, no seat belts. Yeah, I had an opportunity to

drive a Lotus from 1967 in January, and that did have seatbelts, but I

was blown away with how exposed the drivers were. The cars are so safe

now. It was unbelievable how exposed I felt. Driving those cars was an

experience I will never forget. may have been a lot slower through

the corners than this Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes back

then of Stirling Moss still came to speeds approaching 100 in my -- 180

miles an hour on a closed racetrack. You certainly didn't want

to get thrown out of them. Those were the days of the cotton

overalls. Some people wore bowties to take part in the race, and there

would be a glass of champagne ready at the end of the race as you wiped

the all of your face. The races were longer than. So, it is Alonso from

Hamilton from Grosjean, with 25 minutes of this session remaining.

Grosjean is the only one of the front runners who is running at the

moment on the medium tyre. He is driving out of the pits as I speak.

His team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, was not able to find the temperature of

the tyre on the supersoft and is down in 11th place. Lotus are doing

a back-to-back comparison. We have seen Ferrari doing that throughout

the season. Alexander, tell us how much benefit it is if you get to

guys who get on with each other and are working together with their team

and want to share that data? It is double the information. Most of the

drivers in F1 now appreciate that it is as much about the machine as it

is the driver, so they see the benefit of working together and not

fighting when it comes to off-track preparation. Obviously, when the

helmets are on, it is a different story. But off-track, there is no

harm in sharing everything you can, because it will only help the team

build better updates for you. Once you can't change the car, that might

change a bit. But in F1, where it is almost completely open in terms of

developed, you definitely need to work with your team-mate. The voice

of Alexander Rossi, development driver for the caterer Formula One

team. This is the second practice session for Sunday's Canadian Grand

Prix. It is Ferrari at the top of the timesheets will stop Lewis

Hamilton is just a fraction behind his former team-mate. Oath of them

have moved on from McLaren, where they were briefly back together in

2007, what an explosive year that was for them and for Formula One as

a whole. An incredible rivalry between them. Sutil is eighth,

Button is night. Raikkonen is in 11th place. Paul di Resta in 13th

place, having gone quickly earlier on in this session. Williams are

looking for better performance. They have been becalmed this year, the

Williams team. Still amazing to get off the mark. No teams on the board

for the team that won last year's Spanish Grand Prix. It is a very

different story in 2013. What is happening with the track

temperatures? 20 degrees. Air temperature 17. It has a date chilly

day. We knew from the beginning that it was going to be cold. The teams

can control the temperatures with the blankets they have, but they can

only control it so much. It is up to the driver to push hard, and that

can be difficult on a set of tyres you may not have run before. You can

lose up to 40 degrees on the out lap if you are not pushing the right

amount. At the end of the day, the blankets can only raise the surface

temperature of the tyre, they can't raise the internal temperature. That

is up to the driver. This session is the one where we get the sense of

what the outright lap speed is on the qualifying tyre. Now we are

getting a sense of what the cars can do on the longer runs, which tells

us how they might perform in the race. It appears that the Red Bull

is a good bit faster than the Mercedes. We have Mark Webber out on

circuit on a long one, and also Lewis Hamilton. There is quite

different in lap times. Gary Anderson, how do you read this? Fuel

is one possibility, but there seems to be a performance differential.

Fuel is such a big thing. We don't know what the difference is. Ten

kilograms of you around here is about a quarter of a second a lap.

So it can show up as a big difference. With Mercedes, we saw

them when the race in Monaco with Mikko costs -- Nico Rosberg. But

although it is important to be at the front, it is not ultimately

important. We have to look at the time is a lot more tomorrow before

we can make a decision. As we see the Red Bull sliding past the

Williams, Gary, why is it that Red Bull has had a good qualifying car

here over the years, but has never won the Canadian Grand Prix?

