F1 Canadian GP: Fernando Alonso tops wet final practice
18th June 2022Alpine’s Fernando Alonso lead a mixed up table as the two-time world champion secured the quickest lap in free practice three ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix.
How final practice went…
Compared to Friday, the track was damp after a recent downpour. This meant the drivers were expected to use their wet weather tyres such as the green-ringed intermediates or the blue-ringed full wet tyres.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was the first driver to venture out onto the wet circuit. Despite his Scandinavian background, Magnussen cautiously circled around the track on the full wet tyres – followed by both Alfa Romeos and Haas teammate, Mick Schumacher.
Naturally, the two Haas drivers were the first to place lap times on the board with Magnussen on top with a 1:43.014, followed by Schumacher who was two-seconds behind the Dane.
Although Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was ordered to return to the pits, as he was found down the back straight going slowly, but he didn’t pit and carried on for a lap.
After 20 minutes had gone, Valtteri Bottas topped the timing board but this was soon beaten by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who set a 1:36.831. However, the Spaniard soon beat his own time by almost a second as he reset the fastest time to a 1:35.858.
On the other hand, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were yet to set a timed lap with just over half an hour to go.
With less than 20 minutes left on the clock, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel topped the timing boards with a 1:35.821 which sat 0.037 seconds faster than Sainz while Alpine’s Fernando Alonso occupied P3.
At the same time, Leclerc, Perez and Verstappen were yet to set a timed lap.
In the latter stages, Alonso and Vettel began exploratory laps around the wet circuit on the green-ringed intermediate tyres. This was soon followed by Sainz who also decided to opt for the inters.
Verstappen finally ventured onto the track, with less than 15 minutes to go, but the Dutch world champion opted to head out on the Wets.
Alonso soon climbed to the top of the timing board as he blasted the previous lap times to set a 1:34.229, over a second faster than Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who sat P2 on the wet tyres.
Of the front runners, Perez finally placed a lap time on the board but he was six-seconds off the pace and set the 18th fastest time.
While, Magnussen brought out the yellow flag late on in the session as he went deep into turn one, across the run-off and onto the grass on the otherside of the track as he couldn’t slow down his car.
When the session went into its dying minutes, Verstappen suffered a carbon copy of Magnussen’s trip to the grass verge. However, the Dutch world champion was able to navigate turn one, but he spun out around turn two.
Leclerc, who is set to start the race at the back of the pack, on Sunday, was the only driver who failed to set a lap time on the final practice session.
Fastest times:
- Fernando Alonso, Alpine
- Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri
- Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin
That’s it for the article: F1 Canadian GP: Fernando Alonso tops wet final practice! Who do you think will get pole position in qualifying, later on today? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula 1 here!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
