Formula One 2012

[Adam]

That's really cool, and I've always loved the Sauber team.

That new gigantic Chelsea logo on the front however is very off-putting.

[Lineker]

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari will be able to give Fernando Alonso a car capable of keeping him in the fight for the world championship to the end of the season.

The Maranello squad started the 2012 campaign aware that its car did not have the pace to match those of its main rivals after a difficult winter of testing.

Despite that, Alonso managed to win the Malaysian Grand Prix and now leads the championship after the first six races of the year. The Spaniard is three points ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso has proved to be the most consistent driver so far, as only he and Hamilton have scored points in every race.

"I'm sure that Ferrari, being the competitive team that they are and with the experience that they have, will be very strong throughout the year," said Hamilton.

"We are probably one of the main teams that are able to recover from a poor start and they have done the same thing. I think that they are going to be competitive throughout the year."

Hamilton also hinted that Alonso will only become harder to beat once he and Ferrari get on top of the F2012 as the season goes on.

"I think once he has the car - which he has done in some of the races - he will be extremely quick and difficult to beat," said Hamilton.

"Of course he is a two-time world champion and he's achieved an incredible amount in his career and he's ahead of me in the world championship at the moment. But I want to switch that around by the end of the season and I'm sure we'll have a great battle until the end of the year."

Jenson Button believes that Michael Schumacher's critics need to understand that it can take time to regain competitiveness in Formula 1.

The Briton also reckons people should not forget what the seven-time champion has achieved during his grand prix career.

Schumacher, 43, returned to the sport at the start of the 2010 season after an absence of three years and struggled to repeat the kind of form that took him to a record 91 grand prix wins.

The German has received some criticism this year after having scored just two points to his team-mate Nico Rosberg's 59, which include one win in China.

The 43-year-old Mercedes driver, however, showed he still has what it takes during last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, where he was quickest in qualifying. He lost pole position because of a penalty imposed for an incident in the previous race in Spain.

"Michael's come in for a lot of criticism over the last couple of years since he's been back," said Button. "I think we all forget what he achieved in his previous career, if you want to call it that.

"Sometimes it takes time to feel comfortable with a car and comfortable with the people you're working with. But I think he put a great lap together, didn't make any mistakes and he obviously deserved it very much.

"I'm sure when he got out of the car he was very happy, but also disappointed that he was put back to sixth [on the grid] at a place like Monaco."

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh also praised Schumacher's performance in Monaco, but admitted his team will not be "misty-eyed" when it comes to trying to beat him.

"Michael's been a great driver. We like beating him, not him beating us. We're not going to be so misty-eyed. I think you've got to give credit where credit's due. Not always in the spirit that we enjoyed.

"But he did a great job of putting that lap together. Credit to him, but whether he had a penalty or didn't have a penalty, we'd still want to beat him next day."

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier believes that the lack of testing in Formula 1 is a part of what is making the races so unpredictable this year.

The 2012 season has generated a record six different winners in the first six races, making it one of the sport's most exciting starts to a campaign in recent years.

Although the new Pirelli tyres have been highlighted as the main reason for the unpredictability, Boullier believes that the fact that teams cannot test their updates before the race weekends is a big contributing factor.

"Part of the unpredictability is coming from the fact that we have no more testing," said Boullier. "You have to come with new parts and new ideas in Friday testing. You cannot do it one week [earlier] somewhere in Spain; you have to do it on a race weekend."

The Frenchman also feels there is a need to rethink the testing format in order to help teams with their developments during the season. However, he has made it clear that his team is not in favour of adding extra in-season tests.

"The issue is that testing costs a lot of money and one of the real cost-saving measures that was brought in was to stop the testing," he added. "I think we need to rethink the format of testing.

"We are not in favour of in-season testing because we are not equipped for this and the calendar does not fit very well and we have to use the same crew, and we cannot afford to have another testing crew.

Today we need a better format that is using everything, and maybe we can rethink about the format of testing later.

"[Maybe] split the tests. If you have a calendar with a big slot in June then maybe you can have a test in June."

[Lineker]

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has poured cold water on speculation linking Sergio Perez with the team, saying the Mexican is too inexperienced for the Italian squad.

Perez, who is part of Ferrari's young-driver programme, has been mentioned as a contender for Felipe Massa's seat after the Brazilian endured a dismal start to the season.

Sauber driver Perez pushed Massa's team-mate Fernando Alonso for victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix earlier this year.

But speaking at the FT luxury conference on Friday, di Montezemolo said Perez still needs more experience before he is a candidate for a drive at Ferrari.

"Perez is a good driver but to drive a Ferrari you need more experience," di Montezemolo was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"I think he is one of the potential best young drivers for the future but before putting a young driver in a Ferrari I need more experience and more results."

The Ferrari boss also denied that a decision on Massa's future had already being made.

"We never take a decision before the second half of the season." he added.

Di Montezemolo believes Massa's season will continue to improve after his best race of the year in Monaco last weekend.

"I'm sure that, because we are improving our car, the car will be less difficult to drive," said di Montezemolo. "And I expect from Felipe better performances as I have already seen in Monte Carlo, because in Monte Carlo he was among the five quickest drivers on the track and in the qualifiers.

"So I hope he will continue like this. At the moment we are not taking any decision yet for the future, because it is too early."

Kimi Raikkonen is staying calm about Lotus's form despite a disappointing Monaco Grand Prix, the Finn convinced that his day will come.

Raikkonen had to settle for a distant ninth place in Monte Carlo, his worse result in three races after having finished on the podium in the previous two events.

The Lotus driver believes that the bad result in Monaco is not a sign that his team is losing momentum, and he is confident strong results are still on the cards.

He conceded, however, that the team will have to get everything perfect during a weekend in order to win a race.

"One race doesn't change the fact that we have been pretty strong everywhere - even at Monaco during most of the weekend," said Raikkonen. "Monaco is completely different from any other track and I don't think we should worry too much about the fact that it wasn't our best weekend.

"We've been quick everywhere and we've been on the podium. It's difficult to get everything exactly right at the right time, which is what you have to do to win a grand prix.

"I've won races with other teams and I have a good feeling that Lotus are capable of strong results. Our day will come."

Raikkonen said the fact that Lotus can score points on a bad weekend like Monaco shows the team is still a force to be reckoned with.

"That's racing. Ninth was the best we could do on the day. I didn't start in a great position and I had some difficulties during the race so it wasn't the easiest weekend, but at least we got a couple of points. It's better than nothing but not exactly what we wanted.

"If we can have a bad race like that and still take two points it's not the end of the world. Picking up points like this when we're not at our best could make a big difference at the end of the season."

The Finn believes his car should be strong in next week's Canadian Grand Prix, although he concedes it is still too early to make predictions.

"We've been competitive in most places and we expect the same there, but like always it's easier to say after the first day of running..."

Raikkonen missed most of first practice in Monaco because a steering set-up the team tried did not work as expected, and the Finn reverted to the original version, which he says he is happy with.

"We tried something different for the special challenge of Monaco and it didn't work for me. It's impossible to test how something will work at Monaco without going to Monaco.

"We're not allowed open testing and the roads would be too busy for a Formula 1 car anyway. I'm happy with the basic set-up, though it's still an area I'm working on with the team."

Jenson Button says his focus for the Canadian Grand Prix will be on improving his qualifying form following a series of difficult races.

The McLaren driver has started the last two grands prix from 10th and 12th positions as he has struggled to get the balance of his car right. Button has scored just two points in the last three events.

The Briton, the winner in Canada last year, says he is aiming to fix his qualifying problems this weekend as his main priority.

"Obviously, returning to Montreal will be an extremely proud and happy moment for me," said Button in a team preview. "This weekend, though, it's going to be important to get a handle on the car in qualifying.

"At the last two races, Q2 hasn't gone my way, so, no matter what pace you have in the race, you're still compromised on Sunday afternoon, particularly as the pack is so tightly bunched at the moment.

"My aim for the weekend will be to have a stronger qualifying performance and to be able to build on that in the race."

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton is also hoping for a change of luck in Montreal, the 2008 world champion still seeking his first victory in 2012.

"I know that the results we all want will soon come to us: I am doing everything I can to extract every tenth from the car, and I know that the guys at the track and the men and women back at MTC are doing everything they can to give me a car that's worthy of winning," he said.

"We are still very much in the hunt for this world championship and I'm looking forward to bringing that fight to Montreal, which is one of my favourite races of the season."

Nico Rosberg is optimistic his Mercedes car will be well suited to the demands of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in the Canadian Grand Prix next week.

The track, which rewards good top speed and stable braking, will host the seventh round of the championship and Rosberg reckons his car has what it takes to shine there.

The German driver, who took a commanding victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, finished a close second at Monaco last weekend.

"With its low downforce and slow corners, a little bit like Monza, the track should suit our car," said Rosberg in a team preview.

"We've made good progress over the past few weeks, and that was clear from the performance in Monaco.

"So I'm hopeful that we can make another step forward in Canada and have a successful weekend."

Team boss Ross Brawn is also hopeful the team can keep its momentum going after the strong showing in Monaco.

"On the back of a successful weekend in Monaco which saw Michael qualify first on Saturday and Nico finish in second place on Sunday, everyone at the team wants to keep the momentum going and get the racing underway in Montreal next weekend," he said.

"We're looking forward to putting on a good show and hope to have another strong weekend."

[Lineker]

Red Bull will be forced to modify the controversial holes in the floor of its RB8 after the FIA clarified its position and deemed the design was not permissible.

The ruling, sent by the FIA to all the teams, will apply from next weekend's Canadian Grand Prix onwards and does not affect Mark Webber's Monaco Grand Prix victory.

AUTOSPORT understands Red Bull does not plan to contest the ruling, and will modify its car accordingly for Canada.

Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes had all expressed doubts about the legality of the holes ahead of the rear wheels of the Red Bull in Monaco, although they decided against a post-race protest.

Red Bull believed there was a grey area in the rulebook concerning the design of the holes, which were not believed to have provided a significant performance advantage.

The FIA has moved to outlaw the design however, saying that the rule book makes it implicit that fully enclosed holes may not be located in the bodywork just ahead of the rear wheels.

[Lineker]

Red Bull motorsport chief Helmut Marko does not think the FIA's ruling over Formula 1 floor regulations will handicap Red Bull Racing at all in the Canadian Grand Prix.

The reigning champion team will have to modify holes in its RB8's floor following a clarification issued by the FIA this week. Several of Red Bull's rivals had considered protesting its design during the Monaco GP weekend, which saw RBR's Mark Webber take the team's second victory of 2012.

Marko played down the significance of the FIA directive and said it would have no impact on Montreal form.

"We had not planned to use this floor in Montreal anyway," Marko said. "We had prepared a different configuration using a flat version of the floor. Therefore we do not need to modify the cars in Canada."

He insisted the FIA decision was not just a ruling against Red Bull, saying: "This concerned other teams too, not only RBR."

Red Bull had used the floor in question in the Bahrain, Spanish and Monaco GPs. The team is the only one to have taken more than one victory so far this year and currently holds a 38-point constructors' championship lead. Drivers Sebastian Vettel and Webber are equal second in the standings, three points behind leader Fernando Alonso.

Marko added: "We are not disturbed in our race preparation by this decision."

Former grand prix driver and 1959 Le Mans winner Roy Salvadori has died at the age of 90.

Born in London to Italian parents, Salvadori entered 50 world championship Formula 1 races between 1952 and 1962, starting with a private Ferrari at the '52 British Grand Prix, where he finished eighth, before contesting five rounds for Connaught the following year.

Salvadori achieved success in non-points events with a Sid Greene-entered Maserati from 1954 to '56, but had a tougher time in world championship meetings, scoring just one race finish in five outings.

His greatest years would come with Cooper and Aston Martin. Driving for the former in F1 in 1958, Salvadori scored two podiums and finished fourth in the points.

Although his involvement with Aston's F1 programme was far less successful, he did win Le Mans for the marque in 1959, sharing the victorious car with Carroll Shelby, who also passed away this year, and took third alongside Jim Clark in the 1960 24 Hours.

Salvadori spent the final part of his F1 career with Reg Parnell's team, before retiring from grand prix racing at the end of 1962.

He would continue in sportscars and touring cars for a further three seasons before returning to F1 in 1966 as team manager at Cooper. Following two years in that role, he left F1 and spent his retirement living in Monaco.

[Lineker]

Montreal will feature just one DRS detection zone this weekend, instead of the two it had for the 2011 event won by Jenson Button.

The zone will become active after Turn 10 and will begin 600 metres before the braking zone for Turn 13. It has also been shortened by 50 metres since last year and is now a total of 600m long.

It was reduced in length after it was considered too easy to overtake through the section in last year's race.

The second DRS zone on the start-finish line has now been dropped.

Canadian Grand Prix organisers have cancelled the open doors day at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit due to disruption threats.

The event, during which fans could walk down the F1 pitlane, was originally scheduled for Thursday.

There had been suggestions prior to the grand prix weekend that student groups planned to use the event to protest over tuition fees.

"Following a serious examination of the situation, made necessary by public disruption threats and the difficulty to measure their precise validity, the organisers came to the conclusion that it is necessary to restrain the access to Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve and precisely the F1 pitlane, on the day preceding the first sessions on track," organisers said in a statement.

[Lineker]

Fernando Alonso believes this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix could reveal whether Ferrari will be competitive enough to sustain its world championship challenge for the rest of the 2012 Formula 1 season.

Alonso currently holds a three-point lead over Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the standings despite Ferrari having started the season a long way off the pace following a troubled winter build-up. The Spaniard won the wet Malaysian GP, and also took podium finishes in Spain and Monaco.

Ferrari has admitted that traction and top speed were among its early weak points, and as both are essential for Montreal pace, Alonso thinks this weekend will reveal whether the F2012 has improved sufficiently.

"I think we have improved the car in these areas since the beginning of the season and Canada will be a good test in this respect," he said.

"Hopefully this weekend we will see a competitive Ferrari and that will be very important for us, not just for this race but also for the rest of the season."

Alonso said his current expectation was that Ferrari would be encouraged by its Montreal form.

"It's hard to say in advance, as this season has been so unpredictable with ups and downs for everyone over the course of six races," he said. "However, I don't see any reason why Ferrari should not be competitive in Canada, fighting for the top places come the end of the race."

The double world champion added that he was not letting his current points lead deceive him, as he still believes Ferrari has ground to make up on-track.

"Leading the championship is only the beginning, it's a starting point, because the ultimate target is leading the championship after the final race in Brazil in November," said Alonso.

"It's a long championship and the first six races brought us enough points to be in the lead, but we are well aware that we have to improve.

"We need to make the car faster, working hard, while making no mistakes and finding consistency, which is not the easiest thing to do in this championship."

Felipe Massa says his improved form in Monaco was down to discovering that the set-up required for the Ferrari F2012 on the slow street circuit suited him better than previous settings - and now hopes it can be adapted for future races.

Monte Carlo was Massa's most competitive performance of what has been a tough 2012 season so far. The Brazilian had previously failed to make it into Q3 or finish above ninth, but in Monaco, Massa qualified seventh and finished as part of the six-car lead train in sixth.

Now he is eager to see if the lessons learned in Monte Carlo can be carried over to future races so that he can maintain his stronger pace.

"The set-up required for Monaco is very different to that at other tracks and, even if the street circuit is unique, we can at least follow the direction we took there and make it work at other tracks," Massa said.

"It might not be a normal situation, but maybe it is the best direction to go in to make the F2012 work for me.

"It's true that there are fewer places that exert high lateral forces on the car at Monaco and dealing with those forces was a weak point with our car. We have even tried this approach in the simulator, but sometimes, it's not easy to get a clear answer there, which is why we keep experimenting at the race tracks."

Massa underlined that he was still far from content and wanted to be a lot higher than sixth, while acknowledging that Monaco had been a morale boost.

"I definitely feel more confident now," he said. "I feel stronger as well and it's also true that if Monaco was a good race, I was not that happy because, after the work I had done right from first practice, I had expected to be fighting for a podium finish. We had a chance of doing that, we had a good enough pace, but a better qualifying performance would have improved our chances on Sunday.

"It was very good compared to the start of the season, but we cannot be satisfied and now I want us to work hard to get something more. If we find the right direction, I know what I can do."

Force India is adamant that there is no reason why it cannot emulate the likes of Lotus, Sauber and Williams by challenging at the front in Formula 1 this year - even though it only has one top-six finish to show from 2012 so far.

The wildly unpredictable 2012 F1 season has seen a host of surprise names at the front of the field, with Pastor Maldonado giving Williams victory in Spain, Sauber coming close to a Sepang triumph with Sergio Perez, and Lotus in contention for wins at Sakhir and Catalunya.

Force India has been unable to emulate its regular upper-midfield peers' underdog shocks to date, but team boss Vijay Mallya believes the squad's package is no worse than its usual rivals' and is sure that Force India can be at the front too when it hits on the Pirelli tyres' 'sweet spot' as others have.

"I believe this unpredictability has crept in largely because of the tyres and it's making for some entertaining races. That's why we're working especially hard to understand the tyres better to make sure we get the best out of them," said Mallya.

"If we can find the sweet spot I hope we can enjoy our own special results in the races to come."

Although Force India is currently only eighth in the standings, Mallya says its current score and its tally of seven points finishes in the opening six rounds between drivers Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg is respectable.