Bull have always built a car to go round corners quickly. So they have

compromised on efficiency and straight-line speed to do that. This

is one of the circuits where it can hurt them. And now with DRS as well,

it is easier. Light rain around this sector. In the past, we have seen

races where they suffered penalties and had to start at the back. And

the one thing they changed was the rear wing set-up and the gears, and

they still were not getting good results. So they can set the car up

to go quicker in a straight line, but they seem to be stuck in that

philosophy that going round corners is the best way to go. Most of the

time it has worked for them, but sometimes they pay the price.

year, Vettel changed all the settings and came through the field

like a hot knife through butter. We are just seeing spots of rain as the

showers start to move. Montreal is not exactly on the seat, but it is

next to the Saint Lawrence Seaway that feeds in from the Atlantic. You

get these large passenger ships that cruise by just across the tree line

next to the rowing Basin from the 1976 Olympic Games. That is right

next to the race track. Then there is a channel with gigantic cruise

ships and tankers going through sedately, at a fraction of the speed

of the Formula One cars that flash past. Hamilton locks up his right

front tyre. Breaking and Lewis Hamilton have been a talking point

this weekend. All eyes on him to see if he is getting on top of the

issues and getting the Mercedes to slow down the way he wants to. His

team principal joined us to give us some insight into what work they are

doing and the work that Hamilton is doing personally to make sure the

critical part of his game, the break-in, is the best it can be.

Raikkonen has had a lock-up. Alexander, you have a plane to

catch, because you are taking part in something else. Our regular five

Live correspondent will be one of your competitors. You must be stoked

to be racing in that event. It came up as a last-minute thing, but yes.

To be able to do it in the Caterham colour is a great opportunity. I

hope I can represent America and hopefully go for a podium. Steve

McQueen played Michael Delaney in the film. One of the greatest racing

films ever created. As a racing driver, it is certainly on the

bucket list, if you will. Thanks for joining us. Alexander is off to the

airport now. Yet another helmet design for Sebastian Vettel this

weekend. That is some collection he is building up. When he opens up the

Sebastian Vettel Museum near Hockenheim, that anonymous part of

Germany where you are not sure where you are, I am sure that will be a

real landmark full of 100,000 crash helmet as worn by Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso is looking fast, Sutil, Hamilton, Pace does not seem to be

there on the long runs for Mercedes. I don't know if that is a

little indication there is work to be done. Cater has just missed the

chicane underneath us. A lot of cars have missed the apex of the chicane.

Our commentary position is right above that final chicane and the

wall of champions, the legendary concrete wall on the outside which

has drawn in the likes of Michael Schumacher and Jack Miller --

Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button among many others over the years,

certainly the Cater just missing it. Looking at Hamilton's long runs,

calls the concern. We need to understand what fuel loads everyone

is carrying. It looks as though the Mercedes race pace is not as good as

some of its competitors. Ferrari looked pretty good, fastest time on

the single lap for Alonso. He set the time on the second flying lap on

the super soft tyre. We saw the Mercedes able to get the temperature

into its tyres a little more quickly. Hamilton's first flying lap

was good enough to go fastest, then he went faster again. It was Alonso,

on his second flying lap, who eclipsed the Mercedes, some

encouragement for the Ferrari team not least because the worrying thing

for them coming out of Monaco was they did not seem to have any

traction. This is Jenson Button's radio. Can you please tell me what

the problem is? There are sensor issues on the gearbox. That was

Jenson Button asking for some clarification and the McLaren

reserve driver is with Jenny. you for joining us. We heard Jenson

Button saying he has a problem downshifting through the gears. What

is he saying to you on the pit wall because you get to hear everything?

He has had a couple of downshifts that have gone into neutral rather

than the gear, so there could be problems with the censors. They are

looking at the data. They are not too concerned. He is being careful,

what he's doing. Our cameraman will have to be careful, they are moving

car. Gary, talk about what they are doing to try and revive the fortunes

of McLaren because it has not been the best start the season, has it?

