Montreal, FP2: Raikkonen takes over at the top of the timesheets

Kimi Raikkonen went quickest in the second practice session at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, edging FP1’s fastest man, Lewis Hamilton, by two tenths of a second. Championship leader Sebastian Vettel was third.

In the morning session Mercedes had edged Ferrari with Hamilton edging Vettel by two tenths to take top spot but in the afternoon qualifying simulations the order was reversed, with Raikkonen logging a lap of 1:12.935 to beat Hamilton by 0.215s on the ultrasoft Pirelli tyres. Vettel finished five hundredths of a second behind Hamilton, while Valtteri Bottas, third for Mercedes in the morning session, dropped to fourth in the afternoon. The top four, though, were covered by less than four tenths of a second.

Fifth place in the session went to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, with the Dutchman closing to within half a second of the front runners after ending the morning session a second adrift of FP1 pacesetter Hamilton. Any good feeling associated with that result was tempered, however, by Verstappen forced to pull his RB13 over at the edge of the track at Turn 7 when he suffered a gearbox problem 20 minutes prior to the end of the session. The incident caused a brief red flag period.

Verstappen’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had an even more frustrating afternoon, with the Australian restricted to the garage for most of the session as the team investigated an engine issue. He completed just eight laps.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has historically been a good venue for Williams in recent years and Felipe Massa continued the trend by taking sixth place in FP2, though the Brazilian was 1.128s off Raikkonen’s pace and more than six tenths behind Verstappen.

On his return to Formula One following an outing at the Indianapolis 500, Fernando Alonso finished the session in seventh place for McLaren. Alonso managed just 19 laps in the afternoon, however, after a late start to his session.

In the morning session Sergio Perez finished fifth but in the second session the Mercedes-powered team slipped back slightly, with Esteban Ocon eighth and Perez in tenth place. The Force India drivers were split by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.

The Russian’s team-mate Carlos Sainz recovered from failing to set a time in the morning due to a technical issue to post 43 laps in the afternoon. He finished the session in 13th place.