"Six races into the season and we have 28 points - a very strong start to the year," said Mallya. "Both drivers are delivering what we expect of them and we're gaining some momentum, just as we did last year. Our car is clearly competitive and so are the drivers.

"I'm very pleased with the way things went in Monaco with both cars in the points. It was our second double points finish of the season and the result brings us much closer to our nearest competitors, Sauber and Williams.

"We have our eyes focused on closing the gap further and I believe we have the pace to get on terms with them in the points race soon."

Di Resta agreed that while Force India might not have achieved the same highs as other midfield teams so far, that did not mean its general performance level was lower.

"The teams around us are all strong, but we've shown that we are consistent and can take on teams like Lotus, Williams and Sauber, who are all looking competitive," said the Scot.

"In terms of points scored we are well ahead of where we were this time last year we take a lot of positives from that. I believe we can keep picking up points and be even stronger in the second half of the year."

[Katsuya]

Kubica has had ANOTHER operation, this time on his elbow.

[Lineker]

I really do fear that we won't get to see him in a cockpit again, at least not at the level he was at before anyway.

Robert Kubica has undergone surgery in order to improve the mobility of his arm following his accident last year.

The Pole, who continues recovering from the horrific crash he was involved in during a rally at the start of last year, had surgery at the Pederzoli hospital at the end of last month, when parts of his elbow were replaced with two prosthesis.

According to the doctor in charge of the operation, that will allow Kubica to fully handle the steering wheel of a car.

The doctor also said that the Polish driver had been carrying out tests in a simulator prior to the operation.

"This way the driver will be able to fully handle the steering wheel, while before he was unable to rotate the palm down, so he was forced to release the steering wheel in order to turn left," head surgeon Ruggero Testoni was quoted as saying by Italian media.

"The surgery was preceded by a series of tests in a car simulator. It will take at least one month in order to stabilize."

And also, who would Lotus even drop? Kimi and Grosjean have done really well so far.

[Lineker]

So, uh, Lewis is off then! And Felipe seems resigned to his fate.

McLaren says there is 'plenty of time' to sort out future of 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, whose contract with the British squad is set to expire at the end of the current Formula 1 season.

Hamilton has been part of the McLaren stable since 1998 and has spent his five-year F1 career with the team, but speculation has mounted that he could leave the team for Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes.

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale said during a Vodafone phone-in that the team was keen to retain the Briton, but insisted there was no rush on a new deal.

"Quite clearly we would like him to continue racing for us, he'd like to continue racing for us," Neale said. "We have plenty of time, we don't need to make that decision until much later this year."

Although McLaren lost ground to its rivals in Barcelona and Monaco, Neale is confident that the team's recent errors and struggles will not influence Hamilton's decision.

"I wouldn't put the last two races into a professional's mind like Lewis's in terms of where he will be comfortable in the future," Neale added. "I think you have to look at the performance of the team in the long-term and against that we stand fairly well placed.

"I'm not going to walk away from the fact we have to continue to work hard, eliminate mistakes and find upgrades. Six races, six winners; nobody is consistent at the moment.

"We sit second in the constructors' championship at the moment, and our intent is to make both drivers feel comfortable in the car so they consistently score points. We haven't done that in the past races, I'm sure we can in the future."

While Hamilton is yet to win in 2012, he lies fourth in the championship, just eight points short of the current leader Fernando Alonso.

Lewis Hamilton says he may wait until after the end of the season to sort out his future, as speculation linking him with other teams continues.

The Briton's contract with McLaren expires at the end of the current season, but Hamilton says his main focus right now is the championship fight, which he admitted he did not expect to be so hard this year.

Hamilton has only raced in F1 with McLaren, having made his debut with the team in 2007.

The 2008 world champion says he has not even started talks about extending his deal with the team.

"I haven't even discussed it," Hamilton told reporters in Canada on Thursday. "It is just because I underestimated how difficult the season was going to be. I underestimated how busy I would be, and then I also realised how unimportant it is at the moment.

"The championship is more important than what I have to do for my next contract. My future at the moment is not important. I might not even see next year. So what is important is that I capitalise on maximising this year."

When asked if the decision could wait until the end of the season, he said: "Possibly. Possibly."

Despite rumours linking him with rival teams like Red Bull or Ferrari, Hamilton insists he is not even considering anyone right now.

"I am not looking at anyone. I am just trying to focus on this season and trying to focus on winning. I have other people to worry about those kinds of things, and when the time comes and we sit down and they what do you want to do, then I can give them an answer. But I don't have to do that at the moment and I am not even thinking about it."

He added: "I could sit down if I wanted to. But I have a job at the moment and I am not in no rush, no rush at all, so there is no need to do it now."

McLaren is confident Jenson Button can reverse his recent poor qualifying form and, together with Lewis Hamilton, be a force for victory at Canada.

Button has been out-qualified by Hamilton in all of the opening six grands prix, and failed to break into Q3 in either of the past two grands prix at Barcelona and Monaco.

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale played down the significance of that qualifying run, and said he expected Button to be a threat on the streets of Montreal.

"We've seen Jenson be very quick on Fridays, so he is doing a great job for us, Neale said during a Vodafone phone-in.

"Together with the engineers we need to find that consistency and translate that from Friday into Saturday result. We're not that far away and I'm confident that he can.

"I wouldn't read too much into Monaco as a race, it's rather a unique weekend. I'm sure Jenson will be on strong form this weekend."

Neale said that while Button's struggles were down to bad luck and a slightly errand set-ups, they were also a symptom of the extremely close nature of the 2012 season.

"We have seen Jenson be unlucky and not quite get the car in the right place in the last two races," he explained.

"It is very tight - you only need to miss a tenth or two and you can move a lot of places in qualifying. Six races in and six winners and five constructors having won shows how close and challenging it is at the top."

He also played down suggestions that McLaren was going backwards - first prompted by Hamilton's assertion that the team was 'falling behind race by race' following the Monaco Grand Prix.

"The car definitely has the pace and the upgrades are coming thick and fast," Neale said. "Pole position in Spain by half a second demonstrates just how much performance there is in the car.

"Lewis has demonstrated on several occasions just how potent and determined he is, [and] both drivers have a car underneath him that can win this race, if we can get the tyres consistently into the sweet spot.

"We go there this weekend determined to put both our drivers in a position to win."

Jenson Button says that he needs to deliver a good result for McLaren in Canada this weekend after a run of poor results in recent races.

The McLaren driver failed to finish in Monaco and has only picked up two points since the third round of the season in China and now lies seventh in the drivers' championship, 31 points off Fernando Alonso, who has been dogged by an uncompetitive Ferrari for much of the season.

The 32 year-old is looking for a repeat of his performance from last year, when he passed Sebastian Vettel on the last lap to take victory in mixed conditions. He also concedes that he will have to perform better in qualifying than in recent races.

"You want to get as high up the grid as possible," he said, "A lot can happen here, last year we did not have marbles but everything else was thrown into the mix. It is a tough race to get the car spot on, but last year definitely went alright."

Button says he has not been looking at the points for the last few races, but he knows that consistency is one of the keys to success.

"The last three races I've retired twice and scored two points. They haven't been my finest weekends, so I need to score some good points this weekend to get it back on track.

"We all come here hoping for a victory and aiming for a victory, but as you see consistently being in the double figures in points is key to finishing at the front."

Button is confident that he can turn his fortunes around though.

"It hasn't gone my way or the team's way in the last few races but it will turn around and we will get back to scoring big points," he said.

Button lies 18 points behind Lewis Hamilton, who has scored points in all six races so far this year.

Mark Webber says he is 'pissed off' at suggestions that he won the Monaco Grand Prix with an illegal car following the FIA's decision to force Red Bull to change its floor design.

The holes in the floor of the RB8 stirred controversy at the Monaco Grand Prix, which Webber won from pole position nearly two weeks ago.

Although Webber's victory was not disputed by Red Bull's rivals, the FIA decided ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix that the team would have to modify its floor design for the Montreal race.

Webber downplayed the effect the rule change will have on the performance of the car, but the Australian admitted he was angry at suggestions that he won with an illegal car.

The Red Bull driver made it clear that the RB8 had passed all technical verifications before the FIA decision.

The Australian said, in fact, that Red Bull was planning to race without the controversial holes in Valencia even before the FIA ruling.

"I think that I would not know if the floor is changed or unchanged," Webber told a news conference in Montreal. "From the driving side we are very optimistic that the change will not make much difference at all.

"You won't believe us but we had some changes for Valencia anyway which included no hole irrespective of the rule changes.

"And in relation to wining races with an illegal car - I am happy to be called lots of things and have criticism about my driving, but I will not take talk about the car being illegal. It pisses me off, to be honest.

"The car has passed every single technical regulation after the race. All the teams against it did not make any protest after Monaco, the car passed the test after Bahrain and passed the test after Monaco and there is a clarification, and the rule is different. We had a car that was legal for the start of the season. The rule has been changed and we will race on."

Webber, who became the sixth winner in as many races this season, believes the Canadian race will be as tight as the previous events, something that is making predictions very hard.

"I don't think there are any top teams at the moment," he said. "It is very tight between everyone's performances. It looks sensitive to venue, temperatures and drivers even.

"It is quite open which is why we have seen different results, different podiums and different winners, and teams that were not good with regulations last year – like Sauber, Williams – people who were not good with [the] blown floor, it made them strong compared to the people who were good with the blown floor."

Sebastian Vettel believes that the effect of the holes in the Red Bull's floor has been overplayed during the recent arguments over the legality of the design.

The FIA outlawed the design after the Monaco Grand Prix following complaints from rival teams, despite Red Bull having its legality cleared earlier in the season.

Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber hit out on Thursday at accusations that the RB8 had been illegal in recent races.

But the reigning world champion, after saying that he was not bothered by such talk, added that the banning of the holes is not going to have a big effect on Red Bull this weekend.

"I don't care. I don't believe it has a big impact on what we do on the circuit," Vettel told reporters in the Montreal paddock on Thursday. "I think it is more important to get the tyre pressures right."

Vettel explained that while the floor design has been focused on by rival teams and the media in recent races, the team has made gains through other updates during the same period.

"It wasn't just [the floor] that came," he added. "It's more that we tried a lot of things, some things worked, some things didn't work. There's much more behind it.

"I didn't think there was anything wrong with the car we had at Monaco, or before that. Nevertheless I don't think it will make a big difference."

The German said that his only frustration about the whole saga came from the lack of clarity over what is considered legal.

"It's a shame it goes one way and the other, one way and the other. I think it's really difficult to understand what is going on. But it is as it is now."

Dany Bahar has been dismissed from his role as CEO of Group Lotus with immediate effect, the Malaysian-owned sportscar manufacturer announced on Thursday.

Just a fortnight after it was revealed that Bahar was being suspended following a complaint about his conduct, Group Lotus said that his employment contract had been terminated.

In a statement issued by Group Lotus, it said: "The decision was made by the Board of Group Lotus plc following the results of an investigation into a complaint made against him by the company's penultimate holding company, DRB-HICOM Berhad."

Bahar was the man who spearheaded the idea of rebranding the Renault team as Lotus for this season. That plan put him in conflict with the ambitions of current Caterham team principal Tony Fernandes - who embarked on reviving the Lotus name before Bahar joined Group Lotus at the end of 2009.

Group Lotus said that Aslam Farikullah would be its new Chief Operating Officer.

Group Lotus' owners DRB-Hicom insist that they remain fully focused on securing a bright future for Group Lotus, despite speculation that it was open to selling the sportscar company.

Dato' Sri Haji Mohd Khamil Jamil, Group Managing Director of DRB-HICOM Berhad said: "I would like to assure you that we remain committed to ensure the ongoing and future business operations of the Lotus Group as we take the Lotus Group to the next level to remain relevant in the global automotive industry.

"I look forward to bringing mutual benefits to not only DRB-HICOM and PROTON Holdings Berhad but also the Lotus Group and its employees as well as contribute to the growth of the British automotive industry."

Kimi Raikkonen believes the track surface at Montreal should suit the supersoft Pirelli tyres in the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend.

Despite struggling in Monaco, eventually finishing in ninth position, the Finn is confident that Lotus can overcome the set-up issues that blighted his weekend and return to form in Canada.

"The surface is quite smooth so it won't be so hard for the rear tyres. I don't think it will be the easiest thing because the tyres are pretty soft," he said.

He conceded that Lotus will need to do better in Canada if Raikkonen is to fulfil his and the team's potential.

"We will try to do things slightly better than before and to get the maximum out of the car, I have to drive as well as I can and hopefully then we will be faster," said Raikkonen.

However, the 32-year-old says that Lotus will not be the only team with set-up issues in Canada and that the driver has a key role to play in managing the tyres during the race.

"We are probably not the only people to have those, so I think if everybody would know how to fix them then it sounds a simple thing, but it is difficult to get exactly the tyres working and different teams have had different problems in different races," he said.

"If you go faster then you will pay a bigger price in the long run so you have to know when to pace yourself and if you are a good driver then you should know," he added.

Romain Grosjean has dismissed claims that he is too aggressive at the start of races, following his third opening lap crash of the season in Monaco.

The Lotus driver was caught up in a crash just seconds after the start last time out, meaning that he has had first lap accidents in three of the six races so far. But the reigning GP2 champion believes it is just coincidence.

"It doesn't mean anything," he said when asked about the accidents. "In Australia I couldn't do much [with Pastor Maldonado], in Malaysia it was my mistake [with Michael Schumacher], I spun in the wet. And in Monaco what can you do?

"Trying to put a scooter and a bus into Sainte Devote together is difficult, so four cars side by side is too tight. This is the game. The start is always a crucial moment and sometimes it is a bit tight.

"If you fight at the front then sometimes it is more difficult. I don't have any problem with that. I haven't been over-aggressive and crashing into everybody. It's just unfortunate, I don't think I have been doing anything silly at the start."

Grosjean added that he would rather be fighting at the front and failing to finish races rather than running further down the field and getting to the finish every time.

"It's my first season and people are talking about me winning races so that is very positive," he said. "Of course there is pressure, but I prefer it that way rather than people just saying it was good that I finished the race.

"[The attention on his first lap crashes] is not frustrating as long as you don't focus on it. I don't really care. I prefer to focus on the positives and not the negatives, and I am happy that I am racing at the front with all these world champions."

Ferrari cannot afford to rely on its strong run of consistent points scoring this season if it is going to win the world championship this year.

That is the view of points leader Fernando Alonso, who reckons that his Maranello outfit needs to unlock more speed from its F2012 if it is not going to let its title challenge fall away.

"We need to improve the pure pace of the car," said Alonso, who currently holds a three-point advantage over Red Bull Racing duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

"For Sundays we normally are a little bit more competitive. We take advantage of the experience from the team and the talent from the team in terms of preparation for the race, the starts, and the strategy.

"But we know that we are not fast enough, especially on Saturday when we are all in the same conditions, with low fuel and new tyres. We are struggling to be in Q3 sometimes, and we are not anywhere close to pole position.

"With that, that we are now leading the championship is something that we cannot maintain if we are not quick enough. We are not the fastest on the track, so that is something that we need to look for and hopefully in Canada we will see another step forward from the team and we are close again to the top guys. But we will not know until after qualifying."

Alonso thinks that there is a danger for any of the men in the title battle of losing big ground over the next few races if one team is able to eke out a performance advantage.

"I think as long as there are different winners in races, you need to be consistent if you want to lead the championship," he explained.

"If sooner or later we arrive now at some races, maybe in July, when there are three races in four weeks, and in those races one guy manages to win two races, then you need something more than consistency."

Alonso is also convinced that some of the shocks that have been delivered this season - like Pastor Maldonado's victory in Spain – will not be repeated later in the campaign when the bigger teams ramp up development and get more on top of the tyres.

"I enjoy the season so far," he said. "It is quite unpredictable but at the same time the top teams are leading the championships. We see Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Mercedes – so even if there are surprises and some medium teams are doing well, at the end consistency and experience is getting the points out of Sunday.

"It is an interesting championship, but in a way I am thinking that sooner or later everything will stabilise and be much more normal than what we are seeing now."

Felipe Massa is bullish he can continue to make progress towards the front of the field after delivering his strongest race of the season in Monaco.

The Brazilian, who endured a dismal start to his campaign, was able to match the pace of his Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso in Monte Carlo.

Massa achieved his best result of the year with a sixth-place finish, and the Ferrari driver is sure he is much stronger than a few races ago.

"I think it was a better race, a clean race, nothing wrong happened," said Massa in Montreal on Thursday. "I had good pace from the first session, so hopefully we can use that to do things even better here and all these races until the end of the year.

"I think it was a positive weekend - even if I was not so happy to finish P6, I think it was a good start."

He added: "I feel much better in the car. Improving the car helps a lot. I hope we carry on that way, improving, stronger race by race and fighting for many good points and even looking forward to victories and podiums. This is the target and the direction and I feel much stronger in the car now compared to the beginning of the season."

Massa said that although the nature of Monaco means not all he learned will be useful at other tracks, he feels optimistic a lot of what he changed can help him be stronger at all types of circuits.

"I discovered things that for sure can be the direction for the other tracks," he said. "Monaco is different to many other tracks, but it helps a lot to understand things that we did not understand before. So I'm looking forward to following that direction and being stronger and stronger all the time."

The Brazilian said he is not thinking about his future with Ferrari just yet, and is instead focusing on doing the best possible job in every race.