It is not. We have a, updates and the cars are running on different

specifications. It is not just about bringing loads of pace, it is

maximising the car you have got. Getting the best out of what we have

got, while bringing the updates that we can and move forward. We have a

step forward this weekend but it will not happen overnight. Jenson

Button has been with the team for a while. He understands the car and

understands better than Sergio Perez, his new team-mate, so how

difficult is he finding this season? I think it is difficult for Sergio

Perez after last year's season, McLaren beating him on winning

races, to come here bubbly expecting to do that from the word go, but it

has not gone that well for him. Sergio is not here for one year, he

has a long future and will be winning races with us. It is

probably not the start he expected to have with McLaren, but he is

competitive. In the last few races we have seen the Sergio Perez we

expected. Very aggressive maybe that is what Weise -- what we saw from

Sergio, he is pushing the car hard. Hopefully we can improve the car and

helping to start winning races. circuit is the McLaren favourite

circuit, you have one here for the last three years. Will it take rain

or something special to see that repeated this year? As it looks dry

we will struggle to win races this weekend but if it is wet, you never

know. Jenson Button has had mixed races here, but a lot of success. If

we have rain, it is a better chance. It has not been the best of starts

for you in DTM? It has been a tough start to the year in DTM but there

are a lot of things happening in the first few races that make it

difficult. If we can get on top of that we can win races. We had a

massive lead last year and managed to lose, so we can't give up, we

have a chance. Young driver tests will be happening at Silverstone in

July, the end of June, are you going to be in them? Do you know yet?

