"Cato Batista" 06/06/2015 6:40:19 ID #766

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is a circuit where HAM always shines. With 3 hard braking zones he is always the man to beat in Montreal, here is where he makes the best out of his late-braking ability. Both Mercedes look strong, they have new engines (their second), but Ferrari is much closer than anticipated. The Italians brought upgraded engines using some of their development-allowed ‘tokens’. Rumor is that they may have 15 BHP more than their German counterparts.

Most of the running was done on P1 as P2 was rained out 30 minutes into the session.    

HAM was fastest in both sessions, ROS was close to him on the first but didn’t try much QF settings ending behind the Ferraris in P2. VET and RAI split the tyre work with VET concentrating in the super soft simulation and RAI in the soft. Pirelli brought the same compounds as in Monaco, but obviously the loads are much higher here and a lot of the data from last race is not relevant. Lotus was fast from the go and are looking like serious top 10 contenders. Red Bull are higher up than they thought as they were supposed to be in disadvantage in this power-circuit. RIC will keep his 4th engine rather than taking the penalty. Williams are not showing their cards, as they always do on Fridays, but this is the kind of track where their high speed-aero is expected to do well.

P1- HAM (1.16.212) ROS GRO HUL VET MAS KVY MAL ALO

P2- HAM (1.15.988) VET RAI (0.060 behind VET) ROS MAL BOT GRO MAS KVY RIC

I heard from our CFA members and CFA friends who spend the day at the circuit today (and got very wet…) that the Mercedes are on rails but Ferrari looks strong also, VET in particular. They all agree the Honda engine sounds horrible but this year in general the motors sound much better, Renault specially. They were also surprised and very happy to see both Mercs taking to the track on inters under the rain, only for Lewis to make a mistake and hit the wall -“It was like ice”- he said like if it was a surprise in this green, wet surface.

How close is Ferrari? We’ll find out tomorrow. Mercedes has taken the last 17 poles, HAM has been on pole 5 of the 6 races this year. Montreal, the opposite of Monaco, is not a place where pole position is crucial. Since 2000 the polesitter has won the race only 5 times.

Cato (same again?) HAM ROS VET

We’ll be in the Gilles Villeneuve in the morning to watch the F1s in action for the FP3 and then QF at 1pm.

Let’s get in touch again tomorrow.

Cheers

Cato