Lewis Hamilton was lost for words as Ayrton Senna's family passed on a race-worn helmet of his idol after matching his record of 65 pole positions.
The triple World Champion finished fastest in the morning session with a time of 1:13.809s, but despite improving to a 1:13.150s in the afternoon, he was denied top spot by Kimi Raikkonen by 0.215 seconds.
Both men clocked the first-ever times recorded at under one minute and 12 seconds at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. That was about three-tenths of a second faster than Formula One points leader Sebastien Vettel in his Ferrari. Little bits and pieces which Mercedes's engineers have changed on the set-up of his auto, and the sister model of team-mate Valtteri Bottas after they were squashed by Ferrari in Monte Carlo. "Of course, we can't always be flawless but today I got as close as I could get". Hamilton needed several laps to get the tires up to temperature, and then went to third with a 1:13.078. "I always said that it's not that situation in the team".
Hamilton had a different problem: steering clear of a groundhog that wandered onto the track in the morning session. "It's all about tomorrow".
He won in Montreal in 2013 and was second a year ago.
Halep to face unseeded Ostapenko in French Open women's singles final
It was her 50th victor of the match, against 45 errors. "I learned many things during the years, not just after that final". On her part, Ostapenko celebrated her 20th birthday with a 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 6-3 win over Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky .
"I remember coming home from school and putting on the video tape, so it's really odd to think that now I'm here and I have that many poles".
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen was fifth fastest ahead of his Red Bull team-mate Australian Daniel Ricciardo, Brazilian Felipe Massa of Williams, Mexican Sergio Perez and his Force India team-mate Frenchman Esteban Ocon, and German Nico Hulkenberg of Renault. "Ferrari and Mercedes are able to turn their engines up and find that extra pace". Fernando Alonso again had an impressive run putting his underpowered McLaren into 12th. "Lewis had a mega lap today".
"We've got a auto that has got many strong points but there is some trickiness to the way that it handles".
Montreal native Lance Stroll was 17th in practice at his first Formula One race on his hometown track.
"We spent the first half of qualifying working out which timed lap was the optimum for tyre performance and, in the end, settled on the first timed lap".
Comments