Probably, yes. I think I will be in the car. We need to try and get in

the car every now and then. All the simulator work we are doing at

Woking, it is difficult to know how close you are when you are not

driving the real car. Me and the other drivers get a chance to drive

a real car, so what -- so we know what it feels like. We can tell if

we are doing the right thing in the simulator or not. A bobbin if you

would like to see testing, coming back? Absolutely, when I joined the

team I was assessing every week so what we're doing now is not testing

at all, it is very different. It would be great to get some testing

back in season because we can help more with developing the car in the

right direction. Gary, thank you. is interesting to hear him talking

about testing. He would love to do more because his opportunities to

get into the car are limited. A lot of reserve drivers, like Alexander

Rossi, the development driver at Cater, gets an opportunity on a

Friday morning during Grand Prix weekends. One of the series doing

the rounds this weekend, a possible theory of where we go after the

furore day after the Pirelli test that happened in May is how about

the idea that you have a rotation system and maybe after several Grand

Prix, maybe Bahrain, possibly after Barcelona, maybe Silverstone, a

couple of teams, pulled out of a hat as to who dose which tests but two

of them stick around and do 1000 kilometres tyre testing and testing

us on the cars and that it is the same for everybody, spread out

across the season, two teams at a time sticking around for a day or

two after Grand Prix, as Mercedes did in Barcelona last month and then

at least there is some testing to be done and nobody can accuse the

others of getting unfair advantages. That is one theory going around. It

is being proposed by one or two of the teams. Teams are not aligned on

this. Ferrari pushing hard for return of testing. On-board with

Ferrari, trying to pass the Toro Rosso. The closing speed was

enormous going down the straight but it was not enough for Alonso to get

alongside. He set the fastest lap on the long run he had done so far. On

the lap before that. Even the hold-up from the Toro Rosso, he

managed to do a lap of 1.18.04. We are seeing consistent lap times from

this Ferrari, very fast and consistent. We need to be careful

because if you were with us at the Monaco Grand Prix, the Ferrari on

the first day of running looked tremendous. It looks quick and it

looks like Alonso was not struggling too hard, or Massa, together lap

time out of the car perhaps in comparison with other teams but then

it fell apart with a series of accidents for Felipe Massa and poor

traction on race day for Fernando Alonso. But so far, Alonso is not

only quick, single lap with the fastest times that so far in the

Ferrari, but he is quick and consistent on the long runs. A

picture is beginning to emerge, Gary Anderson. Yes, definitely a picture

is beginning to emerge. The top guys are at the top. This is a very

different circuit, a short lap, a lot of straits. You have to look

after the wheelspin. I watched Sebastian Vettel level while ago and

they changed the tyres on his car. The rear tyres woodgrain is quite a

lot. In generally cleans up on the straight. This is one of those

circuits where the tyres can be kind to you if you can be kind to them. I

think the Ferrari does very well. have an interesting picture as far

as the Red Bull is concerned. Mark Webber is on the medium compound

tyre at the moment and his run has been pretty consistent. He is

laughing in the low 1.18, the same sort of place as Alonso. Adrian

Sutil's lap times have started to go off a bit. He has done a long run in

the Force India. Let's catch up with Jenny. Kimi Raikkonen, the end of

his session, four and a half minutes to go. They are cagey about what is

going on. They say they are checking a few things. They have done about

35 laps and this is not how they would have wanted to end the

session. We saw a picture of the Lotus garage, a lot of concern on

the back of the car. Raikkonen out of the cockpit. That is the picture

now. You can see mechanics working away, some of them working the pit

lane crash helmets, ordinary ear defenders and it looks like they are

taking the car apart, the bodywork is coming off. It looks like the

floor is coming off. There is work to be done at the back of

Raikkonen's car. He has not been happy with the performance of the

Lotus today. It looked as though he was struggling to get temperature

into the supersoft tyres for a qualifying simulation map -- lap.

Unlike Grosjean, who had a strong run here last year, Romain Grosjean,

which he could certainly do with repeating this year. He started the

Grand Prix in seventh, came through to finish second using the gentle

action of the Lotus on the tyres to use race strategy to get a strong

finish. That was the story here last year. Sergio Perez doing the same

thing at the wheel of the Sauber. Looking at Jules Bianchi, the brake

dust coming out of the front, look at that. It gives you an idea how

tough this race track is on the brakes on the tyres looking a little

ragged as well. You will see a lot of that at the end of the Grand

Prix, with the carbon brake just coming off the wheels. The brake

discs did enormously over the course of a 300 kilometre Grand Prix, one

of the toughest, if not the toughest circuits of the year, you have a

series of big stops from in excess of 180 miles an hour and it puts

pressure on the brake system and also on the drivers as well because

every time they stamp on the brake pedal to go from approaching 200

miles an hour down to 70 or 80 miles an hour, their innards go flying

Ford, their chest is pressed against the belt and their neck is straining

with the weight of the helmet, which is about four or five times the

normal weight it would be. Ricciardo is on the long running the Toro

Rosso, 4.9 seconds off its fastest pace set on the qualifying tyre

earlier on. We are getting into the closing stages of this free practice

two. A very interesting picture. A lot of laps have been set. Fernando

Alonso has been hyperactive this afternoon. 46 laps, the most of

anybody so far. Pretty much everybody has had a fairly busy

time. Jenson Button has done 29 laps. Paul di Resta thought he had a

fuel pressure problem and he has done only 22. Kimi Raikkonen,

another man out of his car but nevertheless he has managed to cover

35 laps. Sunday's Grand Prix is 70 laps. Alonso has done a fair

percentage of a race distance here this afternoon. If you add that onto

the laps they did this morning, 16 this morning, still not covered an

entire race distance during the course of the day but this

morning's practice session was rain affected with a wet track at the

start. A mistake for Rosberg in the final chicane, not the first driver

to do that. We have almost a full set today of drivers who have missed

the breaking point into the final chicane. -- braking point. It is a

couple of degrees lower, the track temperature, as it was at the start

of this session. It is a moving target. The engineers are never

quite sure whether track is but the improvement in terms of the grip

level is unmistakable and the consistency of one or two of the

runners, Fernando Alonso, a lock up into the hairpin loses him time but

he is still banging out laps in the low 1.18, a. Webber macro is the

same. -- Webber is the same. It does not look as though there is much to

choose between the Ferrari and Red Bull in long run pace. The question

is how long on Sunday will they be able to make the Times last? The

chequered flag comes out. The session is over. Ferrari topped the

timesheets, with Alonso and how dearly would he love for that to be

the picture on Sunday afternoon, to get his championship challenge

reinvigorated? Sebastian Vettel seventh fastest today. If he could

replicate that on Sunday, he would be delighted. He will be working

very hard to make sure that is not the case. Mercedes look quicker

every single lap. Grosjean is fast on a single lap. Raikkonen not.