"The most important thing is to think about the present, think about race by race," he said. "By August we will start to see what will happen in the future."

And he denied reports that he will quit Formula 1 if he doesn't get a new Ferrari contract.

"I didn't say if that if I am not in Ferrari I will stop. I said if I need to go to a small team then maybe I will think about doing something else. I always want to fight for the victory."

Michael Schumacher feels he is closer to a victory than he has ever been since he came back to Formula 1 - ahead of a weekend where many expect his Mercedes team to shine.

Although the seven-time champion has scored just two points this season, the improved pace of his W03 and the form that helped him set the fastest time in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix a fortnight ago have left him bullish about his prospects for Montreal

"I am very confident on this one," he said in Canada. "If you take the comeback time from the start to now, probably this is the closest that we can be of having a good result this weekend."

When asked to rate his chances of becoming the seventh winner in F1 this season, he said: "Put it this way, I like number seven. It [the Montreal track] certainly is the right direction [for the Mercedes car]. I mean we have seen in Monaco that we can be strong, and here is similar situation that could be good for us."

Schumacher is upbeat that Mercedes has put its early season troubles behind it, and that if it can nail its tyre temperatures in Canada then it should be well placed for the win.

"I think we have been pretty good actually since after Malaysia," he said. "We understood the car very well and we managed to do consistent races since that moment. It is all about understanding the car and getting the maximum out.

"The weather is a big factor, and what temperature to expect for the big day - because you work on fine tuning for the car on Saturday and you cannot change anything for the Sunday. So you have to predict what it is going to be.

"If you look at China, five degrees of track temperature suddenly turned everything around in our favour, whereas before it didn't look that great. Will we have such a chance this weekend? Is it going to be consistent to do what we predicted to be? That is the question."

Pastor Maldonado will evaluate an aggressive new rear wing design for Williams during free practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The team has admitted that the performance of its DRS has held it back at times this year, particularly in qualifying.

Maldonado added that the new design, which has a more curved profile than its predecessor, is part of a raft of updates for this weekend.

"In Barcelona it was OK," Maldonado told reporters about the performance of the DRS. "We have a new rear wing here, and I hope it will be better for the DRS but also for all the weekend.

"It's all to discover. We need to test tomorrow and analyse many things on the car. We have a completely new aero package, so let's see."

At the Chinese Grand Prix earlier this season, Maldonado's team-mate Bruno Senna said that he felt the team could make big gains with an improved DRS.

"If you can get three tenths from the DRS effect, which is not impossible, then you are already jumping three or four positions," said Senna.

"We know all the other teams have a bigger effect [from DRS], so on tracks with long straights it is hard."

Sergio Perez believes that he can fight for a podium at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, despite it being his first 'proper' race start at Montreal.

Perez missed last year's Canadian race as a result of his high-speed crash in Monaco Grand Prix qualifying, the Mexican pulling out after feeling dizzy during practice and being replaced by Pedro de la Rosa.

However, Perez believes that the handful of laps he completed at Montreal last year will prove crucial when it comes to getting up to speed this time around. He is even predicting that he will be in a position to fight for a podium.

"It is a circuit I know well from only the few laps in free practice one last year, because after the accident I could not race here, as I had to go home," Perez said.

"Hopefully this weekend can be a lot better, we have a very competitive car and we can fight for a podium here.

"I've done some laps in the simulator, [so] I think it is a circuit that will not be a problem to get up to speed, because I have done enough laps already in free practice one [in 2011]."

Perez believes that Sauber has the car speed to be a podium contender, and that a little bit of luck is the ultimate key to a result.

"I think it is just a matter of putting everything together," he added.

"We have enough speed. We have had unlucky races like China, but the only weekend we did not have the speed was in Bahrain, because we had a lot of degradation. In Spain I had a puncture, and in Monaco had speed to fight for win but I went straight and had problems with the steering wheel.

"The speed is there, everything is there, it is just a matter of luck - and we have been just unlucky in the last few races."

Paul di Resta believes that the Canadian Grand Prix will offer the best indication yet of Force India's potential.

Despite two double points finishes (Malaysia and Monaco), Force India is currently languishing eighth in the constructors standings, 13 points behind Sauber and 16 behind Williams.

However, di Resta remains upbeat about the potential of the Force India, and expects this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix to prove the VJM05's potential.

"It wasn't a secret that we struggled at the beginning of the year compared to what we first thought, but we rapidly moved on," he said.

"We brought a good update to Barcelona and we brought that forward. [in] Monaco [it] was difficult to understand that much more, but here will give us a better indication of what to expect for the forthcoming races.

"We feel we are a bit behind Sauber and Williams at the moment and to overcome them we need to do the maximum job in the races, and that is what we need to do this weekend."

Di Resta is also confident that Force India can continue developing its car well into the season, just as it did in 2011.

"We need to understand the car a bit more in terms of upgrades, that is what we are trying to achieve. I have every confidence team will achieve that - last year our development rate went very high from mid-season and I hope we can do that again.

"I don't think we are getting the maximum out of the car yet."

Italy will follow Britain's lead in regards to TV coverage of Formula 1 after Sky Italia secured the right to broadcast the sport from 2013.

The move means Sky, a pay TV channel which is part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, will broadcast all races live next year.

Only nine of the races - one of which will be Monza - will be shown live free-to-air, with Sky and FOM set to mutually decide upon the network. RAI currently holds the broadcast rights.

BSkyB, also part of News Corp, broadcasts all races in its pay TV platform in the UK this year.

"We have worked with Sky Italia in the past and I have no doubts about their production standards," said Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone in a statement. "We have a similar agreement in Britain that is working very well."

Sky Italia recently also won the broadcast rights to MotoGP from 2014.

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Paul DI RESTA (Force India), Jean-Eric VERGNE (Toro Rosso), Sergio PÉREZ (Sauber), Felipe MASSA (Ferrari), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren).

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Paul, if I might start with you, a good weekend with both cars getting into the top ten in Monaco. How good is the dynamic between you and Nico [Hulkenberg]? Is there a fair amount of pushing one another and a good partnership?

Paul DI RESTA: Yeah, Monaco was a good weekend for the team. Obviously where we qualified... we went forward and were lucky with some cars not finishing. But, I think to achieve what we did there was a massive result for the team. I think me and Nico have a good relationship, we're obviously pushing each other along but also trying to develop the car because we feel that we're a little bit behind the likes of Sauber and Williams at the moment. And to overcome that we need to be doing a good job in the race. Over the weekend you've got to maximise what you have, and that's what we're going to try to achieve again this weekend.

Q. Do you feel that you just need to hit the Pirelli sweetspot, or is it more than that? Is it, as you say, the development, and even do you look at the results of Maldonado, Sergio for example in Malaysia, and say 'hey, that should be us.'

PdR: I think the tyres are difficult, we're not going to deny that but I think we've achieved that at some tracks and that's where we saw some good results for us. Certainly Bahrain, we got the car in an operating window but I think it's a bit more and we need to understand the car a bit more in terms of what we're bringing in terms of upgrades. That's what we're trying to achieve. But I have every confidence the team will achieve that because last year our development rate went very high from mid-season, so we're certainly hoping we can do that this year. I don't believe we're getting the maximum out of the car yet but we'll try to achieve that this weekend again. It's a different philosophy, obviously, being a bit lower downforce here. So hopefully that will suit us slightly better.

Q. And are you expecting to go up a gear in terms of development in the middle third of the season?

PdR: I think so. It wasn't a secret that we struggled at the beginning of the year, to what we initially first thought. Since then we've rapidly moved on. If we can do that… I think we bought a good upgrade to Barcelona. We obviously developed that forward over that weekend. Monaco was difficult to understand how much so I think here will probably be a truer reflection on what we can expect for the up and coming races.

Q. Jean-Eric, first of all I understand you are nearly a Canadian, you have been here so long.

JEAN-ERIC VERGNE: Yeah, I can fake the accent.

Q. Tell us what you've been doing, because you've been here a few days

JEV: I got invited to a nice hotel at Sacacomie to the north of Montreal. I was in the middle of nowhere and had a few days relaxing, doing some sport, it was quite nice.

Q. And the Cirque du Soleil?

JEV: Yeah, I was there yesterday with Daniel Ricciardo. In the morning we were training, learning a couple of tricks with the guys in their factory, and then at night we get invited to the show. It was quite amazing to see.

Q. And how much have you learnt?

JEV: I learnt to go high, and there was a circle thing [German Wheel], you had to go inside, upside down. Motorcycles as well. It was OK.

Q. In terms of racing, obviously you had a good race at Monaco, overtaking Michael Schumacher. That must have been a pleasant moment. Looking at your qualifying. You've been out-qualified by Daniel 5-1 but you've out-raced him 4-1. Is that a fair assessment?

JEV: I have to say qualifying is quite hard, compared to what I was expecting. I guess it's going to come: I have the speed, I can show it in the racing. Monaco, unfortunately I hit the wall before I could make a good lap, so, yeah, I wouldn't say unlucky but I pushed a bit too hard and didn't get a proper time. It's just a question of time, I have to take it easy, I know I have the speed and I know I have a car to be able to be in the points sometimes. So yeah, I think that will come.

Q. I read that you say this is your favourite circuit – but you've never raced here…

JEV: On the Playstation! It's a track I like; I've been driving on it as well in the simulator and I quite enjoy driving on it. I hope it's going to be the same in reality tomorrow.

Q. Sergio, you only did three laps last year. Do you remember much about the circuit?

Sergio PÉREZ: Not really, it is not a circuit that I know well, not really from the few laps I did in FP1 last year, because after the accident I could not race here. So, I had to go back home after FP1. Hopefully this weekend can be a lot better. I think we have a very competitive car and we can fight for a podium here.

Q. Have you done a lot of laps on Ferrari's simulator?

SP: I've done some laps in the simulator as well. I think it's a circuit where it will not be a problem to get up to speed because I've done enough laps already in FP1 last year.

Q. Since Malaysia, things don't really seem to have slotted into place. Malaysia was such a high point but it doesn't seem to have continued. What's required to get back to that situation?

SP: I think it's just a matter of putting everything together. We have enough speed, we have had very unlucky races since Malaysia. Like China, for example. The only weekend we didn't have the speed was in Bahrain. We had a lot of degradation. All the other weekends, Barcelona I was in fourth place but then I had a puncture; Monaco in qualifying we had the speed to fight for a win, I think, but then we had a problem with the steering wheel and I just went straight. I think the speed is there and everything is there and it's just a matter of luck. We have been very unlucky in the last few races.

Q. Felipe, things seem to have come together for you at the last race. Can you carry that on and also take what you learned in Monaco to other circuits?

Felipe MASSA: Yes, sure. I think it was a better race, a clean race where nothing wrong happened. It was good pace from the first session. So, hope we can use that to do things even better here and all these races until the end of the year. I think it was a positive weekend even if we cannot be so happy to finish sixth, y'know? I think it was a good start.

Q. Monaco is so much of a specific circuit, is it possible… did you really discover something there.

FM: Yes. We discovered things that for sure can be the direction for the other tracks as well. Definitely Monaco is different than many other tracks but I think it helped a lot to understand things that we didn't understand before and I'm really looking forward to understand that direction and be stronger and stronger all the time.

Q. Do you regard this as a good circuit anyway for Ferrari?

FM: I think it's very difficult to say. Here is a track that you have a lot of slow corners, chicanes, hairpins and a very long straight. Looking at what's going on this season, every track is very difficult to say if this is the right track track for us or not. So we need good speed as well. It's something we have been working since the beginning of the year to improve, our speed on the straight. Here we know how important is that. So, we wait and see. It's difficult to say before.

Q. Mark, obviously a winner of the last grand prix and you've been playing Action Man since then, how was the sky diving?

Mark WEBBER: Oh yeah that was good yesterday, the first time I've done it. It was in a wind tunnel, so it obviously wasn't real sky-diving but it was great to catch up with Jon [DeVore] who is a phenomenal Red Bull athlete from California. He does a lot of… he was in the Transformers film with the wing suits, so those guys are incredible, what they did. We did a few tricks yesterday with a car and a parachute and it was really good, I enjoyed it. I don't know if I've got the bug to jump out of planes to be honest but I enjoyed it. But the highlight for me between races was going to the Isle of Man TT. It's an absolutely amazing sporting event if you love motorsport, it's a must to go to. And to see John McGuinness, a friend of mine, win again, all of the riders are obviously heroes but John's had such a great record around there it was really good to see all that come together again for him. Took some mates and we had just an absolutely great time. It was really good, last Saturday.

Q. And some Action for Road Safety work this morning, I believe.

MW: Yeah. I've been doing some work for the Action for Road Safety campaign. That went well.

Q. You were a winner obviously in Monaco, you've done nine Canadian Grands Prix, just in case you've forgotten, you qualified second in 2010, finished third in 2011 and you've had only one retirement here. So what are your thoughts about this race? Is it a good one for you?

MW: Yeah, I like driving here. It's a good mixture, in terms of the street circuit sort of feel of it, but also with low-ish downforce. Obviously the cars won't be in the Monaco configurations, so we'll have to look for the top speeds. Yeah, you still need a pretty good car here, there's no question about that. There's quite a bit of time to be gained and lost here if you get it together [or not]. I enjoy it here. It always throws up a bit of an oddball race. I think that we need to see how the marbles go, the brake wear, incidents, safety cars. It's always been like that the Canadian Grand Prix. Even 'the Nige' – I think he turned the car off at the last corner, so there's always drama at this event. So looking forward to it.

Q. Jenson, talking of drama, you had it all here last year: qualified seventh, went back to last and came back to win. And yet apparently you're concentrating on qualifying. But qualifying seems to go out the window here.

Jenson BUTTON: Yeah, it did last year. It's something you obviously still want to do – get as far up the grid and make your life as easy as possible on Sunday. As Mark said, a lot happens around here. Last year we obviously didn't have the marbles but we had everything else we could thrown into the mix but we if we have a dry, hot race that's something we'll have to watch out for – we'll have a lot of marbles on the circuit, as we've found in previous years. It's a tough race, a tough race to get the car spot on but last year it definitely went our way.

Q. Let's hope it goes your way this time because you are getting a little bit left behind in the championship. Is that something that you're feeling?

JB: To be fair I purposefully haven't looked at the points for the past few races but I don't think anyone is streaking ahead in the championship. As we have seen it's been a very mixed bag over the first six races. But yeah, the last few races, I've retired twice and I've scored two points in the other race. They haven't been my finest weekends. So, yes, I need to score some good points this weekend to get it back on track. I think we all come here hoping for a victory, aiming for a victory, but as we've seen for most of the season just being consistently in the double figures in terms of points is key really to fighting at the front this year. Looking forward to the weekend. I have some very special memories here, especially last year, but also 2010 and back when I qualified in pole here before. So looking forward to getting out there and seeing what we've got to play with.

Q. The McLaren GT car is also performing pretty well, I think it won both races in Navarra last weekend. Is that something that rubs off a little bit on the grand prix team as well?

JB: We hope so! It's very different obviously to Formula One, but those guys have been working very, very hard for the whole season to get it competitive, so yeah, it's great that McLaren have had two back-to-back victories in Navarra last weekend.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) A question for Felipe. Last week, Fernando said in Madrid, at the opening of the Ferrari store, that he was very much confident that you are from now on going to be scoring tons of points, fighting for podiums, even for victories maybe. Does this give you further impulse and are you aiming for better goals this season?

FM: Yeah, for sure. I feel much better in the car. I think you know improving helps a lot the way of driving, especially for my driving style. I'm really looking forward to carry on like that, improving, getting stronger race by race, and fighting for many good points and even looking for victory and podium. This is the really the target, the direction and I feel much stronger in the car now compared to the beginning of the season.

Q. (Daniel Bastien – FM103-3) Due to the high competitiveness this season, Jenson recently said he's worried that anyone can win a race. Do the other drivers share that concern?

JB: I think I said that the worry is that fans think we could all win, we could all lose.

SP: I think anyone can win a race. You never what will happen in any race, so there is always the chance for every driver to have a nice surprise. I think especially this year, most of the top teams and also the middle teams are really close together, so it can be a surprise like it has happened this year with Pastor winning, so some others might come during the year.

J-EV: I don't really have much to say. I think he [Pérez] has said everything. I think maybe he forgot his second place as well! I think everything is possible. We just have to be at the right moment, in the right place, with a good car. So, yeah, maybe.

PdR: There's not much to say. I think it's unfair to say that anybody could win but I think if you get the car in a sweet spot over the weekend, you need to be prepared and you can make a massive step forward.

FM: The same.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) A pair of questions for Felipe : first question is about the exhaust system. You will compare, both of you Ferrari drivers, the exhaust systems and I would like to know what is the target for that: if it is to find more downforce, traction and so on? And the second question is if you can clarify your answer in an interview that you gave during the week about the future? You were quoted as saying 'if I can't drive for Ferrari any more, I would prefer to do something else.' Would it possible to see you, in the future, like Barrichello in IndyCar for example?

FM: Well, the exhaust - we have some pieces to try here. The important thing is to find out some things. How much better, it's difficult to say, we just need to try it, on the track, to see if it makes the car stronger, so we will see.

