F1 Racing: Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve; Practice 1

CIRCUIT GILLES-VILLENEUVE, CANADA - JUNE 07: Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF90 during the Canadian GP at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 07, 2019 in Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Canada. (Photo by Andy Hone / LAT Images)

Good afternoon and bonjour! From the beautiful province of Quebec, Canada. We are here in Montreal, at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve for the 9th race of the 2022 Drivers and Constructors Championship Season.

Montreal-born Canadian racers are finally back on home soil.  Lance Stroll from team Aston Martin, and Nicholas Latifi with team Williams have been waiting 2 years for this day.

The helmet of Nicholas Latifi, says it best, Finally Eh!

Leaderboard

After the last race in the streets of Baku, Azerbaijan we now have Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen leading the championship leaderboard by 21 pts. Max has a total of 150 pts followed by teammate racer Sergio Perez with 129 pts. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc is in 3rd with 116 pts. 

In the Constructors “team” leader board with 279 pts in first place is Red Bull Racing, followed by Ferrari in 2nd with 199 pts and Mercedes in 3rd with 161 pts.

Weekend Schedule

This weekend will be divided into 3 days of racing, 

On day 1 we will see Practice 1 for 60 mins,followed by Practice 2 for another 60 mins.

Then on Day 2, Saturday we will see Practice 3, for 60 mins followed by Qualification 1, 2 & 3 more on that tomorrow, with race day on Sunday.

Track Facts 

  • It’s titled Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve
  • The Circuit length is 4.361 KM.
  • The number of laps in the upcoming race on Sunday is 70.
  • The first Grand Prix in Montreal in 1978.
  • The race distance for Sunday is 305.27 KM.
  • The lap record is 1.13.078, held by Valtteri Bottas
  • Two DRS Detection Zone

Practice 1 Brief

FP1 is a go. Practice 1 is underway and finally the drivers are back on the track in Montreal. 

Ferrari McLaren and Mercedes are out and on the go. The weather here is unpredictable this time of the season. A storm last night, its warm and dry right now but later today we are expecting rain for FP2.

Thirty minutes into FP1 and we are seeing a lot of wide turns being taken by a lot of drivers.  Hard braking around the Chicanes (bends), turns going the opposite direction, left-right, or right-left coming off the long straights on the track.

Come race day on Sunday, look out for these “Chicanes” and there are a few of them on the track. The most famous one is the last chicane, turning into bend 13 going into turn 14. This is when they will see the “Wall of Champions” if the drivers do not turn with precision.!

The flag comes out and FP1 is over. Max Verstappen leads with a time of, 1:15.158, followed by Carlos Sainz of Ferrari, 1:15.404, and in 3rd is Fernando Alonso with a time of 1:15.531.

Stay tuned for FP2

Quotes

If you look back a few races it was the other way around, we had a few issues, Ferrari looked solid so things can change around quickly”.  Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Ennio Sorgini is a Formula 1 analyst with GTA Weekly News

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*