Friday, 10 June 2011
Free Practice 1
Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
Free Practice 1: P9, 1:17.445, 28 laps
Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
Free Practice 1: P14, 1:18.506, 15 laps
Nick Heidfeld led the way for Lotus Renault GP
on a sunny first session of free practice for
the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles
Villeneuve.
Using chassis R31-04, Nick had a busy 90 minutes
of action and set the 9th fastest time with a
lap of 1m 17.445s. By contrast, Vitaly Petrov
spent much of the session in the garage as the
team worked to rectify issues with the radio and
throttle pedal on his R31-05 chassis. Vitaly
finally went out to put in some timed laps in
the final 15 minutes of the session, recording a
best of 1m 18.506s, good enough for 14th place.
The session was briefly interrupted by a red
flag for an accident involving Sebastian Vettel
at the circuit’s famous ‘Wall of Champions’. a
part of the track that has claimed so many
legends down the years.
At the front, Nico Rosberg set the fastest time
with a lap of 1m15.591s in his Mercedes, ahead
of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and the other
Mercedes of Michael Schumacher.
Tyre evaluation will be the focus of this
afternoon’s 90 minute practice as the drivers
assess Pirelli’s soft and supersoft compounds.
The track surface is always green in the first
session because it is so rarely used but it
improves markedly over the course of the
weekend.
Free Practice 2
Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
Free Practice 1: P9, 1:17.445, 28 laps
Free Practice 2: P9, 1:16.422, 32 laps
Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
Free Practice 1: P14, 1:18.506, 15 laps
Free Practice 2: P8, 1:16.324, 32 laps
Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld continued their
preparations for the Canadian Grand Prix during
an interrupted second session of free practice.
Two red flags disrupted the afternoon but the
two LRGP drivers made the best of the time
available to try out both the soft and the
supersoft compounds on different fuel levels.
Vitaly ended up 8th with a time of 1m 16.324s,
with Nick 9th after a lap of 1m 16.422s.
Vitaly summed it up: “It’s a different car to
drive with supersofts: much more grip.”
Just like this morning, there was a red flag in
the middle of the session as Kamui Kobayashi
crashed his Sauber at Turn 4. Shortly after the
restart, Jérôme D’Ambrosio followed him into the
same wall in his Virgin, causing another
stoppage. Adrian Sutil had earlier damaged his
Force India in the armco barriers on the run-up
to the hairpin.
Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, put his Ferrari on
top of the timesheets. Just as happened two
weeks ago, the Spaniard led the session for the
majority of the afternoon with a lap of 1m
15.107s, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Felipe
Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
Elsewhere Pedro de la Rosa took the place of
Sergio Perez in the other Sauber as the Mexican
reported he felt unwell after his heavy crash in
Monaco.Saturday 11 June 2011
Free Practice 3
Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
P8, 1:14.917, 23 laps
Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
P12, 1:15.350, 22 laps
Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld completed their
preparations for the Canadian Grand Prix with a
productive third session of free practice ahead
of this afternoon’s hour of qualifying.
Vitaly and Nick ran as high as third and fourth
early in the hour. On the ‘prime’ soft tyre,
Vitaly set a best time of 1m 15.819s, while Nick
was less than a hundredth away with 1m 15.827s.
In the last ten minutes, both drivers put on the
supersoft tyre and Vitaly duly improved to 8th
place with a lap of 1m 14.917s, while Nick went
12th with 1m 15.350s.
Sebastian Vettel topped the times with a late
lap of 1m 13.381s, jumping ahead of Fernando
Alonso and Nico Rosberg, who had led for much of
the session. Felipe Massa was third ahead of
Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Michael
Schumacher.
There was a dramatic end when Pedro de la Rosa
spun into the barriers in his Sauber in the
final minute, bringing out yet another red flag
to add to yesterday’s three stoppages.
Qualifying
Nick Heidfeld, R31-04
P9, 1.14.062, 7 laps
Vitaly Petrov, R31-05
P10, 1.14.085, 7 laps
LRGP will have two cars in the top ten for
tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix after a strong
qualifying session at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles
Villeneuve today.