(With reference to the second question) I didn't really say what you said. I said for sure, in the future, the most important thing is to think about the present, thinking about race by race, the results. Try to carry on in the direction that we took in the last race, making good points and for sure, after August, we start to see (look at) what will happen in the future. I didn't say 'if I'm not at Ferrari any more, I will stop.' I didn't say that. I said 'if I need to go to a small team, maybe I will think about doing something else.' I'm here, always want to race, to fight for victory and that's what I did for many years, and I'm looking forward to getting back to fighting for victories and the championship. I trust myself, as I said, it's important to… the season didn't start as I expected, but I think things are getting better so it's important to carry on like this and I think if we do, it will be much easier and we will find a good direction for the future, to stay in Ferrari or find a good direction in which to race.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Jenson, you started the season with McLaren as a favourite, you won the first Grand Prix and since then, you seemed to have struggled to score big points. Do you have an explanation?

JB: We could go through every single race. The second race was a mistake on my part and then in China we had a good chance of challenging for victory and we finished second, which, this season, getting consistent second places we would be leading the championship. That was a very good result but then the last three races have been a little bit more difficult. Some of it has been (because of) Saturday afternoon, but not all of it. When you put yourself in a difficult position in qualifying, you can either get unlucky or lucky at turn one, especially around a place like Monaco, and obviously we got very unlucky. Yeah, it just hasn't really fallen into place. It's a very competitive season in F1 and I think if you do have a mistake or something goes wrong where you don't have luck on your side, you can be outside the points, or you can be scoring small points which in previous years would be a shock really, to be scoring two or three points in a Grand Prix when you're driving for McLaren, but this season is very different. There are, if you look at the history in the sport, there are big teams, you would say, but this season you wouldn't pick out McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull as being the big teams in the sport. It's massively competitive. It just hasn't gone my way and the team's way over the last few races but that will turn round, and we will be back scoring good points.

Q. (Randy Phillips – Montreal Gazzette) Jenson, can you just go back to last year: an incredible race, you said it was one of the best of your career if not the best. How long did it take you to decompress after that and really take in everything that happened that Sunday?

JB: I can't really remember much from that night and I lost a bit of memory as well. As soon as I got back to the hotel really, after any win, as we know, it's a very special feeling crossing the finishing line and seeing the chequered flag first, celebrating with all your friends and family and the team. But that one was very different. I wouldn't say it was a shock victory but it was unexpected at many points during the race, so it really did mean a lot and the adrenalin was still pumping through my veins for many hours afterwards. But yeah, I've watched it back, even this season I watched it back. With ten laps to go, you think it's impossible that I could have won that Grand Prix, so a special weekend. Hopefully we can have some more like that over the next few years, but that doesn't happen very often. I cherish that memory very much.

Q. (Randy Phillips – Montreal Gazzette) Mark, as one of the six winners so far this year, can you speak of the competitive aspect of it, how we have more teams involved, more drivers, like never before?

MW: Yeah, I don't think there are many top teams at the moment. Obviously it's very tight between everyone's performances. It looks quite sensitive to venue, quite sensitive to temperatures, quite sensitive to drivers, even. It's quite open, and that's why we've seen some different results, different podiums, different winners, like we haven't seen before. I think that the teams which were not very good with the regulations last year, like Ferrari, Williams, Sauber - they were not very quick with the blown floor - they had a good step this year, coming back to the people that made the blown floor very strong, like McLaren and Red Bull. That's the way it is.

Q. (Julien Febreau - L'Equipe) Mark, you are actually level with your teammate in the championship. Are you afraid that the situation could create some tensions in your team, as in 2010, or do you think that your team has known how to learn from the past?

MW: It's a good problem to have.

Q. (John Lu – TSN Canada) This question is for any of you who have had good experiences here in Montreal, at this venue. Open House Thursday has been one of the traditions at this track but at the pits today, due to forces outside of the track, just wondering how you feel that fans have not had the opportunity to interact with you this week, like they would have in years past?

MW: I think in some cases it's disappointing. We come here, it's a sensational event for the whole season as one of the top few Grands Prix of the year; fans-wise, drivers, mechanics, photographers, journalists, everyone loves coming here. The city really embraces the event, the restaurants go for it, the driver parade lap here is one of the best parade laps we do in the season. So there's a huge amount of positive aspects which we've had here. For a long long time, the Canadian Grand Prix has been held here in a very very positive fashion. Obviously I'm not completely up to speed with what's going on with… like you say, some of the students are not happy with certain things. I'm not saying it's a minority, but sometimes when there's a little bit of tension then some other people can lose out. Like you say, some fans wanted to come and see the track today, so that's really unfortunate. I'm sure that the weekend will go well. We want to put on a very very good weekend for everyone in Montreal and Canada and that's the focus for everyone in Formula One.

FM: We want to see all the fans, all the young people, students, everybody, we want to see them here with us, enjoying the sport, enjoying Formula One and I hope everything becomes normal with this situation. For sure, for us we feel sad for this situation. We just want to see them here, enjoying themselves and enjoying the sport, nothing else but that.

JB: I think it's just a precautionary thing. It's the start of the weekend, and we hope for a very exciting weekend and this is a big weekend for Formula One but also for Montreal. If you listen to the radio here, it's non-stop talking about the Grand Prix. Hopefully this can be put behind us and we can concentrate on having a great weekend and putting on a great show for all of the fans who want to come and see us and enjoy this great sport. I'm sure the fans have good memories of last year especially, but also previous years. The city of Montreal really comes alive over a Grand Prix weekend, they really embrace it and hopefully that won't be any different this year.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri – Gazzetta dello Sport) Mark, the FIA has declared illegal the pierced floor that Red Bull has been using in the last few races. Will it be a disadvantage for you in the coming races, and what do you say when people say that you and Sebastian won races using an illegal car?

MW: Well, to answer the first part of your question, I would not know if the floor is changed or unchanged, so on the driving side, we're very optimistic that the change won't make much difference at all. You won't believe us but we had some changes for Valencia anyway which included no hole, irrespective of the rule change, so that's what we were doing.

In relation to winning races with an illegal car, I'm happy to be called lots of things and I'm happy to have criticism about my driving and lots of stuff, but I will not take criticism in that respect. It completely pisses me off to be honest, because the car has passed every single, every single technical regulation after the race. All of the teams that were against it did not make any protest after Monaco, the car passed the test after Bahrain, the car passed the test after Monaco and now there has been a clarification on the rule, and the rule now is different and we had a car that was legal for the first part of the season and now the rule has been changed and we will start again, so looking forward to it.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Mark, Red Bull has never won the race here, even in the season when you won almost everything. Are the circumstances very particular in this Grand Prix or does it just not suit your car?

MW: It just looks like in '09, '10, we probably didn't have the best car in low downforce or lower downforce. The team has been competitive for two or three, four seasons now and as you say, the Montreal win has not been there for us. Obviously Seb was very close last year but lost the concentration at the end and Jenson was there to capitalise. I think that judging by how the start of the season has gone, there is every chance that we can still do well here. If you look at Spa and Monza last year, we were very very very strong in those low downforce configuration track, actually stronger that we were on the other tracks but I don't think that will carry over to this weekend. I think that there's no real form card. We come here confident but not crazy on confidence. We know we have a lot of tough competition but I think Fernando was the last guy to win here with a Renault engine, so that's something that they would like to win here again. They've had a lot of amazing success together with us at Red Bull, so as you say, it's a bit of a scalp which would be nice to get. But again, it's a nice problem to have when you've won so many races around the world in the last few years, but we would like to get Canada on track for Red Bull. When you're aiming high, sometimes you don't always get the goals.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all of you, a World Champion, Jacques Villeneuve, said this generation of drivers are all Daddy's boys.

JB: I'll make a comment. Jacques has a very unusual way of answering questions but you've also just picked out one piece of his interview. Basically, the more important part of his interview is him talking about safety and the way that back in the seventies the drivers were more aware of there being a lot more risk and the possibilities of fatality. I think he was stating that these days racing has got safer, and the circuits have got safer, and he was talking about the manoeuvre with Nico and Lewis in Bahrain and he was stating that he didn't think it was correct. That's what he was saying. But that's quite normal for you to pick out that sentence.

Q. (Mineoki Yoneya – La Vie Creative) Can I ask you about your helmets ; how and where did you decide the colour schemes of your helmet and do you have any favourite points on it?

MW: I designed my helmet in school classroom. It was a science lesson but I was very bored in the lesson so I was designing my helmet. I even remember the teacher's name. She wasn't very happy but I got some ideas and eventually I wanted to run with the Australian flag colours and then have the green and gold on top which are the sporting colours of Australia. Obviously I've lost a little bit of the green now at Red Bull because they don't like green so much but it hasn't changed. I want to keep it like that. It's not super-exciting, but it's close to me, I've had it for my whole career, so yeah, it was my design and I will start and finish with it.

JB: Mine was back in '94. I didn't actually design it, someone else did but it's changed over the years but it's kept the same idea with the Union Jack – the Union Flag - on the back. It's got JB on the side, it's obviously personal to me. I've changed the colours now and again over the years but it's back to being pretty standard now which is nice.

FM: Well, my helmet's design was from my father. My father used to race for fun but the colour was different. His colour was blue and orange and I changed it to blue, yellow and green, my country's colours. I've used the same design since I started. For sure it gets a little bit more and more daring with the ears but it's similar to how it was before. I think the helmet is like the face of the driver, I don't really like to change it so much because it should be similar to when you started, you know. So I just changed the colours and the design was from my father, so I really enjoy it.

[Lineker]

Lewis Hamilton was fastest for McLaren in the opening free practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

A two-time winner in Montreal, the Briton edged out Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull by just over a tenth of a second, with Nico Rosberg's Mercedes third.

Lotus duo Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean exchanged the top spot initially, before Rosberg and Hamilton made it their own private battle for the rest of the session. First Rosberg put in a 1m16.837s 20 minutes in to depose Raikkonen, then Hamilton replied with a 1m16.080s seven minutes later.

The McLaren would stay in front for almost the rest of the session - deposed only for mere moments with 20 minutes to go when Rosberg did a 1m15.782s that Hamilton instantly answered with a 1m15.564s.

Rosberg was among several drivers who then tried super soft tyres in the closing stages, as with rain forecast for the afternoon, Mercedes, Red Bull, Lotus, Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo and the HRTs all chose to try the softer rubber earlier than usual. But the Mercedes did not go any quicker than it had on softs, so Hamilton retained first position, and Rosberg found himself pushed down to third right at the end when Vettel squeezed into second place on super softs.

Vettel may have to take a trip to the stewards' office between sessions, as he is under investigation for an incident where he took a shortcut over the final chicane to pass Bruno Senna's Williams and ensure clear track for the start of a flying lap.

Fernando Alonso was the quickest Ferrari driver in fourth, with team-mate Felipe Massa 12th as the pair evaluated different exhaust layouts.

Mark Webber completed the top five in the second Red Bull, following by Hulkenberg's Force India, the Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, and Michael Schumacher's Mercedes.

Jenson Button was 10th despite his McLaren only managing 12 laps before it was sidelined in the garage with an oil leak.

Thirteen minutes of running were lost just after the mid-way point when Heikki Kovalainen put his Caterham into the wall on the exit of the Turn 8/9 chicane, doing substantial damage to the car's right-hand side. Kovalainen emerged unscathed. The rest of the field confined themselves to minor trips over the grass and asphalt run-offs.

FP1


Pos  Driver                Team                    Time              Laps

 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m15.564            30

 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m15.682s  + 0.118  29

 3.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m15.782s  + 0.218  30

 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m15.842s  + 0.278  34

 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m15.897s  + 0.333  28

 6.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes    1m15.986s  + 0.422  29

 7.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m16.000s  + 0.436  31

 8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m16.249s  + 0.685  32

 9.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m16.264s  + 0.700  28

10.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m16.347s  + 0.783  12

11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m16.460s  + 0.896  32

12.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m16.619s  + 1.055  17

13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m16.859s  + 1.295  25

14.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault           1m16.890s  + 1.326  36

15.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m17.014s  + 1.450  41

16.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m17.352s  + 1.788  28

17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m17.580s  + 2.016  31

18.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault        1m17.935s  + 2.371  23

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault        1m18.177s  + 2.613  16

20.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth            1m18.182s  + 2.618  26

21.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault        1m18.762s  + 3.198  36

22.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth            1m19.354s  + 3.790  23

23.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth       1m20.004s  + 4.440  21

24.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth       1m20.067s  + 4.503  23


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Lewis Hamilton remained on top for McLaren as the rain held off in the second Canadian Grand Prix practice session in Montreal on Friday.



After going quickest in the morning, Hamilton barely let anyone else have a look in at the head of the order in the afternoon, moving to the front for the first time after 14 minutes with a 1m15.895s lap.



That time then came down and down - the Briton eventually reaching a best of 1m15.439s on soft tyres.



He then went slightly faster still at the start of a long super soft run just before the session's halfway point, lapping in 1m15.259s, a time that would stand as the best of the day.



Fernando Alonso came closest to deposing Hamilton. The Ferrari driver had a wild spin through the Turn 8/9 chicane early on, visited the grass there again shortly after, but avoided damage and eventually got to within 0.054 seconds of taking the top spot. His team-mate Felipe Massa was less than a tenth slower in third.



Sebastian Vettel took fourth in the leading Red Bull, ahead of an impressive performance from Force India's Paul di Resta in fifth. Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber was sixth.



Mercedes duo Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg lined up seventh and 10th, sandwiching the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and Jenson Button's McLaren. The latter only made it out for the final 18 minutes of the session as his car required a gearbox change following its morning oil leak.



Like the morning session, practice two also featured a single red flag just after the mid-point. This time it was Bruno Senna in the wars, as he spun his Williams backwards into the wall at the final chicane -shattering one of the team's funky new rear wings among other things.



Caterham managed to repair Heikki Kovalainen's car after the Finn's practice one crash and he was able to join the action half an hour in, eventually taking 16th place.



[code]FP2


Pos  Driver                Team                    Time              Laps

 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m15.259s            43

 2.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m15.313s  + 0.054   36

 3.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m15.410s  + 0.151   39

 4.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m15.531s  + 0.272   44

 5.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m15.544s  + 0.285   32

 6.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m15.651s  + 0.392   37

 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m15.697s  + 0.438   32

 8.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes    1m15.799s  + 0.540   39

 9.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m15.812s  + 0.553   14

10.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m15.878s  + 0.619   40

11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m15.898s  + 0.639   38

12.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m15.907s  + 0.648   41

13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m15.987s  + 0.728   39

14.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault           1m16.360s  + 1.101   29

15.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m16.562s  + 1.303   33

16.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault        1m16.981s  + 1.722   24

17.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault        1m17.022s  + 1.763   22

18.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault        1m17.075s  + 1.816   41

19.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m17.124s  + 1.865   41

20.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m17.716s  + 2.457   34

21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth            1m18.908s  + 3.649   27

22.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth       1m19.084s  + 3.825   40

23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth            1m19.378s  + 4.119   21

24.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth       1m19.902s  + 4.643   18


All Timing Unofficial

McLaren has admitted that there is no simple solution to the set-up problems that Jenson Button has been suffering from in recent races.

Button has endured a run of difficult weekends with poor qualifying performances in the past two events, and scoring just two points in the last three grands prix.

McLaren is working hard on getting to the bottom of why Button's form has dropped off so suddenly, but its prospects of overcoming the issues have not been helped by a gearbox problem that limited Button's running in Canada on the opening day of practice.

Speaking about the work needed to help Button rediscover his early season strong form, McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe said it went far beyond just not getting the tyres into the right temperature window.

"You try and look for patterns and we are doing a lot of that at the moment, but it does seem like this is a multi-dimensional problem really," he explained. "It is not as simple as the tyres not being hot enough or being too hot. It is not that simple."

Lowe says the team is still trying to get to grips of what has changed for Button in recent races - considering how strong his start to the campaign was.

"We learned quite a bit from what we had in Monaco, what didn't work and where the weaknesses were there, so we are taking forward quite a few ideas that we tried out in the simulator and we tried here," he said.

"It is a concern we have seen for two or three races. Spain was interesting. Jenson was very strong on the Friday and Lewis less so, and then by the time you got to Saturday it was completely the opposite. I don't think it was a problem with Jenson whatsoever, it is just something to do with how we set the car up for him and how he then exploits it."

Jenson Button is fully focused on fighting for pole position in Canada, despite missing most of Friday's second practice session due to an oil leak.

The McLaren driver missed all but the last 15 minutes of the afternoon practice session thanks to the problem, and wound up ninth fastest after completing just 14 laps.

However, Button is adamant that he will not sacrifice a shot at pole position by focusing on high-fuel runs rather than qualifying simulations during the third and final practice session on Friday morning.

"We have information on running high fuel. For me it's still important to run low fuel and get a feel for the tyres, because when we ran it was cold, different to what it will be in qualifying," he said.

"I'm looking forward to it, I really am. It wasn't the perfect Friday, but we've done worse. We do have some data now from today, and hopefully we can look at that and make some improvements for tomorrow."

While he remains optimistic, Button did admit that the lack of running was far from ideal.

"It hurts, because you can't do any high-fuel running, and you can't do any set-up work. Also, we didn't do the set-up work on the car. When you change gearbox, you have to make sure all the toes are right, all the cambers are OK and it's all pointing in the right direction. We obviously didn't do that because we had to get back out on the circuit. So, we have to see where the car is now.

"We can still have a good weekend. We are still positive. The car's quick; Lewis [Hamilton] did a good job today, he was very fast. So I'm not worried."