Potentially he has a problem. Let's get the analysis of Gary Anderson.

It is the same at the front but Ferrari will be happy. Looking down

the pit lane, they have come here with bits and pieces, they have a

new front wing and the sidepod, elements on there. They are trying

to optimise their car for this track. They are pushing pretty hard

after Monaco that was less than desirable for them. The mix is going

to be there. Both Lotuss will there and it is going to be an interesting

qualifier tomorrow. It certainly is. What about Force India? You tipped

them for a strong result this weekend? It is the 100th Grand

Prix, they are very determined to stand on their own rights and this

season they have been competitive all the way through. They are

knocking on the door of the podium. They need luck and to get it right

when others do not. It could happen for them. The car is quick and there

will be knocking on the door. It is always difficult to finish in the

top three. They are not far away from it. What about the performance

of the McLarens? They have been strongly Montreal over the years,

winners of the last three consecutive Canadian Grand Prix is.

How do you read them? Is it stronger weekend for the McLaren team?

should be. The McLarens have aerodynamic deficiencies at the

moment, but that will not be such a big problem here. It will be how far

up the top ten they can get. Don't discount them from winning the race

if the conditions change on Sunday afternoon. And a tight at all for

pole position? For sure. We normally talk about a 10th of a second being

the difference. It will be more like five hundredths of a second because

of the way this circuit is. It is just about getting that braking

right. You can lose two tenths of a second quickly. It will be very

tight at the front. Certainly a very interesting picture. As Gary

Anderson was saying, it is a short lap in Montreal. The gaps between

the cars are always very tight. So Alonso topped the timesheets. The

debrief this evening will be a cheerful one for them. For Rory have

not won this race for a few years, although they are the second most

successful constructor. It looked as though Mark Webber was closest to

the wall of champions, just brushing it ever so gently, probably enough

just to smudge the writing on the right rear tyre of that Red Bull.

Luckily, this practice session has remained nice and dry and we have

managed to get a full pig chat. 48 laps was the most any drivers that.

That was Fernando Alonso, who also topped the timesheets. As we bid you

farewell from this beautiful Montreal racetrack there is a lot to

look forward to tomorrow, both on BBC television and on BBC Radio five

live. Free practice three gets away at 2:55pm, UK time on BBC Two, and

also on BBC Radio five live. Qualifying is tomorrow at five

o'clock on BBC One. That should be an exciting and interesting

session. And it is also live on BBC Radio five live. Lewis Hamilton has

been the king of Montreal. But Fernando Alonso is staking his

claim. He was fastest this afternoon in the free practice not only in the

long ones, but also on the single lap. Can he carry that through

tomorrow? I will hand you practice is in Perry and we will see you

tomorrow. Thank you to James and Alexander

Rossi who gave us some terrific insight. I am joined by Christian

horn. That was a good session for you. It was a sensible session. We

have a look at low fuel, higher fuel and both compounds of tyres. It is a

bit chilly. What did you deduce from that session? You must have been

pleased that it was constantly dry. Both drivers have found a good

rhythm. They set themselves up into the circuit and seemed to be working

well. Sebastian did not have a clean lap. He got held up by Kimi at the

chicane, but it is still positive for both drivers. You tested the

tyre here. Are you happy with that, or are you against the change?

have done a limited amount of running on the tire. It seemed OK in

the brief look we had. I am sure there is plenty of data for Pirelli

to go away and have a look. It did not do anything nasty. It behaved

well, so it is their call. Looks like these supersoft means it will

be a big step in qualifying to use it. Do you think the top ten will

run with that supersoft tire? think most teams will use that

supersoft tire to qualify. It seems to have reasonable durability. It

does not seem to be a bad time for this circuit. So we are not looking

at a multi-stop race. So much depends on the temperature. In these

two conditions, it has been no problem for either compound of tire.