In weather that was markedly different from
yesterday’s free practice, overcast skies meant
that the track temperature was well down from
the sunny conditions at 25°C. But both LRGP
drivers made it through to Q3, with Nick
Heidfeld lining up in 9th place and Vitaly
Petrov securing 10th.
In Q1 both Vitaly and Nick were comfortably able
to progress and both put in two runs on the soft
tyres, saving their supersofts. Vitaly’s best
time of 1m 14.699s was good enough for 7th place
while Nick’s 1m 15.096s left him in 12th.
Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari was fastest in that
session with a lap of 1m 13.822s.
Vitaly’s early lap of 1m 14.354s on the
supersoft tyres in Q2 was good enough to reach
the all-important top ten. Nick was also in the
top ten early on after a lap of 1m 14.719s but
he went out for a second run to make sure of a
place in Q3, duly recording a final lap of
14.467s. Felipe Massa went fastest with a time
of 1m 13.431s in the Ferrari.
In the all-important final shoot-out, Sebastian
Vettel took pole position for Red Bull with a
lap of 1m 13.041s ahead of the Ferraris of
Alonso and Massa. Nick took 9th place with a lap
of 1m 14.062s while Vitaly took 10th with a lap
of 1m 14.085s. Sunday, 12 june
2011 In a race packed full of pit stops,
LRGP advanced on yesterday’s qualifying
positions by finishing in P7 (Nick) and P8 (Vitaly).
After scoring another 10 valuable points, Lotus
Renault GP remains fourth in the Constructors
Championship.
• Both Nick and Vitaly adopted a four-stop
strategy: soft / hard / hard / hard / soft
• Vitaly stopped on laps 8, 19, 34, and 45. Nick
stopped on laps 10, 22, 36 and 46.
• Nick and Vitaly are now on equal points in the
Drivers Championship – 21 points.
Vitaly Petrov, P8, R31-04
“It was an interesting race, and strategically
it was challenging for all the teams. I think
what really affected my position today was the
collision with Michael early in the race. He hit
my car and then I was stuck behind some slower
drivers after the first pit stop. If this had
not happened, my race would have been much
stronger and I could have pulled away. However,
I was pleased to overtake Sebastien (Buemi) at
the end, which took me back into eighth. We must
be positive, we have both cars in the points and
it’s another ten points for the team.”
Nick Heidfeld, P7, R31-03
'It’s always good to score points, but I think I
could have finished even higher up today, even
though I started in P9. I am not totally happy
with the race -I was stuck in traffic for quite
a while, overtaking was difficult and Vitaly
made contact with me- but my pace was good,
especially at the end of the race when the car
was light on the soft tyres. I also think our
strategy was the right one. Overall, to finish
in P7 and take six points for the team is good,
given that I did not qualify in a higher
position.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal and Managing
Director
“Today, going for four pit stops was the right
decision. There was no spectacular start from
our cars but we pitted at the right time to
ensure both drivers finished in the points. We
definitely need to work harder on Fridays to
understand the tyre degradation, which will
allow us to know where we stand for the rest of
the weekend. From here, we will push even more
as the result today was not as strong as it
could have been – we will be striving to get
back into the top six. ”
James Allison, Technical Director
“Today we opted for a four stop rather than a
three stop race, and the balance of the evidence
suggests that was the right choice. In all
honesty, I feel satisfied rather than happy with
today’s performance - satisfied because our
finishing places in the race were stronger than
our qualifying positions, but not happy because
the gap between us and the cars that finished on
the podium was too large. We have more
improvements planned for the car and we will be
aiming for top six finish or better in the
coming races at Barcelona and Monaco.”
Riccardo Penteado, LRGP Engine Support Leader,
Renault Sport F1
“Another double points finish for Lotus Renault
GP , which after the issues of the last race is
a good result. We planned an aggressive strategy
to try and catch Jenson (Button) at the end and
fuel consumption was very high, even higher than
in qualifying, so we were very tight on fuel
with both cars. It almost worked and Nick wasn’t
far away – just over a second. It was a shame
that we got caught in the traffic and could not
get ahead but the most important thing is that
we got another 10 points and consolidated our
position in the championship.”
To check out the classification,
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