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari team manager Massimo Rivola reckon that some teams might be able to stop only once for tyres in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was quickest on Friday in Montreal, and felt the tyres held up well over long runs.

"Tyre degradation could be an issue, and it will be very close, Ferrari seem to have to have good tyre degradation at the back end of their car, at least in the last race, so it looks like it could be another one-stop race, with the tyres doing well over 30 laps," Hamilton said.

Rivola agreed with Hamilton's assessment.

"I think it will be one of the key points of the race," he said. "I don't know how many of us were convinced Monaco would be a one-stopper. Today we've seen very long runs from whoever has used the super softs more than us.

"We've seen [sebastian] Vettel doing 19 laps on super softs while remaining very consistent. We've seen both Lotuses in FP1 doing 21 very consistent laps.

"On paper it's true it may seem like a one-stop race, but Sunday's temperatures will be very different from today's. With probably 15 degrees more in asphalt temperatures it might be a completely different scenario, so we'll need to be ready to react depending how it presents itself."

Hamilton added that the super soft compound lasted longer than expected but that it did not give the one-lap performance advantage that has been seen for most of 2012.

"I preferred the prime to be honest even though the soft did go a bit quicker. It wasn't as big as it normally is, it is normally quite a big gap but I think it is only three or four tenths difference," he said.

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says his team has no bad feelings over the FIA rule clarification that outlawed the 'holes' in the floor of its car after the Monaco Grand Prix.

The FIA was forced to issue a verdict on the holes ahead of the rear wheels on the RB8 following complaints from rival teams that the concept contravened the rules.

That edict meant the holes can no longer be used by Red Bull Racing, but Horner said he was happy that the matter had been sorted out without the need for a protest.

Speaking in reaction to anger from Mark Webber that people had suggested the team's victories in Bahrain and Monaco with the holes had been achieved with an 'illegal' car, Horner said: "I think Mark's comments are understandable. He won Monaco fair and square. The car complied with the rules, it complied with scrutineering. The teams have a right to protest if they felt it contravened in any way and no team chose to do that.

"Since then there's been a bit of debate about what's a hole and what's a boundaried surface and so on, and then there was a clarification as we expected. It's the right way to have dealt with the issue.

"In terms of the effect it will have on car performance, firstly we didn't plan to run it here [in Canada] anyway, plus it doesn't only affect Red Bull Racing. There were a couple of other cars that were running similar concepts."

When asked why the team risked the chance of a protest if the performance benefit was so negligible, Horner said: "We felt it was completely legal, and the technical delegate agreed with that prior to the event. It's like a lot of areas on a lot of cars; regulations are open to interpretation.

"We discussed it with the FIA, and the FIA were happy with it, and then has sought to further clarify the position, which has resulted in effectively that configuration not being permitted moving forward.

"We discussed it over the Monaco weekend. It was dealt with by Charlie [Whiting] in the right and proper manner."

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says the team has no qualms about both its drivers being locked in a tight battle for the world championship, despite the friction such a scenario produced back in 2010.

Two years ago, tension between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel erupted several times - including a crash in Turkey and a row over a front wing in Britain – as the pair took their battle for title glory to the final round of the championship.

With Webber now back to his best in F1, after a disappointing 2011 season, he and Vettel look set to embark on a close fight – which increases the chances of there being difficult situations for the team again.

But Horner says Red Bull is in a much better position to manage any troubles that may arise between its drivers than it was last time they were battling hard.

"I think we're in a great position having both drivers right up there," said Horner, whose drivers are tied in second place behind Fernando Alonso in the drivers' championship. "A lot has moved on since 2010.

"We're in a good position to give both drivers the best support we can between now and the end of the season. It's so difficult to predict at the moment from race to race, but it's a positive for the team to have both drivers running at the front."

When asked if he felt Red Bull Racing had learned lessons from some of the events of 2010, Horner said: "I think you can always learn in this business. And I think as a team we've evolved and learned, and we're still a pretty young team in reality. That applies to the drivers as well."

Red Bull is chasing its first Canadian GP victory this weekend, with the venue being the only established event on the schedule that the outfit has not triumphed at.

Horner said that to achieve such a feat this year would mean more, because of the huge variability in winners that there has been over the first six races.

"It would be fantastic, especially in a season like this where any team or driver has struggled to put consecutive weekends together," he said.

"We came pretty close last year; in fact we came within half a lap on what was a very long Sunday afternoon.

"I predict it's going to be very close here again, and the weather could well be a factor if you look at the forecast - particularly for Saturday. It's predicting showers on Saturday, just in case things needed spicing up a little bit."

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber declared themselves happy with Red Bull's progress in Friday practice in Canada.

Both drivers said that the prospect of rain had affected their normal schedule, forcing them to fit more development work in to the first session.

"It was actually a pretty good day, we had mixed weather [forecast] which didn't eventuate, but we ran the option tyre in the first session and obviously we thought that was the right thing to do," said Webber, who was fifth in practice one and 12th later on.

"It didn't rain much in the second session so the programme was a bit compromised but we got all the information. At the end of the day in terms of the scoreboard the positions are not that representative."

Vettel was equally positive and feels that he was able to find some more pace in the second session - even though he dropped from second in the order in practice one to fourth later on.

"We had a good day and we had some decent laps. We had a bit of a different approach with what tyres we put on but we were fairly happy," he said.

"We didn't see one car make a massive step. Certainly it was a bit of a step [for us] from the morning to the afternoon, but it was fairly small, a couple of tenths."

Webber also expects the track to change and is not worried about the pace of Red Bull's rivals.

"We will see what the track is like tomorrow, I think it is getting warmer as the weekend goes on so we are pretty happy with where we are at. There were some quick cars out there but we have seen that on Friday before," he said.

Ferrari expects to race its latest exhaust development in Canada this weekend after testing it during free practice on Friday.

The new configuration exhaust is an updated version of the set-up used on the F2012 in winter testing. And both drivers reported that the changes have improved the car.

"I think we can be happy with the fact that the updates we have brought here worked," said Felipe Massa, who was third fastest in the afternoon session, just behind team-mate Fernando Alonso. "The intention is to keep the car in this new configuration.

"The car seems to be well balanced and it seemed to me to be pretty consistent in terms of performance. To sum up, this has been the best Friday of 2012. Let's hope that can continue through Saturday and Sunday as well."

Alonso added: "I am pleased with the way things went. This morning, we concentrated mainly on evaluating some new updates. The first indications seem to be positive, but it is much too soon to draw any conclusions as Friday times should never be taken at face value."

Technical director Pat Fry said that Ferrari would be looking closely at the data gathered with the new exhaust layout to confirm the drivers' feelings.

"We brought two different exhaust configurations here," Fry explained. "One was the one used in the last two races, the other represents our latest interpretation of the concept that was part of the car when it made its debut at Jerez.

"From what we could see today, the latter configuration seems to be positive in terms of performance even if, obviously, we need to analyse the data very carefully to make the right choices for the race."

Michael Schumacher believes that Mercedes' programme in free practice for the Canadian Grand Prix disguised its true potential.

Both Schumacher and team-mate Nico Rosberg ran the super soft tyres in the first session of the day, as they were anticipating rain disrupting the afternoon running.

That left them seventh and 10th quickest in free practice two, as the rain held off until a few minutes after the session.

"It was a bit of a compromised approach because this rain we have right now was supposed to be all day long," Schumacher told reporters after the session.

"We took the opportunity - thinking it was going to be wet in the afternoon - to compromise the way we use the tyres. We didn't have the option tyres available in the afternoon because we had used them in the morning.

"So it doesn't represent the quickest times in the end. What does it mean tomorrow? We'll find out. We are certainly not far off."

Rosberg expects rear tyre degradation to be the key issue of the weekend, with hotter conditions expected over the next couple of days.

"Tyre degradation on the rear is going to be the main issue," Rosberg told AUTOSPORT. "Today it wasn't so much of a problem, but that was probably because of the conditions.

"It was quite cold, and it should get warmer the next few days so it will be quite different. But we have definitely learned a lot today."

Nico Rosberg believes Mercedes' improving form is set for a further boost soon, with the team confident it can unlock the secrets of the 2012 tyres.

The German is the highest scoring driver from the last four races, with a run of form that has seen him emerge as a dark horse contender for the world championship.

And although the team is still playing down its prospects of the title, Rosberg is bullish that even better performance is on the horizon for his team in terms of getting the most out of the tyres.

"We have very clever people in the team looking at that and coming up with ideas," said Rosberg about the difficulties of understanding the Pirelli tyres. "I think we can do really well in that area and get the most out of it soon.

"Of course there are still question marks and things because it's really complex, but I think we can understand it quickly. Also, Monaco last season was one of our worst races, this year it was one of our best. It's just because we've learned."

Rosberg says he is not dreaming yet about a genuine championship fight, with his focus being firmly on just individual races.

"I don't think that much about it," he explained. "In Monaco I had the best car of everybody. I just think about the next race.

"It's a nice period at the moment because we come into each race with such a good car. I come into the race thinking I can get a really top result and that is a nice feeling to have. That is all I think about: the next race, and trying to win here."

Rosberg's team-mate Michael Schumacher thinks the team's title prospects will only become clear over the next few races.

When asked by AUTOSPORT about title chances on the back of Rosberg's recent results, Schumacher said: "They are nice statistics, and indeed Nico is in terms of points absolutely in the ballpark, but the next races will show whether we can stay there, or whether development goes maybe against us.

"I don't think we will find out within this race but the future races will show a little bit the direction."

Although Rosberg's title chances are not clear yet, Schumacher is convinced that his own challenge is effectively over - after a run of poor reliability has left him with just two points.

"I said right from the beginning of the season that this year will not be a season that we fight for the championship," he said. "I might be wrong because Nico has proven to still be in the game. But it is still a long year, so we will find out if that is the case or is not the case, but in my terms with two points I don't need to think about the title right now."

Kimi Raikkonen believes that the warmer temperatures expected over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend will play into the Lotus team's hands.

The Lotus cars were 14th and 15th quickest in both free practice sessions on Friday, with Romain Grosjean narrowly faster than Raikkonen both times.

However, like several other teams in the paddock Lotus did more work in the first session than would usually be the case because of rain showers that were expected to disrupt the afternoon running.

Raikkonen believes that the team had a good day regardless of what the timesheets suggest, and he thinks that the better weather expected for Saturday and Sunday will suit the E20.

"Overall the feeling was OK," said Raikkonen in the Montreal paddock. "I'm probably missing a little bit of overall grip, but it was quite cool today and it should get a bit warmer. Usually that helps us to get the tyre working better.

"I think we should be OK. If we can get the tyres working slightly better then that will help a lot."

Raikkonen also feels that Lotus is not going to have many problems with tyre degradation in the race on Sunday.

"[On the super soft tyre] there were no problems at all for us," he added. "I think we did more than 20 laps with it and the tyres seemed to be OK still.

"Maybe for some people it will be more of an issue [in hotter conditions]. But usually when it is hotter the tyres seem to work better for us."

Pastor Maldonado says a new attitude at Williams has contributed to the team's success this year.

Maldonado dominated the Spanish Grand Prix from an inherited pole position after Lewis Hamilton was penalised for a fuel infringement in qualifying, giving Williams its first victory since the 2004 season.

The Venezuelan reckons a change of philosophy has helped the team take the step forward it needed after a dismal 2011.

"We changed the philosophy a little bit, for a better way," he said. "We have a different point of view to attack the problems, so everything looks like it is running very good in the team. The feeling is good."

The 27 year-old said that despite a difficult weekend in Monaco the team will have further opportunities as the season continues to be unpredictable.

"This is a new race. I love this track, and we will see if the car likes this track. If it does then I will be competitive," said Maldonado ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix.

"I think it will be very unpredictable through the year. The gaps are very close, so everyone can win races," he added.

Despite Montreal only requiring a medium level of downforce, the Venezuelan driver believes that the Williams will be competitive.

"I think high downforce tracks are good for us, so we need to see here - this is the first circuit that we are running medium downforce, and I feel confident for this circuit too.

"The car is working really well, the front and the back of the car, so now, with everything so close, if you don't put everything together then you are at the back. So you need to be focusing 100 per cent around the whole car."

Williams's chief operations engineer Mark Gillan believes his team will have strong race pace in the Canadian Grand Prix, but is concerned about its qualifying form.

Pastor Maldonado was 13th in both Friday sessions in Montreal, while his team-mate Bruno Senna had DRS problems in the morning and crashed in the afternoon.

"We are happy with our long run pace but still have work to do to optimise the car for qualifying," said Gillan.

Maldonado felt that Williams was still in generally good shape.

"We completed all of the things that we had planned for the session so we have had a productive day and are in a good place heading into the weekend," he said. "We still need to work on the set-up to get the right balance, but overall the car felt good and was consistent, particularly on the long runs. We have also brought some upgrades to this race and they were performing well which is encouraging."

Senna remained optimistic that he can make up for his Friday problems in final practice.

"I had DRS issues during the morning session and have limited experience of this circuit so today was about getting my eye in and seeing how far I can push the car," said Senna. "Obviously I pushed too hard towards the end of P2 and hit the wall, which is disappointing.

"Nevertheless we have made some improvements on the overall package and tomorrow morning I can go out and try to fine tune the set-up to get a good result on Sunday."

Paul di Resta is confident that his Force India is capable of reaching Q3 during Saturday's qualifying session for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Having been fifth-fastest in free practice two, the Scot is convinced that he can adapt to the expected changes in weather conditions before qualifying, and fight for a top-10 grid spot.

"The weather was a bit of a worry today with the constant threat of rain, so we had a very busy morning and probably did more laps in free practice one than we normally would," he said.

"The initial baseline of the car was good and we worked on improving things further with each run. By the end of the day I was very happy with the feel of the car in terms of balance.

"Of course, the ambient conditions are expected to change overnight and we need to see how that impacts us tomorrow, but based on today's performance I think we can target Q3 if everything comes together."

Di Resta's team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was equally happy with his Friday running, having been sixth and eighth in the two practice sessions.

"I enjoyed both sessions and ended the day with a very positive feeling," said the German.

"The balance of the car is where we want it to be and the changes we made to during the lunch break seemed to take us in the right direction. There is still a lot of homework to do this evening and room to improve things further, but it's been a good start to the weekend."

Kamui Kobayashi says the banning of blown diffusers has been a key to Sauber's relative competitiveness is 2012.

Thanks to a double points finish in Australia and Sergio Perez's second place finish in Malaysia, Sauber is currently sitting on 41 points as a constructor, just three shy of its total from the 2011 season.

According to Kobayashi, the difference between this season and last is technical stability, with the smaller teams not having to invest in expensive development programs such as blown diffusers.

"When I look at last year, we didn't do anything stupid [in our development], but we didn't have so much budget," he said.

"It was difficult to develop an exhaust system, and this was a big problem. In that moment they said it would be banned, so that's why we didn't develop it. We thought we would struggle for two or three races, but then everyone would have the same. At the end, this was the problem. So we didn't do anything stupid, but we didn't see a result.

"This year, a big update like we had at Barcelona, I think we can see the result. I think our team is definitely doing a great job. It's a small team, with a small budget, and you can see clearly the step forward.

"If we make one mistake in development, for us it's a big pain. If everything is fine, and we can see it's a good result, we can always make a good step forward and keep up with the development speed. If we make a mistake, or take too long to make a decision, it's a problem."

Kobayashi added that he was impressed with the consistency of the 2012-spec Sauber, and that he was just one "really good" weekend away from a big result.

"I think the car is good. You could say that Bahrain was a little bit tough for us, but I think the car is good. Bahrain was a little bit weak for us, but at the rest of the tracks we've been very consistent.

"We just need a really good weekend without any problems. This will give a result."

Jean-Eric Vergne says he is banking on an overnight improvement from Scuderia Toro Rosso if it is to be competitive for the remainder of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

The Frenchman finished the first two practice sessions in 16th and 19th positions respectively, and while he was happy to get through his entire programme, Vergne admitted that the outright pace just was not there.

"The day went smoothly, because even if there were a couple of red flags and a few drops of rain, we managed to get through all our programme, completing a good number of laps," he said.

"However, at the moment, we are a bit too slow and must work hard overnight to find some speed from the data. On the long runs with more fuel, we were looking better than the short ones."

Although slower than Vergne in both sessions, Daniel Ricciardo was more upbeat about Toro Rosso's early progress.

"We ran the usual Friday programme, with the exception that we had some new parts to try, including wings aimed specifically at this track which needs the lowest levels of downforce so far this season," the Australian said.

"Apart from that, we also evaluated some updates concerning the exhausts.

"The car ran trouble-free so I was able to complete a lot of laps. We can improve the balance, but we have started on the right foot, because even on a dirty track this morning the car felt quite good and the balance in terms of braking was fine.

"I expect tomorrow's performance will be more representative of our real pace. Hopefully, we can qualify well and have a good weekend."

Caterham does not think Heikki Kovalainen's heavy crash in Friday practice in Montreal will disrupt its Canadian Grand Prix preparations, and is optimistic it can chase the midfield pack again in the race.

Kovalainen slammed into the wall on the exit of Turn 9 just over halfway into free practice one, and missed the first half hour of practice two as a result.

But Caterham's technical director Mark Smith said the team still managed to achieve everything it had wanted to.

