Friday practice in Canada was far from plain sailing for Red Bull after Sebastian Vettel damaged his car in the morning session and Mark Webber failed to trouble the top of the timesheets.
Vettel finished the day as the second fastest driver despite missing valuable running time this morning as his car was repaired. He explained that the damage was quite mild, but is aware that Ferrari and McLaren could be tough rivals for victory here in Montreal.
“I lost the rear, but by the time I hit the wall I had low speed, so the crash was quite mild,” said the reigning world champion as he described his accident. “There wasn't much damage, so we could fix the car and get back out this afternoon.
McLaren and Ferrari look strong here, although I haven't seen all the times from practice yet. For us, I'm happy with the car's balance and how it performs, so we will see. It's a special circuit here, it's quite rough with the kerbs and chicanes, but I like it. The target is to win, but it's a long weekend and a lotof things can happen. It's important to finish and do your best, whatever that is.”
Webber was twelfth fastest in FP1 and then only P7 in FP2. He blames the two red flags in the afternoon session but says that there is still work to be done on finding more pace from the RB7 this weekend.
“We were a bit compromised with the redflags at the end of P2, so we could have had a smoother end to the final session, but it wasn't too bad,” said the Australian, who also said today that he wishes to remain with Red Bull for 2012.
“We tried different fuel loads today and now we just need to chip away and get the car a bit quicker. It's a tricky venue here and we might have some different weather conditions thrown into the mix over the next 24 hours.”