But if it is warmer on Sunday, things can change rapidly. What have

you seen for the weather forecast tomorrow? It will be a bit wet. And

Sunday is supposed to be drier and warmer. So that creates complete

mayhem. But it is the same for everybody. We got some good

information this morning about the wet session and the dry session, so

hopefully, we can use that. Thank you for having a chat with us. They

are looking really good, the Red Bulls, as our Ferrari. They are

looking very strong. Ferrari have come here with some modifications

that I can visibly see. And they look logical to me. From the

outside, I can see positive steps. This is a circuit where speed is

important. And those components look as though they will be positive for

that. I have not seen Red Bull yet. Ferrari may close the gap a bit.

Their biggest problem lately has been qualifying. They just need to

qualify better. But they have got themselves in better shape for

qualifying. They do look a bit different. We know they were really

busy out there. Fernando was busy testing that front wing and the

prototype tire. They did really well, with 48 laps. Loads of data

for them. Fernando is a good workhorse, doing the job. It would

be easy to do a quick lap and then sit back and not bother much, but

Fernando knows all the information will help him on Sunday. That is the

important thing. He needs to dig into those resources. He has been

getting feelings from the car. He will have felt the car start to

understeer, or the wheelspin start to creep more and more. He will know

how to address that situation on Sunday afternoon. It will not be a

new learning curve for him. That is why you put the laps in. By Sunday

afternoon, it should just be like working a remote control, doing

things you know will charge -- change the car's reaction.

favourite with the fans, Fernando Alonso. We have seen lots of

emotions from him this season. A couple of wins, but he also seems to

have frustrated with some of the problems they have had. Silly

problems, with the DRS wing not working twice. Once is bad, twice is

downright silly. At the end of the day, a driver leads the team. A team

can make decisions, but Fernando is a double world champion. He should

be able to read the situation. Sometimes you have to override the

team a bit. The team can be a bunch of people running around like

chickens trying to make decisions. The driver needs to address the

situation. Jenson Button is good at that. Fernando Alonso has been

positive. We can hear from Lewis now.

How was today for you? It was OK. What do you learn from a session

like today? What do you have to do on your list of things? We did not

learn a lot today. IN AUDIBLE.They We can't hear that, so apologies.

Hopefully, we can get more information about Lewis later. Let's

walk down to Lotus. Has Kimi got a problem? I don't think he has got a

problem. I am sure it is a mechanical problem of some sort.

There is no reason why the car would have dropped off in performance

other than something going wrong with it. It will be fixed tomorrow.

Kimi is one of these shrewd divers. He does not show what he's capable

of until he has to. He keeps it quiet until it comes to using it in

qualifying. He does not like to show his hand. He keeps himself to

himself until somebody upsets him, like Perez did in Monaco. It is

about confidence. If the driver has confidence, he does not have to show

it to the world. You can come down the straight and come into the pits

and do a very good lap, but not show it in the lap time. Kimi is my tip

for this race. Lewis is very good at straight-line speed. Kimi needs to

make up a bit for Monaco. If you lose points, they are gone forever.

So he has to try and pull Sebastian Vettel back again to make sure the

championship stays alive going into the second half of the season.

important is it here in terms of tire temperature? The track

temperature has been low today, 20 degrees and lower. Who will struggle

with getting the temperature up, and what can drivers do to make sure

they get that heat in? The supersoft tire and the medium tire,

theoretically, there should not be a big change between them. But while

you are coming down those straits, the rear wheels are slipping on the

ground because you are driving the car forward. So it is spinning and

creating heat. The front tyres are doing nothing. So you lose tyre

temperature. That is the problem. But that has always happened.

who comes to terms with that best. Tyre temperature is a thing, but it

is more important to have that front tyre and rear tire balance. You can

see the complication of the front brakes. That is all about managing

the air flow to keep the brakes to. That is the balance the engineers

will be working on, how much more of that they should do, how much more

break temperature you can dip into the tyres but make sure you don't

overheat the rear tyres. That is what they will be trying to decide

on. We have been talking about Lewis and braking, because he has come

clean and said he has a problem. How do you assess his performance in

that last session? You have to stamp on the brakes. You are forced to. A

lot of us are breaking when turning into fast corners, and it is a fine

line. But Lewis has to stamp on the brakes. As long as the car response

to it. His problem is that after he stamps on the brakes, you are trying

to control it because you are losing their grip, so you can't break so

hard. It makes the car more unstable. In the McLaren, he was

happy. He could feel this, could feel the grip level diminishing.