"Heikki's accident this morning obviously meant we had to change his runplan for the day but excellent work by the team gave him enough laps on both tyre compounds in FP2 to make sure we minimised the loss of track time today," said Smith. "His times this afternoon were good but there is definitely some more to come."

Kovalainen expressed his gratitude to the team for getting him back out in good time.

"First I want to say thank you to the team for doing a great job and getting the car fixed and ready for most of FP2," he said. "I made a mistake on the exit of Turn 9 and hit the wall, obviously doing some pretty substantial damage to the car but, thankfully, not to the chassis.

"As soon as we got it back to the garage the guys started work on rebuilding it so to get that job done and giving me FP2 track time was a very good achievement."

The Finn ended up 16th quickest in the session, as both the Finn led both Toro Rossos and Bruno Senna's Williams in the final order, and was upbeat about Caterham's pace.

"Before the FP1 off the car had felt good pretty much from the first lap," said Kovalainen. "In FP2 I had the same sort of positive feel from the balance and I think we look OK here - not quite as close as we were in Monaco but certainly close enough to have a good race on Sunday."

Friday's press conference:

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - Andrew GREEN (Force India), Antonio CUQUERELLA (HRT), Graeme LOWDON (Marussia), Jonathan NEALE (McLaren), Mark GILLAN (Williams).

Q. Antonio, today there was an incident in the pitlane with one of your mechanics and Pedro De la Rosa. Just to clear up any misconceptions or any misunderstandings, can you tell us how your mechanic is?

Antonio CUQUERELLA: The mechanic I think, happily, is OK. He just got some bruises and a swollen knee. So, it looked worse when it happened but luckily he's going to be back with us tonight from hospital. Some checks have been done but nothing important. He's going to have some pain but in a few days he's going to be back to work.

Q. No broken bones?

AC: No, no.

Q. Andrew, your drivers are expecting updates, at least Paul Di Resta told us so yesterday. What's the situation? Are you going to be able to deliver those updates?

Andrew GREEN: We're going to follow the same plan as last year, which is we'll continually bring new part to the track every race, as a strategy that we've followed before, as most teams do. Yeah, we will deliver what we can, that's our target. There are updates here, there will be updates in Valencia, there will be a bigger one at Silverstone. That's the idea. We'll keep pushing. It's incredibly tight and fractions of a second can mean multiple places on the grid. It's harder than ever. There's a big push back at the factory – more than ever.

Q. Both drivers very well placed in Monaco, and today as well. How well are those two working together and how good is it to have two competitive drivers, perhaps pushing one another as well?

AG: Very important. It's also important that they're both team players. They know that they want to push the team forward, they're not just individuals, and they work as a team. We all work as a team pushing the team forward and they get pulled along with that. They both work together very well. It's good that they both push each other. They're both very talented, extremely talented. We're very very happy with the way they work. It's a nice place to be.

Q. Antonio, you've been in our new premises now for over a month. Are you beginning to see the benefits of that?

AC: Absolutely. Now we are all together under the same roof and that has been a massive step forward for us. The factory is a much better place. It's a place we can work together and communication-wise it's of course much better. Assembling the cars, engineering, marketing, finance, all departments are together. It's normal for everybody but it wasn't for us, so it's a big step forward.

Q. I guess it's not working at 100 per cent of what you hoped, so what sort of percentage is it?

AC: Well, we still have two big departments that are recruiting people, you probably have seen a lot of advertisements, but I would say we are probably at 60 per cent. I hope that at the end of the year we should be at 90%.

Q. Graeme, same thing with you really. You've moved into new premises. How much of a difference has that made?

Graeme LOWDON: It has made quite a big difference. Three years in Formula One and we're on to our second factory already. I think the main thing, that has already been said, is that it improves communication and that's been a big help. So, we're quite happy with the location we're in now.

Q. I believe you're going to the Fan Forum in New York on Monday. What are the thoughts behind that?

GL: I think all the teams are pretty much the same. Effectively, we're racing teams but we're manufacturing businesses working in a global market and you can't ignore North America. No company with global aspirations if you like can ignore such a big market. Formula One has been out of North America for a few years now and I think it is a very important marketplace. One thing we do know is that there is a huge response from the fans. They want to get close to the teams, they want to understand what's happening and it's a really good thing that we can take our drivers, talk to the fans, interact with them and really understand what it is that they enjoy about Formula One and try to give a little bit back. And, as I say, it's such an important marketplace with its heritage and its history, and you look at the car manufacturing base in North America as well, I think we have to make a really big effort and try to put on a great show for all the fans.

Q. Jonathan, today we saw Jenson in the pits for rather a long time. What actually happened there?

Jonathan NEALE: We had a mixed day today. Jenson this morning in P1 had an oil leak, which was leaking onto the clutch, and we thought we'd fixed it. The oil leak was in the gearbox. The mechanics did a great job in rebuilding, repairing the seal but as soon as we fired the car up we could see there was a secondary problem that hadn't revealed itself before that time. And unfortunately we had to change the gearbox and the whole rear end of Jenson's car. So, disappointing that we didn't get the mileage in that we were looking for. But I have to say, hats off to the mechanics, anybody who was pointing a camera in the garage... and on Lewis's side as well, the moment that Lewis's car left the garage, all of the mechanics came across to help Jenson get running and that was terrific. But on the other hand a great day for Lewis. We know that the pace is in the car here, it looks strong today – today is today, and listening to what's going on around us, who knows what tomorrow brings? But yeah, I think we're here to race hard this weekend, and getting Jenson out was really important. You could see him setting green sector after green sector. This is a circuit where you have to build: build confidence and feel that the car is underneath you. We saw a few people visit the wall this afternoon, and to be quick around here you've got to get close.

Q. How much of a worry are two little deficiencies within the drivers: we're used to seeing Lewis winning, for example, but he hasn't yet won this year, and Jenson seems to have just had a few races of… I don't know if you call it bad luck or what it is. How much can you build those performances back up?

JN: I think we can build them up well, actually. You're right, we've had a couple of ups and downs in the last few races, some operational issues which hopefully we've put behind us now. We've got two strong drivers. Lewis put the car on pole by over half a second in Spain – which is a pretty demanding circuit as colleagues here will attest – so we know that the package is good but it's very tight this year. Six races, six different winners, five different constructors at this time. As I said during the week, great if you're a fan of Formula One, stressful if you're trying to be consistent. But consistency is what it's about.

Q. Mark, looking back at Monaco, particularly after the victory in Spain, where do you think you could – or should – have been in Monaco? Could you have been better off in Monaco?

Mark GILLAN: Yes, obviously after the Barcelona win we were very much on a high. Going into Monaco we had high expectations and I think the car certainly was… we should have been good enough for P4-P5. Obviously it was disappointing: there were a range of issues that hit us through the weekend and I think that as a team collectively we could have done a better job. We look to make amends this weekend.

Q. What sort of effect has Renault's return had on the team?

MG: It's had a massive impact. They're very impressive as an engine manufacturer and they've slotted in seamlessly with the team. A very very good relationship has built up very quickly and things are going very well with them.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Sebastien Templier – La Presse) Mark Gillan, you tested a new rear wing today, I guess. So what difference did it make? Did it improve the car today?

MG: We have a new rear wing here this weekend for Montreal. It was tested with Pastor this morning and run by both drivers this afternoon and it's working well.

Q. (Ben Edwards – BBC Sport) For all teams, just about the tyres… we've all been talking about the tyres so much this year already, but how much data have you now been able to gather from the first six races and now, with that data, can you really now begin to get an idea of what to do with these tyres in lots of different conditions? Presumably there are some pretty serious computers trying to work on this at the same time as people intuitively are trying to get the settings right.

JN: Have we got enough data? Yes, as you can imagine we have a huge amount of data as everybody else has. In terms of making sense of it, it's not a trivial question. The interaction between track temperature, the vehicle dynamics of the car, the driving style, the ability of cars… we've seen at different circuits different people have been able to switch the tyres on very quickly and others taking much longer to warm up. We're all chasing the same thing, which is the first team to become consistent and get them in the sweet spot. I think we've seen it on a couple of occasions ourselves where we've had – particularly with Jenson – a car in the right place on a Friday and then not on a Saturday, because that elusive thing has slipped away from us. So they're definitely more peaky than they have been. I wouldn't like to claim for a minute that we've cracked it. We're working harder, we think we understand more about it but it's hard work.

MG: I would agree with Jonathan. It is a very difficult problem and it's interlinked with the whole car/vehicle dynamics, the aerodynamics of the package, the drivers' styles and the driver is obviously an incredibly important part of the tyre management. So tyre management this year is key, and it's not just about the long runs, it's also about qualifying position because it has become more difficult and managing the tyres through the weekend, so the link between the driver, the car and understanding of the tyres is really crucial this year, and a lot of effort from all the teams will be going into that.

AG: I agree with the front row. I would just add that just when you think you're beginning to understand them they go and do something differently.

AC: I think this is not just technical but it is good for the show that different teams can sometimes strike the maximum in some conditions and in other conditions, completely different, other teams can strike better. That, I think has been proved to be good for the show. Technically we all like to understand everything but the proof is that all the teams didn't manage to understand things at the same time.

GL: The tyres have really created a fascinating problem and that's what Formula One is all about. This is the ultimately team game. The drivers are the heroes but you can't run the team with just two drivers, it takes an awful lot of technical knowledge and as you said as well, intuition, as well as all of that data. You can be swamped with data and go down blind alleys and that kind of thing. I think what we're seeing now is all the teams are presented with exactly the same problem, and this is what this team sport is all about: who can solve it with the resources that they have and come out on top on Sunday, on race day.

Q. (Jeff Pappone – The Globe and Mail) To follow up on that, I'm just wondering if there's going to be a point in this season where you figure out the tyres and there's going to be a definite pecking order like there has been in previous seasons, or do you think this is going to continue all year?

JL: Well that's the plan. Of course, every one of us – Mark, Graeme, the guys here – we'd love to be the first to figure it out and get some kind of advantage. I don't think it is going to quite solve itself like that. It's still a meritocracy. All the wins so far have been well-earned. The guys at Williams did a fantastic job getting a win there and other teams as well, but I don't think it's just suddenly going to snap and come good, because it's not as if we're trying to solve something that's inherently an issue with the tyre, it's tyre/car/package/circuit/ambient temperature and driver, so it puts us in a different position. I think that's what makes it exciting so I think it will keep things lively all year. As much as I would love to get it sorted out tomorrow, I don't think we will.

MG: I would just say that it's an incredibly complex problem. The tyres are very non-linear and something that we're all chasing so you go from track to track, even with the same compounds and you have to be very careful not to assume anything and collect all the data, so the Friday running becomes a very important part of the data analysis.

AG: I think we're all trying to solve the same problem, but I think every team will probably end up with the same solution.

Q. (Ian Parkes – Association Press) Jonathan, you discussed Jenson's problems with the car in some detail earlier on. However, Gary Anderson who, I'm sure you know well, is the BBC's technical analyst, has had a right pop at the team saying that you're a World Championship-winning team with World Championship-winning drivers taking four hours to fix a gearbox issue; that's not just good enough, to use his words. What would you say back to him?

JN: Well, he's entitled to his opinion. I think it helps if you're standing a bit nearer the problem. He's right, though. In terms of these things we don't want to happen, they're not designed to happen, but Formula One cars are designed to be right on the edge. We're all pushing very hard which is why the grid is very close. From time to time there will be a technical problem. It certainly wasn't trivial, and having been back over it this afternoon, I don't think that we missed anything in our first diagnosis that would have led us to believe that we were going to have the problem that we did after lunch. He's entitled to his view.

[Lineker]

Sebastian Vettel edged out Fernando Alonso to set the fastest time in a very close final Canadian Grand Prix practice session in Montreal.

Just 0.006 seconds split Vettel's Red Bull and Alonso's Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton taking third for McLaren, and Mark Webber (Red Bull) and Pastor Maldonado (Williams) completing the top five.

The session had seen plenty of activity at the top of the timesheets even before the late switches to super soft tyres. Jenson Button's McLaren emerged ahead once the early runs had been completed, but he was soon usurped by Vettel, who set benchmarks of first 1m15.440s then 1m15.022s to sit in first place at the mid-way point.

Alonso beat him soon afterwards, clocking a 1m14.737s despite locking up into the final chicane, although the Ferrari's time in front was very short-lived as Hamilton went 0.025s quicker mere seconds later.

Continuing the close action, when Vettel reclaimed the top spot with 16 minutes to go, his 1m14.711s was just 0.001s faster than the McLaren.

As more and more drivers moved onto super softs, Alonso was the first to really exploit their potential with a 1m14.448s nine minutes from the chequered flag.

That held up until Vettel came through a scant 0.006s faster six minutes later. The German turned traffic into an advantage as he grabbed a tow from Michael Schumacher's Mercedes. Vettel then went quicker still in the first two sectors on his final lap before lost time in the final part of the lap, although his existing 1m14.442s was sufficient to secure first position.

Two drivers will go into qualifying with no Saturday running at all. Nico Rosberg's Mercedes cut out and parked on track on a very early installation lap, while Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne ended up parked in the Turn 2 tyres after making a mess of Turn 1 on his first flying lap.

There may be issues for Kimi Raikkonen as well, with the Lotus driver under investigation for making a last-minute swerve into the pitlane after a mistake at the final chicane.

Just 1.056s covered the top 16 cars, as the Montreal times remained typically close. Behind the leaders, Felipe Massa maintained his encouraging form for Ferrari in sixth, followed by Schumacher, Lotus duo Romain Grosjean and Raikkonen, and Force India's Nico Hulkenberg. Jenson Button was only 15th for McLaren and expressed concern about brake balance issues over the radio.

FP3


Pos  Driver                Team                  Time              Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m14.442            22

 2.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m14.448s  + 0.006  17

 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m14.712s  + 0.270  19

 4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m14.724s  + 0.282  21

 5.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m14.755s  + 0.313  22

 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m14.767s  + 0.325  21

 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m14.796s  + 0.354  19

 8.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m14.873s  + 0.431  20

 9.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m14.977s  + 0.535  21

10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m14.992s  + 0.550  22

11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m15.067s  + 0.625  19

12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m15.112s  + 0.670  21

13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m15.126s  + 0.684  24

14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m15.237s  + 0.795  22

15.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m15.327s  + 0.885  22

16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m15.498s  + 1.056  19

17.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m16.268s  + 1.826  24

18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m16.545s  + 2.103  20

19.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m17.705s  + 3.263  21

20.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m17.974s  + 3.532  23

21.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m18.189s  + 3.747  21

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m18.684s  + 4.242  23

23.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    no time             3 

24.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              no time             1 


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Sebastian Vettel grabbed his second pole position of the 2012 Formula 1 season with a comfortable 0.3-second margin in Canadian Grand Prix qualifying.



The Red Bull driver's cushion was surprisingly ample given that just 0.8s had covered 17 cars in Q1 and the whole Q2 field had been within a second.



Vettel started Q3 on provisional pole with a 1m13.905s and was not headed thereafter, as he improved to 1m13.784s on his second run to put himself further out of reach.



McLaren's Lewis Hamilton will join Vettel on the front row, having grabbed second from Fernando Alonso's Ferrari with his second Q3 attempt. Alonso looked like a pole threat until a disappointing final sector on his best lap left him to settle for third.



Mark Webber completes the top four in the second Red Bull, followed by Nico Rosberg in the leading Mercedes - four places ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher - and Felipe Massa's Ferrari in sixth.



Romain Grosjean reached Q3 for Lotus and claimed seventh but his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen did not make it into the pole shoot-out, only managing 12th in Q2.



Force India's Paul di Resta made his second Q3 appearance of the year and earned eighth on the grid.



Jenson Button avoided a third consecutive Q2 elimination, but only just. The McLaren driver sat 10th at the end of the second segment and looked in grave danger of being edged out by Pastor Maldonado, only for the Spanish GP winner to spin his Williams into the wall at the final chicane, leaving him 17th. Button will start 10th, having spoiled one set of super softs by locking up.



The second Williams of Bruno Senna was only one place ahead of Maldonado in 16th. Also out in Q2 were both Saubers - with Kamui Kobayashi just 0.008s shy of a Q3 spot in 11th and Sergio Perez back in 15th - the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo.



After his morning practice crash, Ricciardo's team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne's underwhelming Saturday continued as a mistake on his best lap saw the Frenchman exiting qualifying in Q1 for the fourth time in his first seven grands prix. Not only was he knocked out, but Vergne was outqualified by both Caterhams and will start 20th.



In another Q1 surprise, Pedro de la Rosa put his HRT 21st on the grid, beating both Marussias.



[code]Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m13.784s         

 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m14.087s + 0.303 

 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m14.151s + 0.367 

 4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m14.346s + 0.562 

 5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m14.411s + 0.627 

 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m14.465s + 0.681 

 7.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m14.645s + 0.861 

 8.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m14.705s + 0.921 

 9.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m14.812s + 1.028 

10.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m15.182s + 1.398 

Q2 cut-off time: 1m14.680s                                  Gap **

11.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m14.688s  + 0.501

12.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m14.734s  + 0.547

13.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m14.748s  + 0.561

14.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m15.078s  + 0.891

15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m15.156s  + 0.969

16.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m15.170s  + 0.983

17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m15.231s  + 1.044

Q1 cut-off time: 1m15.552s                                   Gap *

18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m16.263s  + 1.602

19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m16.482s  + 1.821

20.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m16.602s  + 1.941

21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m17.492s  + 2.831

22.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m17.901s  + 3.240

23.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m18.255s  + 3.594

24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m18.330s  + 3.669


107% time: 1m19.887s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2

Red Bull Racing has been forced to make modifications to the wheel hub of its car after suggestions it was gaining an aerodynamic advantage from its clever design.

