Hamilton fastest in final practice

The final practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix got underway under cloudy skies, on a mainly dry track.

Most of the field left the pits for an installation lap as the light went green… but that was the only action of the first quarter of the session.

Timo Glock was the first to embark on a flying lap and post a time on the board. He was soon joined on track by his teammate Lucas di Grassi, as well as both Toro Rossos and Sauber’s Kobayashi. The Japanese set the early pace but it was Alguersuari who was leading at the halfway point.

Some of the frontrunners had just emerged from the pits and it didn’t take long for them to appear at the top of the timesheets. Hamilton was the first to dip under the 1’18 barrier but the pace quickly improved and Button took over at the front with 23 minutes to go.

Hamilton bettered his teammate’s mark a few minutes later, as Sebastian Vettel got up to speed and put his Red Bull in 2nd place. The German was then demoted to third place by Fernando Alonso. Mark Webber moved up to P2 shortly afterwards.

As the field prepared for the final run, Hamilton was leading from Webber, Alonso, Vettel and Button.

Mark Webber came close to beating the McLaren driver in the final part of the session but the Briton eventually remained on top thanks to a 1’16’’058 fastest lap time. He was 0.282s quicker than the Australian.

Fernando Alonso was third fastest. Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel completed the top five.

Nico Rosberg did only four laps in this session. The German’s car suffered from a technical problem which meant he had to sit out most part of this final practice session.

It was even worse for Karun Chandhok who did only one lap.