FP1 & FP2 - Canadian GP report: Renault F1

Renault Sport Formula One Team took to a gloriously sunny Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the opening practice sessions for the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada. Kevin Magnussen posted a 1min 16.255secs to be the day’s sixteenth fastest driver, whilst Jolyon Palmer set a 1min 17.001secs.

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes

— Kevin debuted the new R.S.16-04 chassis, running with aero rakes for the start of the morning session. He experienced a gearbox issue which cut his runtime in FP1.
— Jolyon enjoyed a trouble-free day running through an extensive evaluation programme, including completing 48 laps in the afternoon session.
— Pirelli’s yellow-marked soft compound tyres were used in the morning, the purple ultrasoft tyres and yellow soft tyres were used in the afternoon.

Kevin Magnussen

“We made good progress today and the car is certainly faster on the ultrasoft compared with the soft tyre as you’d expect. I was pushing quite hard so there was a bit of flat-spotting going on out there. The gearbox issue in the morning was no big drama and we did have to check the car again in the afternoon. I think we should find a little more pace for qualifying.”

Jolyon Palmer

“That was a lot of laps in FP2 and we’ve completed a lot of assessments over the two sessions today meaning we should have all the pieces to put together to go as fast as possible for qualifying. We didn’t show all the pace that’s in the car over my side of the garage today; that’s tomorrow’s job.”

Remi Taffin, Technical Director

“Today was the first day we ran with both cars using our latest B specification power unit as debuted in Monaco and both units performed well. The crew in the garage did a great job to rectify the issue with Kevin’s gearbox in the morning. There was a large variation in track temperature between the cold morning and the hot afternoon which provides an additional challenge when determining the best set-up for the car. We also have the expectation of very different weather again for the race on Sunday, so there is still a lot of work to be done for the track engineers.”