Since the start of the season, the central area of the front wheel hubs on the RB8 has featured holes that channel hot air from the brake ducts to the outside of the wheel.

Following a close examination of the design by the FIA at the Canadian Grand Prix, however, AUTOSPORT understands that it was decided that the design was actually providing more than just a cooling effect and was helping the aerodynamic performance of the car.

Sources suggest that channelling air to the outside of the wheel, the design can energise the flow over the front wing.

Under article 3.15 of the Formula 1 Technical Regulations, teams are told that "any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance" must be "rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car" and must remain "immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car."

To ensure that the team did not gain any aerodynamic advantage from its concept - and therefore be in breach of the regulations - it has had to block the holes in the hub from the inside.

Red Bull Racing sources have played down the impact of the modifications and insist that it will not have any major impact on the performance of its car.

The wheel hub issue comes just two weeks after Red Bull was at the centre of another technical controversy in Monaco regarding holes in the floor of the car.

Following complaints from rival teams, the FIA issued a clarification that the Red Bull-type holes would not be allowed anymore.

Although the FIA has ruled that the wheel hub design has had to be changed, the car has passed scrutineering at every race so far this season.

Mark Webber reacted angrily to suggestions earlier this week that the hole issue on the floor meant the victories he and Sebastian Vettel had achieved were only done with an 'illegal' car.

"I'm happy to be called lots of things and I'm happy to have criticism about my driving and lots of stuff, but I will not take criticism in that respect," he said. "It completely pisses me off to be honest, because the car has passed every single technical regulation after the race."

Video here

Sebastian Vettel felt Red Bull Racing's Canadian Grand Prix pole position was a vindication for the team following the controversy over its car's floor design.

Red Bull was forced to change the design of its floor ahead of the Montreal weekend because of the controversial 'holes' in it, which the FIA ruled were illegal.

The changes did not seem to impact the performance much, however, as Vettel secured his second pole position of the season by over three tenths of a second.

"We changed the car, we had to close the hole/slot - it seemed to work pretty well without the hole," said Vettel after qualifying.

"It is not just a hole in the floor that makes all the difference. It's a shame it went one way or another, and a shame it was declared. We never feared for performance.

"We were not afraid it would have a big impact on performance. It was good today and even without the hole I enjoyed today."

Vettel said the team faced somewhat of a race against time to modify the car for the weekend, and he admitted he was surprised by the relatively big gap to the cars behind him today.

"There wasn't a lot of time to react, it depends on what kind of schedule to follow," he said. "We were focusing on ourselves and that was important.

"In qualifying we tried to get the maximum out of every run. We seemed to improve in every run, and moving away from guys behind was a bit of a surprise.

"On this track is usually quite difficult to make a big difference so I am very happy."

Mark Webber says he is struggling with the final chicane on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this weekend, after qualifying fourth for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Monaco Grand Prix winner was unable to fight with team-mate Sebastian Vettel in qualifying, as the reigning world champion beat fellow front-row starter Lewis Hamilton to pole position by a comfortable three tenths of a second.

But Webber could not reach the same highs on Saturday, and he highlighted the final chicane as the area where he is having the most trouble.

"I'm not happy in the last chicane," Webber told reporters in the Montreal paddock. "Normally I am [happy there], but I can't get into it and then I have poor change of direction.

"The last few years here it has been a bloody strong chicane for me, but this year, I don't know why [it's not]. I feel comfortable when I get into a rhythm, like on a long run, but to go out there and do one time, I'm not at the peak, which is frustrating.

"I just said to my guys that its funny how that you can do the business through Casino Square [in Monaco] and then you come to a little chicane like that and you don't feel super comfortable. But that's the way it is."

The Australian added that he had a poor Q3, and he praised the efforts of Vettel to get such a gap to the rest of the field.

"Q2 wasn't too bad, but that's not the grid," said Webber. "This was probably one of our weakest Q3s of the year.

"The first lap wasn't very good, and we probably should have made some different adjustments to the car. Then on the last run we had a small issue with a rear tyre blanket that didn't do it's job.

"That didn't help, but ultimately it wasn't going to get me pole position [if it was working]. Seb's lap was great."

McLaren remains convinced that its basic car package is strong enough to be battling right at the front of Formula 1, despite its failure to win a race since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The Woking-based outfit began the campaign in fine style - locking out the front row at the first two races and having Jenson Button triumph in Australia.

However, it has failed to maintain that form and neither Button nor team-mate Lewis Hamilton have managed to finish on the podium in the last three races.

Nevertheless, McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe thinks the team has nothing to worry about in terms of the package it has delivered – and that once it unlocks more consistent performance from the tyres that it should get back to winning ways.

"We have seen different people being strong," he said in Canada. "[Nico] Rosberg was incredibly strong in China. After that, you think: 'Hang on, they have unlocked something here! That looks scary. They are going to take the championship if we don't find out what that was'.

"Then you get to the next event and it is someone else. It is fascinating in one way. Traditionally you felt that if you got the front row in Melbourne that is a pretty good indicator that everybody else should be playing catch up and you are going to be scoring a lot of points before you get to Europe. So it has been frustrating that that hasn't happened.

"But we are still pretty upbeat because underneath it all the car is good. We saw Lewis' qualifying performance in Spain. If we ignore the point that we let him down ultimately operationally, he was setting purples on every single run.

"That is pretty much a benchmark circuit aerodynamically, so I do think the car is strong, if we can get consistent performance from it."

Lewis Hamilton admitted that the warmer temperatures of Saturday in Montreal hampered his McLaren team and that he was surprised to be as high as second on the Canadian Grand Prix grid.

The Briton had been quickest in both Friday practice sessions, but was beaten to pole by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

"It was definitely a bit harder for us today," Hamilton said. "We struggled working with the tyres, we were trying really hard to get the tyres to switch on, but fortunately we had a new set in Q3 and managed to get through.

"I'm happy with performance, and surprised to see us on the front row, but we will be trying as hard as we can tomorrow."

Hamilton said he was not sure how McLaren's tyre performance would stack up in race conditions.

"Fortunately I have got myself into a decent position," he said. "Long runs seemed to be OK but now it's hotter it will change things and it will be tough. We'll try to do the best job we can and maximise all we can do. I am looking forward to it."

Although he is within 13 points of championship leader Fernando Alonso in fourth in the standings, Hamilton has yet to win a race this year. He said he would be content to continue to gather points in the race if Red Bull and Ferrari proved quicker.

"Of course I want to win but these guys are phenomenally quick at the moment," he said. "Not sure if we have the pace but we will wait and see tomorrow."

Jenson Button reckons it was a mistake to run at all in Q3 of Canadian Grand Prix qualifying, as he will now have to start the Montreal race on slightly worn soft tyres.

The McLaren driver used all his super softs just to reach the top 10 session, and was the only man to run softs in Q3, leaving him 10th on the grid.

"We wanted to start the race on the prime tyre. To be fair, looking at it now, we shouldn't have actually bothered running it, because it was going to be tricky to beat anyone on it," said Button.

"We were going to be P10 on the option tyre and thought we'd give it a go on the prime and start the race on a prime, but maybe we shouldn't have put five laps on it."

Button was pessimistic about his chances of being able to use his alternate tyre choice to make progress on Sunday.

"I don't really think there are any risks with strategy. Especially here," he said. "It's going to be a one or a two-stop, and I think most people will be two stopping.

"Obviously I'll be starting on a different tyre to the front nine, but I'll be starting on the same tyre as everyone behind me. At least we're at the front of that pack, I suppose."

He also doubts that he will be able to do a great deal of overtaking.

"The scary bit is at the moment I don't feel that good under braking, so it's going to be difficult to make any manoeuvres tomorrow, I feel," Button conceded.

The Briton lost a large amount of Friday practice mileage to an oil leak and related gearbox issue, but said Saturday's result was more a continuation of his recent qualifying strife than a consequent of practice issues.

"I don't even know if it would have been any better if we'd had all of Friday, looking at the previous two [races]..." he said.

Button admitted that he feels no closer to solving the qualifying issues that have now slowed him on Saturday for three successive races.

"I haven't got a clue, and I'd like to know because it would make life a lot easier," Button replied when asked if he knew what was wrong with his qualifying form.

"You don't have three bad qualifying sessions and understand what's going wrong.

"The first three qualifying sessions of the year were good - I had two seconds and a fourth. Now suddenly I'm only just inside the top 10. Don't know... But hopefully we'll solve it soon."

Fernando Alonso is not ruling out a Ferrari victory in the Canadian Grand Prix after qualifying in third position on Saturday.

The Ferrari driver finished 0.367 seconds off pole position man Sebastian Vettel to equal his best qualifying result of the season.

Although Alonso conceded he would have to do a better job than Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to win on Sunday, he reckons anything could happen.

"You never know," said Alonso. "Races this year, they are difficult to predict. What we think on Saturday afternoon normally is not what happens on Sunday. We will see.

"It would be nice to win here, but we know at the moment there are two guys quicker than us. They proved it today and tomorrow we need to do better if we want to win."

The Spaniard, whose team has been making steady progress towards the front after a slow start to the season, said he had been delighted with how the weekend had gone, including the performance of the new parts introduced for the event.

"I am happy with the performance of the car," he said. "It has been a very smooth weekend for us. The new parts worked as expected, Felipe [Massa] and me felt straightaway a good grip and a step in performance for the car.

"We repeat what we did in Barcelona and there we got an important podium and in Monaco we got a competitive car again and a good podium. Here, with long straights and chicanes we are also competitive."

Team-mate Massa also secured a season-best grid position with sixth.

Felipe Massa says his Ferrari team will have to get everything right in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix in order to make progress from sixth on the grid.

But the Brazilian, who secured his best qualifying showing of the year so far, is optimistic he can fight for higher positions after having proved competitive over long runs on Friday.

He admitted, however, that the higher track temperatures expected for Sunday are a concern.

"The race tomorrow will not be easy, it will be very competitive, so we need to get everything right," said Massa.

"We did a very good long run yesterday, so I think that can be positive for tomorrow. The only thing is that the race maybe will be different compared to yesterday because yesterday was very cool.

"Tomorrow will be very hot, even hotter than today. We know how these tyres behave, how these tyres feel the temperature. And we need to be sure we have the right strategy."

Massa said he remains confident of having a strong race if Ferrari can get its tyre strategy perfect.

"I'm confident, definitely. We need to understand things to get the right strategy. It's not very easy, but I hope we can do everything perfect to fight even higher than where I'm starting."

Kimi Raikkonen blamed a problem with his Lotus's differential for his disappointing showing in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Finn failed to make it into Q3 for the second time this season, finishing in 12th position.

The Lotus driver said a problem that hit him pn Friday had reappeared during Saturday's session.

"We've got some issues with the diff. I think it's a hydraulic problem," said Raikkonen. "We had some problems yesterday and it seems to have come back so the diff doesn't work exactly like it should and, when it's tight like this, when the car is not handling exactly like you want, it's difficult. But, we tried."

Raikkonen is still hopeful he can have a good Sunday, the Finn confident he will be able to manage his tyres well during the race.

"We should be pretty OK with the tyres and hopefully we'll get the car working 100 per cent. At least yesterday in the long runs we had no issues so we'll see what happens."

Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean will start from seventh position.

Kamui Kobayashi believes Sauber lost pace as the temperature rose on Canadian Grand Prix qualifying day, having narrowly missed out on a top-10 place on the Montreal grid.

The Japanese driver had been in the top 10 in both Friday sessions, but could only manage 11th in qualifying, lapping just 0.008 seconds shy of a Q3 spot.

"I think on Friday in free practice, when it was cooler, we looked more competitive than today," said Kobayashi.

"The car's balance was good yesterday and we didn't change it. Also my fastest lap was fine, and there were no mistakes.

"I think this was pretty much what I could achieve today. Apparently the others improved in comparison to us."

Kobayashi's team-mate Sergio Perez was back in 15th, and blamed himself for flat-spotting his tyres.

"Having qualified only 15th is a big disappointment for me, as certainly a place in the top 10 would have been possible," said Perez. "Unfortunately on the first lap of my last run with new super soft tyres I flat-spotted them when braking into Turn 8.

"The car was then vibrating a lot, which meant I could hardly see the braking points.

"It is obviously a difficult position to start from, but it is still my target to score points tomorrow."

Jean-Eric Vergne was left lamenting his crash during final practice after failing to make it into Q2 in qualifying in Canada.

The Toro Rosso driver failed to complete a flying lap in the morning session after sliding off track and damaging his car against the barriers.

With no Saturday running prior to qualifying, the Frenchman struggled for pace and was outqualified by the two Caterhams, finishing down in 20th position.

"My little mistake in FP3 cost me a lot," said Vergne. "I didn't get any running this morning and then this afternoon, I never really got a clean lap, encountering a lot of traffic which is therefore very disappointing.

"On top of that, my car was quite different today to yesterday, so it was not the easiest thing to adapt to it in just a couple of laps in Q1.

"Even if the traffic would not have made a huge difference to my position on the grid, some cleaner laps would have allowed me to improve my performance and get a better feel for the car with this different set-up."

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was happier with his performance after qualifying in 14th place, a result the Australian considered to be decent given Toro Rosso's lack of pace in Montreal.

"This result is not too bad, considering the pace we showed so far this weekend," he said. "Fourteenth was probably about the best we could have done as there is a three tenths gap to 13th place. I managed to outqualify some of our usual competitors, but 14th is not going to set the world on fire and we always want to do better.

"However, we can be satisfied with the way we improved the car over the two days, taking a step forward and hopefully we can make further progress tomorrow."

Pedro de la Rosa was delighted with his performance in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix after one of his strongest showings of the 2012 Formula 1 season.

De la Rosa outqualified both Marussias for the first time this year, putting his HRT in 21st position. The Spanish driver finished nearly half a second ahead of Timo Glock. De la Rosa was also eight tenths of a second faster than his team-mate Narain Karthikeyan.

The Spaniard believes HRT's top speed will allow him to fight properly in Sunday's race.

"I'm very happy, for myself and the entire team," he said. "In Monaco we completed a good qualifying and here it was even better. The objective was to achieve our fastest lap and we did it. A 1m17.4s is good, but we could have done better on the last set of tyres but I wasn't able to improve on my previous lap.

"We've been quick the whole weekend, it wasn't a coincidence and we should do well tomorrow. With the soft tyres we're very consistent and, what's most important is that we're very quick on straights so we have a chance to overtake others and it will be difficult to overtake us.

"Ahead of tomorrow's race I think we can fight with anyone because our car has good speed and is stable when braking, so we aim to make the most out of this."

Karthikeyan admitted he needs to raise his game in qualifying after finishing at the bottom of the times again.

"It was a messy qualifying for me," he said. "On the first set of tyres I encountered a lot of traffic and on my quickest lap I got all the sectors right and I made a mistake coming into the last corner which cost me six tenths.

"My qualifying has been weak this year and I need to improve this. But we have a good pace and tomorrow we will fight with our main rivals to try and get a good result."

Formula 1's young driver test plans for this season have been thrown into doubt, with it now uncertain if Silverstone's post-British Grand Prix run can go ahead.

Sources have revealed to AUTOSPORT that Silverstone has informed the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) that it may not be able to fulfil plans for a number of teams to run young drivers on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after the Silverstone event.

It is believed that, under the terms of its British GP contract with Formula One Management, the circuit will not be available for all the days that the teams want to run.

FOTA is still working on trying to resolve the matter, and there is still some hope that the Silverstone deal can be rescued.

However, if no agreement can be reached with Silverstone then that could also force the cancellation of the second young driver test that was due to take place after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Teams were divided in opinion about where to test - with Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Toro Rosso and McLaren preferring to run in Abu Dhabi rather than at Silverstone.

To overcome the disagreement about where to run, a unique dual test plan was agreed for teams to choose where they preferred to test, but this may need to be scrapped totally if one of the tests does not happen.

One option, if a number of outfits remain reluctant to test in Abu Dhabi, would be to try and shift the young driver test to after the season - perhaps taking place at Jerez.

Post-qualifying press conference:

TV UNILATERAL

Q. Sebastian, we've seen pole decided all year being decided by mere hundredths of a second, but today it was almost a quarter of a second. What made the difference?

Sebastian VETTEL: Well, it's difficult to say. I think we've had a fantastic weekend so far to be honest. Yesterday was very smooth, we didn't have any problems with the car. I think we have learned a couple of lessons, especially in the last two races where arguably we were quick on Sunday in the race but we didn't get [the best] out of the car on Saturday in qualifying. So, we learned quite a bit and, as I said, it was important to have a clean run, yesterday was a good day and this morning. We trusted the car that we had, we were able to go with the circuit and tried to read the conditions, so I was very happy in qualifying - throughout qualifying really, Q1, Q2 and Q3 – so yeah I was able to always get a little bit quicker. It looked very tight in the beginning to be honest. I knew it would be within a tenth, but in the end it seemed that we could make a bit more of a difference, which obviously is good. But still the advantage we have over Lewis is eight metres on the grid. Looking forward to the race, I think we have a great car. This time we got it right in qualifying and I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow. It should be an interesting one I guess.

