Canadian GP: Hamilton heads second practice from Vettel

Hamilton lapped the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 1m14.212s in his Mercedes, 0.257s quicker than Vettel’s Ferrari.

The second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg was third fastest, half a second off Hamilton’s pace, ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

Story of the session

Vettel set the very early pace on 1m17.815s, soon eclipsed by Hamilton’s first salvo of 1m17.564s. Vettel went off on his next lap, at Turn 8, then improved to 1m16.711s.

The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg ran a rare 1-2 before Vettel split them, his 1m16.164s just 0.099s off Perez’s best.

Hulkenberg improved to 1m15.944s on lap seven of his supersoft run, before Verstappen, Vettel and Ricciardo all rattled off P1 times in quick succession. Ricciardo lowered the best time to 1m15.530s on supersofts.

Verstappen improved to 1m15.442s, 0.088s faster than his teammate. He went even faster to 1m15.259s, as Hamilton popped into second on 1m15.343s – 0.084s off while using soft-compound tyres.

Hamilton then improved to 1m14.941s, despite a lock-up at the hairpin, giving him a 0.318s advantage at the top.

Valtteri Bottas jumped up to second in his Williams on 1m15.213s. After his big shunt in the first session, his teammate Felipe Massa was back out right from the start after great work from his Williams crew. He temporarily placed fourth after his first run.

Ultrasoft runs set the tempo

Rosberg took the top spot after 30 minutes, turning in 1m14.751s and then 1m14.738s on ultrasofts.

Hamilton responded with his stunning 1m14.212s on the same tyre compound, 0.526s clear of his teammate. Vettel went P3 on 1m14.875s, with Ricciardo P5 just behind Verstappen by 0.012s.

Vettel’s second flyer on ultrasofts managed to split the Mercs, his 1m14.469s a quarter of a second off Hamilton. The Ferrari was also the fastest car in the speed traps with its new-spec turbo.

Behind Bottas in sixth, Button – who joined the session late due to an engine change following this morning’s oil leak – was seventh fastest after a spectacular wall-grazing lap that actually matched Bottas’s time.

He just pipped Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso. Fernando Alonso was 11^th for McLaren, ahead of Perez, Massa and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:14.212		43
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:14.469	+0.257	45
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:14.738	+0.526	46
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:15.156	+0.944	29
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:15.168	+0.956	43
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:15.213	+1.001	46
7	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:15.213	+1.001	35
8	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:15.234	+1.022	43
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:15.321	+1.109	50
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1:15.410	+1.198	42
11	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:15.450	+1.238	40
12	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:15.493	+1.281	47
13	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:15.513	+1.301	44
14	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:15.559	+1.347	42
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1:16.093	+1.881	35
16	Kevin Magnussen	Renault F1 Team	1:16.255	+2.043	39
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:16.582	+2.370	40
18	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas F1 Team	1:16.591	+2.379	32
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:16.902	+2.690	51
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault F1 Team	1:17.001	+2.789	48
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing	1:17.023	+2.811	32
22	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing	1:17.423	+3.211	49