The tires play in the return of the Canadian Grand Prix in Formula 1 are probably the biggest role. On Friday, the Montreal track was extremely slippery, the tires were no liability on the slopes, heavy graining was the result. Even if Renault was one of them is not spared, though the times of Robert Kubica again could augur well.

“The track is very demanding on the tires, especially with the new coating. It is very slippery, you get no energy in the tires,” says Kubica. “Today, the tires have reduced greatly. The tires are simply not in the correct work area. For tomorrow we need to improve. All had trouble with the tires and a new surface – or a combination of both.”
“Added to that the track and the brakes heavily burdened, because there are many straight lines, is delayed to the end,” he continues. “Care must therefore also on its brakes. We must find the right compromise between speed and reliability.”
Despite the good times would not comment on Kubica estimate for the rest of the weekend. “I had the training on Friday has never been an expectation, because that can be quite confusing,” he explains. “We hope that we will qualify in the top ten. We see that all are very close.”

Since the last Canadian show, things have changed in Formula 1: Nachtankverbot, the slicks are back and a heavily revised aerodynamics. To major changes on the route led the not. “The track is indeed the same,” said Kubica. “Two years ago we had problems with it, that set off the asphalt. This year the surface is good, but very slippery. The cars are already very different from two years ago. But all the characteristics of the track is still the same.”

(MTS)

The Technical Director of Sauber, Willy Rampf has played down the relevance of the good times that the team got at the tests in Valencia.
Sauber was the second fastest team during the three days, with its pilots Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa who established lapping times very similar to the Ferraris’. However, for Rampf, it’s still too soon to know if the car is as competitive as times suggest.
“That is even harder to evaluate this year than in the previous ones,” he said. “All I can say is that our car is giving the expected performance based on our simulations and measurements in the wind tunnel. The tremendously different fuel load makes it impossible to make an absolute comparison with the other teams’ cars.”
He added that the relationship between the new drivers and the team is going extremely well.
“The two pilots are new in the team and we are about to meet the rest, but, the work relationship between drivers and team has had a good beginning. It’s clear that Pedro has great experience which gives him an wonderful base of technical knowledge that is very valuable for all who are involved. Kamui rapidly receives his impressions through him, which means he can give the engineers the necessary information to perform the necessary changes. Together, pilots and engineers are already working productively.”
Rampf explained they will do small modifications to the car’s engine to cover this week’s tests at Jerez, mostly at exhaust level. Sauber will be one of the teams doing tests as of next Wednesday with Red Bull, Force India and Virgin, all of them making their 2010 debut in the group test.

The President of Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo, does not want surprises or disappointments following the euphoria that seems to invade the ‘Il Cavallino’ scuderia. The Italian does not want to get carried away with Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa’s good times behind the F10 during the first pre-season tests at the circuit in Valencia.
“I’m happy that our car seems to be born well,” he declared to the ‘Gazzetta dello Sport’ magazine. “But the pre-season tests are similar to football in August. I think the only positive aspect we should highlight is the sensation that the car has resulted as good as this;” he added.
The leading man of the scuderia, is cautious and assures that it’s still too early to give definite opinions on the Ferraris’ performance, previous to the start of the season. He prefers to share the cautiousness of Stefano Domenicalli, Sport Director of the team, who a few days ago said that “nothing can be guaranteed.”
There is one thing the two men agree on, that the Mercedes GP will be the rival to beat: “We still have many problems to take care of and we have to keep our feet on the ground. We still don’t know how good the others are;” underlining that “Alonso and Massa’s results are a first encouraging sign, but it’s too soon to judge.”
The thing being that subsequent to the terrible previous season, the Italian is risking a lot with regards to his image and prestige. Ferrari is not the only single-seater in the racetrack: “I think that Mercedes GP -ex Brawn-, is the rival to beat.” Naturally, not forgetting the energetic single-seater. “I’m sure that the Red Bull will also be very competitive, if we take into account the advantage with which it finished last season. And McLaren, too,” the Italian concluded.

