Canadian GP: Hamilton edges Vettel in FP2

Sport360 staff 23:57 10/06/2016
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  • Lewis Hamilton.

    The defending three-time world champion, who is 24 points behind Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in this year’s title race after a series of early-season setbacks, clocked a best lap time of one minute and 14.212 seconds to outpace four-time champion Vettel by 0.257 seconds.

    Hamilton, who claimed his first win in seven months when he triumphed at the Monaco Grand Prix two weekends ago, appeared to be back to his confident best in bright sunshine at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where he has won four times before and was fastest in Friday morning’s opening session.

    Rosberg was third quickest, half a second adrift of Hamilton’s best time, but ahead of Dutch teenager Max Verstappen in the leading Red Bull and his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, trying to bounce back from his disappointment in Monaco where he was deprived of a possible victory by a bungled pit-stop.

    Valtteri Bottas was sixth for Williams ahead of a revived and determined Jenson Button, the Briton driving with great elan in his McLaren Honda as rumours about his future swirl around him in the paddock.

    Kimi Raikkonen was eighth in the second Ferrari ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Force India and Spaniards Carlos Sainz in his Toro Rosso and two-time champion Fernando Alonso in the second McLaren.

    Felipe Massa, who crashed heavily during the morning session in his Williams, was down in 13th in the afternoon.

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