No panic as Mercedes prepare for Canada

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Kimi Raikkonen on Thursday stuck with Ferrari's position and denied widespread claims that his world championship leading team-mate Sebastian Vettel had official number one status.

"No, we don't have anything", he said, in answer to a direct question about four-time champion Vettel's status.

While the reduction in time gap worked well in 2016, some drivers have reported that it has become more problematic this season because of the difficulties inherent in following other cars with the current aero package. Early spins by Ferrari pair Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen - who finished 0.4s off the lead - and a wobbly moment for Hamilton at Turn 1 showed how green the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was at the beginning of the session, with grip and tyre warm-up likely to play a key role in influencing the fight for pole and the win this weekend.

Wolff pointed at the tyres as the main cause of his team's inconsistency this year in which they have matched Ferrari's three wins, but shared them between Hamilton, with two, and Bottas.

Whatever "little bits and pieces" Mercedes have changed on their cars this weekend, they seemed to work for Hamilton as he pipped Vettel by 0.198s in a windy opening session on Montreal's Ile Notre-Dame.

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"We've definitely done some analysis, but we'll find out whether or not there are things we can improve on this weekend", he said. Obviously, looking back we can say that we have done very well so far, but there is no guarantee that just because the last race was good, then the next one will be good as well. We know our rules.

"I think track by track we have definitively been performing better than in others, but Ferrari has always been good and their vehicle always seems very good to drive, with good balance, good for the tyres".

This weekend is no different from any other location on the Formula 1 calendar, with Raikkonen believing Ferrari have to try to maximize everything. "We are doing our best and we have a clear policy".

He also declined to make any comment on his plans for next year.

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