The current MotoGP champion, the Italian, Valentino Rossi, motorcycle world’s nine-time champion, again made clear that the new Yamaha M1 gives him good sensations, as he leaded the second pre-season testing day in the Sepang racetrack.

‘Il Dottore’, who already was the fastest yesterday, today rolled with good times, his best being 2.00.925.

The rider from Urbine was the only one capable of riding below 2.01, while his direct World Championship rivals did as follows: Stoner, his closest opponent, made it second at only 395 thousandths.  Lorenzo and Pedrosa also rolled at less than a second from the Italian rider.

However, the great surprise of the day was in charge of the US rider, Ben Spies (Yamaha), Superbike world champion, pulling off the fifth best time, showing great adaptation to the M1, in spite of his lack of experience with it.

Regarding the rest of the Spaniards, the results were: Aleix Espargaró (Ducati) ninth, improving yesterday’s times, while Héctor Barberá (Ducati) and Álvaro Bautista (Suzuki) are still adapting to the ‘queen’ category  and were twelfth and fourteenth, respectively.

On the other hand, the fright of the day was experienced with the Italian, Marco Simoncelli (Honda), who suffered a fall due to a ‘lash’ of the RC21V, but escaped unharmed and could return to the track a while later.

–RESULTADS OF THE DAY:

1. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha)  2:00.925.

2. Casey Stoner (AUS/Ducati)       0.395.

3. JORGE LORENZO (ESP/Yamaha)       0.360.

4. DANI PEDROSA (ESP/Honda)         0.142.

5. Ben Spies (USA/Yamaha)           0.444.

6. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Honda)     0.006.

7. Colin Edwards (USA/Yamaha)       0.207.

8. Nicky Hayden (USA/Ducati)        0.014.

9. ALEIX ESPARGARÓ (Ducati)         0.154.

10. Loris Capirossi (ITA/Suzuki)    0.116.

…/…

12. HÉCTOR BARBERÁ (ESP/Ducati)     0.222.

16. ÁLVARO BAUTISTA (ESP/Suzuki)    0.029.

The afternoon session has been calmer than the morning.  At the beginning of the session, Alonso and Schumacher lapped 1:15 high, with a lot of fuel in the tank.

The fuel weights and single-seaters’ performance marked the start of this session.  In his initial laps, Jaime Alguersuari had a slip that caused him to leave the track, but after returning to the boxes he reintegrated without great consequences.

With the single-seaters in the racetrack, De la Rosa, Petrov, Button and Alguersuari, the Spanish pilot of the BMW Sauber began to get good times, without decreasing his record.

With a 1:12 rhythm, De la Rosa began the afternoon as the fastest at the Ricardo Tormo, while Petrov improved the R30 performance notably with 1:13:666.  Nonetheless, the one who didn’t seem to be comfortable in the racetrack was the current champion, Jeson Button who was running over 1:13, far away from the “Kaiser’s” times.

Alonso with 180 liters of fuel, has to modify his style and form of driving the F10.  The pilot from Asturias, today could not stop lapping, therefore taking the most advantage of these official tests.

As time went by and the bi-champion’s single-seater used its fuel, he started to reduce his times, again.  After his stop at the boxes at 16:01, he began to run in 1:13, possibly with medium fuel charge.

When the session ended, , the  Ferrari finished rolling in 1:12 lows, after 127 laps to the Valencian circuit.  In this moment, Vitaly Petrov marked his best time, 1:13.097.

1º. Fernando Alonso 1:11.470 in 127 laps
2º. Pedro de la Rosa 1:12.094 in 79 laps
3º. Michael Schumacher 1:12.438 in 82 laps
4º. Jaime Alguersuari 1:12.576 in 96 laps
5º. Jinson Button 1:12.951 in 82 laps
6º. Nico Hulkinberg 1:13.669 in 126 laps
7º. Vitaly Petrov 1:13.097 in 76 laps