They break with the left foot in these cars. His left foot and the

car were talking to each other. In the Mercedes, his left foot and the

tyre grip are not quite talking to each other as well as they should

be. It is not such a big problem on this course. Is the reason that

Nicole doesn't have that issue because he has driven the car more,

or is it to do with his driving style? It is because he has driven

it more. You get used to things. Lewis was with McLaren for many

years. He will have developed with that system. Then he moved to

Mercedes and it is a bit like a light switch. Nicole has been there

for awhile so he has had trained half years of working with that

system. For Lewis, he has gone past the light switch bit. He is on a

dimmer switch now! And he is turning it brighter all the time. He is

coming to terms with it, and the team are coming to terms with him as

well. They are understanding him when he asks for something. He will

fill out a sheet rating aspects from zero to ten, and they are

understanding what he is saying. A seven can be a problem, three, they

can get away with. It will be interesting with the two of them,

and Lewis being the master of this track. Nico Rosberg is spectacular

at the moment. What I was saying was, you came to Mercedes and you

were teamed up with Michael Schumacher seven times world

champion, race winner, for three years. You never complained once.

You never saw this down and out bloke because he was with this hero

of a team-mate. Lewis Hamilton, he has won lots of races, lots more

than Nico Rosberg, but has never complained about it once and as Nico

said, I have learned from everybody I have worked with, engineers,

catering staff, team principals, or drivers. I learn about something. He

said my mentality is about taking what they do and saying, can I do

something better because he does it. I will adapt, he says, so I love

having a competitive team made because I am learning as much as

anybody else. It is good to hear the story unfolds, very steely Nico

Rosberg. We can hear from Mark Webber.

You have running rain and shine. The car competitive in both conditions?

We did pretty well, in wet, the inter-is felt comfortable. It is

tricky, get having the together in those conditions, you can lose lap

time but the car seemed good in those conditions. We did everything

we could do in the next part of P2, which was have a look at the

prototype tyre and focus on the efforts on this weekend's Grand

Prix. It has been a long run of work. It is a tricky venue, a lot of

people going off but in the end we got the maximum from the scenario

today. -- How important is qualifying with the DRS owns?

important, it is not so easy on this circuit. Strategy and tyres is keen.

Your thoughts on the prototype tyre? It behaved pretty well. Yet, we will

see what the information the guys can get, it would be nice to get the

information, we lost time on P1. We lost the data from part --

Barcelona. Would you like to see it used in Silverstone? It does not

worry me. You have to love Mark Webber, always says it as it is. We

will show you around a bit, not your normal type of paddock. It is a

little bit dull, to be completely honest because we haven't got all

the hospitality units and everybody uses these kind of, well, bland

tents, for want of a better word and cabins. What is going on over here?

We have got a Mercedes press conference. Are any drivers in

there? Just the drivers, pressed to have a chat with people. Let's not

walk into the Pirelli tyres. A word about the tyres. Paul Hembery was

supposed to be in a team boss press conference this afternoon. Let's let

these tyres come through. He is the motorsport director of Pirelli, just

as the tyres go pastors. Marvellous timing, Pirelli. However, Paul

Hembery on advice of lawyers has pulled out of this press conference

and will not be talking, quite significant, do you think? It is

going to the arbitration, so anything said now you cannot

retrace. It is better to say nothing. If you have journalists

asking questions it is better to say nothing. You can't get out of it

unless you have a legal way of getting out of it and if they say

no, he can get out of the ice conference which in theory he should

not do. He has gone the right route because it is going to arbitration

and you have to make sure you do not say things. Can I shows the body

tyre? You can show me. That is an intermediate tyre. This is the dry

weather tyre. It is perfect, this tyre has run on the track. What I am

saying about the wheels slipping, you can see on the rear tyre here,

you can see this part of the tyre, it is rolling and as the tyre is

slipping it is robbing the top surface of the tyre. After you have

done one corner, it is happening on the next one because she were

driving on rows of rubber. It reduces the tyre grip and you get

more wheelspin. You get higher pressures in the tyre, that means

you have more wheelspin so it is a spiral to nowhere. The only thing

you can do is not go on the throttle so hard. You have to read those

characteristics and problems very quickly. And then you use lap time?

It is better to lose lap time in a couple of corners and get the car

back together and lose quite a lot of lap time in the two corners for

three or four laps macro, so the clever drivers will back off. Alonso

has been through that stage today, he has felt those problems, he has

reacted to it. Very good for him today. How will we be with raining

here? Front tyre graining, you put steering lock on the car and it goes

straight on and it goes with a problem. Especially when you have

these fast chicanes because it is so precise. It is like threading a

needle while you are doing a roller-coaster ride and getting

through the literature caves, hitting the curb is tough. It is one

of those situations, the front tyres is not a problem but the rear are.

Let's hear from Jacques Villeneuve. Jacques Villeneuve, here at a

circuit that is important and significant to you, named after your

father. What is it like to come here? It is always great to come

back to Montreal. I have lived here for five years and I am back in

Europe but it is coming to a home race. It is different to be on the

TV. It is a lot more relaxing. do you think is going to win? We

have had quite a difficult wet session already but hopefully it is

going to be dry by the time we get to the race? Alonso looks quite

good. He was quick. You sounded surprised by that? They did not look

too good in Monaco. They lost their way a little bit. They were not

quick and slow in qualifying which is never the case with Fernando

Alonso. But they seemed to be good on the long runs as well. You know

that Ferrari, one of the cars you drove. How much would you like to

see it in winning ways again? would be great, Fernando has been

fighting every year, giving us a good show. In the past, the battle

would probably be him and Vettel for the championship. Finally, this is a

circuit you know pretty well and you know the wall of champions painfully

well. What is it like to go into that and how hard is it? I guess it

was the first one, when I baptised it and it was written, welcome to

Quebec, so it was the perfect Walter hit and it was frustrating because

it was the second lap of the race so it was frustrating. I hit a second

time a few years later. It all was a little embarrassing. Michael and

Damon also hit it. A few years ago, Vettel hit it but before he was

champion so he felt good about it because the ended up winning three

champions after that. Physically, what is it like to crash into that?

It is nothing. There are other places that are harder to crash down

this wall. It is frustrating and embarrassing. Thank you.Thank you.

I remember Lou is saying last year he wanted to give it a kiss, not a

full French-Canadian kiss, just a little peck! Yes, just a little

white paint on your tyre macro but you should not leave much tyre on

the wall. It is a fine line. Spectacular to watch, it is a

spectacular circuit. I was talking to DC, asking how scary is it as a

driver to race around here? He said, half of the track is very scary and

you are clenching your bum half way around, sorry, we are talking about

bombs, but the second half of it you can relax a bit and it is almost

like Monaco in the fact you can relax, but then you really can't?

the long straights you can have a breather, relax and think about

things. Coming down to the last corner, you can have too much time.

Can I take you to metre further? We always see the cars to the wall.

Coming out of the corner, you free the car up. Being close to that war

is not because the car is forcing them necessarily to be close to the

wall. You always try to leave a small gap. The guy is out of control

that forgets to hit the wall. It looks more spectacular than it

really is. But when you do hit it, it is a big hit. It is 120 miles an

hour. Twice the motorway speed limit in the UK. It is a big hit. We have

one more session in the morning before qualifying, so quickly

summarise what they will try to get from the morning session? It depends

on this guy up there, the weather is not looking great. We have had some

spits this session. They will want to do more laps run the Miranda Hart

tyre, a medium tyre, -- run the medium tyre. Onto qualifying in the

afternoon. Not as important here to be on pole position. You can get