Q. Lewis, moving to you, so fast all day yesterday, how much has the change in climactic conditions affected car balance for you today?

Lewis HAMILTON: It was definitely a bit harder for us today. We definitely struggled with working with the tyres in FP3 and in qualifying, having to push extremely hard to try to get the temperature, to get the tyres to switch on, but very, very fortunately we had still a new set in Q3 and just managed to get through. I'm very, very happy with the performance. I'm very surprised to see us on the front row but nonetheless we'll definitely take it and work as hard as we can tomorrow.

Q. Fernando, some big upgrades this weekend, paying dividends almost immediately.

Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, the car felt quite good yesterday when we tested some new parts and we feel much more happy with the balance of the car and the grip of the car, Felipe and me, straight away. It's a first step. Obviously, the world will never stop, for us or for the competitors, but at the moment we are extremely happy and thankful to the guys in the factory.

Q. Sebastian, in recent weeks they've banned your floor, they banned your wheels this weekend and you guys are still on top, in pole position. How do you keep doing it?

SV: I think it's not just a hole in the floor that makes all the difference. Obviously reading the papers you get that impression. It was a bit of a shame that it went one way and then the other, being declared illegal, then legal and then illegal, but in the end we never feared a big impact on the performance of the car. I think generally, the car works as a whole – not the hole in the floor but a combination of all the parts together! We were not afraid that it would have a big impact on performance. This track is very special. As Lewis said it's very tricky to switch the tyres on, there arte not so many corners, as in there are no long duration tyres so it's difficult to work the tyres properly. But as I said, I think for us it was crucial that we learned from the experience especially of the last two grands prix. It was good fun today and even without the hole I enjoyed qualifying a lot.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Sebastian after the win in Monaco for the team was there a certain amount of confidence coming here. Was this, if nor expected, did you feel you'd taken a step forward?

SV: Well, we changed the car. We had to close the hole or slot or whatever you call it. It seemed to work pretty well without the hole. No, I think there wasn't a lot of time to react. It depends on what kind of schedule you follow. We've seen some teams bringing a big step here, Ferrari did. For us it was nothing big. We are always pushing very hard to improve the car but I think, as I mentioned in the [unilateral] press conference earlier, it was important that we really had a clean preparation, a clean Friday. We were focusing on ourselves, so that was important. Then in qualifying, we just tried to get the maximum out of every run, and we seemed to improve on every run and even we seemed to chip away a little bit from the guys behind, which was a bit of a surprise because I thought going into qualifying that it would be extremely tight. On this track it's very difficult to make a difference, so I'm very happy.

Q. The first nine on the grid are going to be on the supersoft tyres tomorrow. One guy, last year's winner, will be on the soft tyres. How crucial is that going to be, on the supersoft?

SV: I think we've seen in Monaco that the tyre works pretty well. I think we've seen that yesterday. I don't know where Jenson is... tenth, so it depends. It can work, but it depends also on how the race unfolds, where the other guys are, what other guys do with their strategy and when they pit etc. We started in a very good position here two years ago on the harder compound and it didn't work. It can work both ways. In qualifying what you try to do is get on pole, which we did today, so I'm very happy with that. Looking forward to the race tomorrow, it's going to be interesting. Making the tyres last around here is going to be tricky. We've seen it, not so much last year because it was, but especially the year before, so it should be a good race and I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Is there a little bit of unfinished business about getting on pole tomorrow?

SV: Not really. Obviously you're talking about last year's race and last year's last lap of the race. Obviously in that moment it hurt a little bit because the victory was so close, but in the end it was a tough race, easy to do mistakes. We didn't except for me in the last half a lap, which cost us the victory. But it's 2012 now and I think we had a quite decent 2011, so it's not too bad. Of course, it would be nice. It's a nice track, a nice atmosphere, always a lot of people here. It would be a great place to win for sure.

Q. Lewis, you have an extraordinary record at this circuit and again on the front row. Interesting that there are two different tyre choices, two different strategies at McLaren. We saw you go out on the supersoft as well in Q1 which is rare as well. Is there a big question mark over the tyre wear for you tomorrow?

LH: No, we don't have a different strategy, we were struggling throughout qualifying. Yesterday we had very good pace in the cooler conditions but as it got hotter today we really, really struggled. So, I for one didn't expect to be so far up. For Jenson, he just didn't have more tyres in Q3. I was fortunate enough just to make sure I got a good lap in Q2, which meant I still had one set [of supersofts] left. Otherwise, I probably would be a little bit further back as well.

Q. So how do you approach tomorrow if you feel you have been struggling today?

LH: I don't know. I've fortunately got myself into a reasonably decent position and I think yesterday when we did the long runs they seemed to be OK, but now that it has got hotter it's going to change things and it's going to be tough. But we just have to do the best job we can and try to maximise on everything we do. We can still have a really good race and get some really good points from where we are and I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Obviously you're one of the very few driver who hasn't yet won but are you just happy to stack up the points?

LH: I am for now, yeah. Of course I want to win, but these guys are phenomenally quick at the moment and I'm not sure whether we have exact pace but we'll wait and see tomorrow.

Q. Fernando, your equal best qualifying position so far this year, with Spain, and a lot of new parts on the car. Looking so good but you didn't improve on the final run, what happened on that final run?

FA: Nothing special. It's not easy here to improve laps. There are only five or six corners on the circuits so you are gaining or losing milliseconds corner by corner. We repeat more or less the same timed lap, in the second I gained a little bit from the first sector and I lost a little bit in the last. But overall the limit was more or less there – the 14.1. So, happy with the performance of the car, it has been a very smooth weekend for us. All the new parts work as expected. Felipe and me felt straightaway a good grid and a step in performance in the car, so a very good weekend so far. As you said, best position so far. We repeat what we did in Barcelona. In Barcelona we got one important podium. In Monaco on a completely different circuit we had a competitive car again and a good podium once more. And here on completely different circuit, with long straights and chicanes, we are also competitive, so this is a very good sign for us. Very good teamwork, because all the improvements we have been making on the car are really paying off now.

Q. So, potential winners tomorrow?

FA: You never know. Races this year are very difficult to predict. What we think on Saturday is normally not anywhere near what happens on Sunday. So we'll see. A similar comment to Lewis: it would be nice to win here, it's a good circuit for Ferrari historically, a lot of fans here. Also, it's Gilles Villeneuve's anniversary, 30 years. So, it would be nice to offer all the Ferrari tifosi here in Canada a good result. But we know there are, at the moment, two guys quicker than us, as they proved today, doing a very good job and tomorrow we need to do better if we want to win.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, you said that now you are understanding the car better, you are putting everything together and you are surprised by the advantage. Does that mean that now you're feeling more confident, that you're reaching the level that you were at last year or is it still unpredictable?

SV: It's not as if we have major changes and it's not as if we've had a completely different approach. I think we're able to learn from the mistakes we made in the past, we did it in the last two races, where qualifying was arguably not fantastic for us and I think - just looking at the whole grid - I think this year is very different. It seems that a little bit of a mistake here or there, maybe not getting the tyres to work 100 percent, you are quite far away. That's because 1), it makes a big difference to yourself, so you lose a lot of time and 2), there's not one car that might fill the gap, there are ten, so then you end up… instead of third you are not fourth but 13th, and then the race weekend is completely different. I think that's the reason for that.

Q. (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, how happy are you with Felipe Massa's sixth place? And secondly, you three guys are in the top three, does that mean that the championship is becoming a little bit more normal?

FA: For Felipe, of course, I'm very happy. I think he has all the support from the team, all the support from me, he's had some difficult races at the beginning of the year, the car was not the easiest car to drive and he hasn't been so lucky in some of the races at the beginning of the season, as I said, so now, from Barcelona, he's done quite a good job. In Monaco he was very quick all weekend and here as well so I expect this is the normality and it will be like this from now until the rest of the championship. The first four races were a strange case, not normal races. We will see. As we said on Thursday, the championship looks a little bit crazy, a little bit unpredictable, some different winners and some different car performances every Grand Prix, but when you look at the championship table, it's Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus. One thing is one single race, and then overall for the six races that we've done, the order is more or less not very different compared with what we saw in the last two or three years.

Q. (Jeff Pappone – The Globe and Mail) Lewis mentioned earlier that as it's getting warmer, he's having a little bit more trouble and struggling. It's going to be warmer tomorrow and obviously you're learning a lot from Friday and today, but how much of that gets thrown out of the window for raceday and how much do you have to readjust your strategy and what you're doing in the car in order to remain quick?

SV: As I said, it will be difficult for the tyres to survive a certain amount of laps, but I think from yesterday to today, for us it was a bit easier, a step forward. Tomorrow is going to be a little bit hotter… it seems so far this year, for us at least, the cooler it is, the more we were in trouble; the warmer it is, the better it is. I hope if it's warmer tomorrow, we can keep continuing that trend. We have seen that on Sundays a lot of things can happen so we have to be aware of whatever comes up and that explains the strategy and so on. Of course, if you have a plan in your head… but as we've seen many times this year, it can change quickly, so you have to react on the fly.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, you are starting on pole position, you said that the gap has surprised you a little and yesterday you did 18 laps as far as I remember on the supersoft tyres on 'green' asphalt. It seems to be a very good package to start on pole position, a fast car, and even knowing that you have a very good car for the supersoft tyres.

SV: We will see. Obviously it will be very important to have a good start. I think life is always a little bit easier when you are at the front so it will be crucial to defend that position and then we will see what happens. As I said, it's a long race, the track will be more or less green when we start. It has always been difficult here at the beginning of the race. This place is a crazy place, it has delivered some crazy races in the past and safety cars are likely etc, so you have to be aware of all that and take it into account for your strategy. Sometimes it can help you, sometimes it may work against you. You don't know these things. As I said, we have to look after ourselves and try to do the best we can, have clean pit stops and have the fastest race that we can.

Q. (Randy Phillips – Montreal Gazette) Lewis, I believe that when you won here in 2010 you were on a two stop strategy. Given the conditions and the tyres and all the other factors, do you see tomorrow's race being a multiple stop – three or four stops – during the course of the race?

LH: I think it's definitely possible we will have slightly more stops than we did in the last race so maybe a two or three stop, but we did see long runs yesterday that could lead into a one stop but here the likelihood of a safety car is usually quite high so with that in mind, people might prefer to do a one or two stopper, who knows? But it is dependent on the temperatures and how long the tyres will last. Yesterday they lasted quite long but today may be different and tomorrow may be different. I hope we don't have any problems with it, but we will wait and see tomorrow.

Q. (Mineoki Yoneya – La Vie Creative) Question for all three: can I ask about your helmet? How did you decide on the colour scheme of your helmet and what does it mean to you?

SV: I've changed the design many times. It might take too long… there's a football match starting in 15 minutes, German is playing, so if I answer that question now full length we will still be sitting here tonight. I've had so many helmets so far. I like to swap the design. The one I have currently I like, that's why I wear it.

LH: I think that's the best and shortest answer I've ever heard him give! I'm going to say the same. I've commented loads of times on my helmet and try to keep it the same. It's who I am, that's how I use it.

FA: As Seb, I think, wants to go, I will give you a very long answer now, starting from gokart helmet… no, I'm… I change my helmet every year, little differences but always remaining with the blue from my region's flag, Asturias, and then the Spanish flag always somewhere on the helmet and then all the rest of the details, because he's on pole, we will save.

Q. (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Sebastian, you have shown us, very effectively, that whatever the FIA might say about the technical regulations concerning your car, it doesn't affect you performance-wise. But psychologically, does it motivate you to prove that you can do it whatever the FIA says, or do you find it frustrating?

SV: First of all, you have to understand that we have the hole because we were believing in a combination with all the other parts we have on the car and how the car looks it makes sense. Now it was declared illegal, then it was declared legal and now declared illegal again, so maybe next week it's legal again. We have the parts in the garage! There's no real extra motivation. I think we still have to make sure we get the best out of the car that we can. We see that this year is very tight so it's up to us to make sure we use our package as well as we can and sometimes it might be good enough for the front row like here, sometimes maybe not good enough, but then we still have to make sure that we are very close.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, I would just like to know if some jokes have already start between you and the mechanics in the team about tomorrow's match?

FA: No, not yet but if Spain wins, I think there may not be many people at the pit stop!

[MJB]

LEWIS

Great race and fantastic to see Perez and Grosjean on the podium aswell.

[Katsuya]

SERGIO

[Lineker]

Lewis had an annoyingly stonking drive. Good race.

Lewis Hamilton finally took his first victory of the 2012 Formula 1 season as the McLaren driver charged back to pass the one-stopping Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and win the Canadian Grand Prix for the third time in his career.

The result also makes Hamilton the seventh different race winner in as many GPs this year, extending the record.

Lotus's Romain Grosjean and Sauber's Sergio Perez took the second podium finishes of their careers as they demoted the fading Alonso, who eventually dropped to fifth.

Poleman Sebastian Vettel only finished fourth, but had led Hamilton and Alonso in the opening stint. The Red Bull driver was the first of the trio to stop for tyres, and found himself jumped by both his rivals as they came in shortly afterwards. Alonso came off best of all as he vaulted both the Red Bull and the McLaren, but Hamilton was able to re-pass the Ferrari in the DRS zone on Alonso's out-lap.

The McLaren then edged slightly away before coming in for a second tyre stop on lap 49. Alonso and Vettel decided to try and make it to the end on their existing rubber, but Hamilton had the pace to hunt down and pass both of them, going to win and claim the points lead in the process.

Vettel then gave up his one-stop attempt and made a very late tyre stop, while Alonso clung on and hoped to still make it to the end in second, only for his pace to get ever worse. Grosjean - who had pitted only two laps later than the Ferrari - was soon past Alonso into second, with Perez (who left his sole stop until lap 41) and the recovering Vettel also easily dismissing the Spaniard.

Two-stoppers Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Mark Webber (Red Bull) were sixth and seventh, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus and Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber.

Felipe Massa spun from fifth to 12th in his Ferrari early on, and had to settle for 10th after stopping twice for tyres.

Force India's Paul di Resta had a spell as high as sixth in the early running, only to lose ground with a relatively early first of two pitstops, leaving him 11th.

It was another disastrous race for both Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher. The second McLaren had to make three tyre stops and finished a lapped 16th, while the rear wing flap on Schumacher's Mercedes jammed open, ending his race.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS


The Canadian Grand Prix

Montreal, Canada;

70 laps; 305.270km;

Weather: Sunny.


Classified:


Pos  Driver        Team                       Time

 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h32:29.586

 2.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +     2.513

 3.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +     5.260

 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     7.295

 5.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    13.411

 6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    13.842

 7.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    15.085

 8.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +    15.567

 9.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +    24.432

10.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    25.272

11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +    37.693

12.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    46.236

13.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +    47.052

14.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:04.475

15.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap

16.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     1 lap

17.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +     1 lap

18.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap

19.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap

20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 laps


Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:15.752


Not classified/retirements:


Driver        Team                         On lap

Glock         Marussia-Cosworth            57

Schumacher    Mercedes                     34

De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth                 25

Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth                 23



World Championship standings, round 7:                


Drivers:                    Constructors:             

 1.  Hamilton      88        1.  Red Bull-Renault          164

 2.  Alonso        86        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          133

 3.  Vettel        85        3.  Lotus-Renault             108

 4.  Webber        79        4.  Ferrari                    97

 5.  Rosberg       67        5.  Mercedes                   69

 6.  Raikkonen     55        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             58

 7.  Grosjean      53        7.  Williams-Renault           44

 8.  Button        45        8.  Force India-Mercedes       28

 9.  Perez         37        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6

10.  Maldonado     29       

11.  Kobayashi     21       

12.  Di Resta      21       

13.  Senna         15       

14.  Massa         11       

15.  Hulkenberg     7       

16.  Vergne         4       

17.  Schumacher     2       

18.  Ricciardo      2       


All timing unofficial[/code]


Lewis Hamilton admitted a one-stop strategy was not a viable option for him as he celebrated his first win of the season in the Canadian Grand Prix.


The McLaren driver had to charge back to first place after having made his second stop after rival Fernando Alonso decided to stop just once.


Hamilton erased a gap of over 14 seconds and passed the Ferrari with ease to become the seventh Formula 1 winner in 2012.


The Briton praised his team for the strategy, and he conceded stopping just once would have been a mistake for him.


"I think the team did a great job with the pitstops and the strategy," said Hamilton. "I was very, very surprised that I was able to look after the tyres and push at the times I needed to push. I was surprised in the first stint. I knew Fernando was the one to beat. He has generally great pace on long runs.


"I was not able to do one stop, I think I would have fallen back, so I think a two-stop was just right."


He added: "Of course we were aware of that. We went into the race knowing we would be doing two stops and when the guys were behind me I had a feeling that Fernando would be doing one stop. I knew I had to make a gap while looking after the tyres, even though Fernando was picking his pace up. It was one of the best stints I had."


The McLaren driver, who had failed to win a race until today despite having started from pole position twice this year, was elated after securing his second victory where he achieved his first grand prix triumph in 2007.


"What a feeling," said Hamilton. "This is where I won my first grand prix. I knew it would be tough, I loved ever single minute and I am really grateful.


"It was one of the most enjoyable races I have had until now and I was just thinking today to finish at the front as I did with my first win would be very, very special for me. I could not believe it when I crossed the line. The feeling inside was like an explosion, that is what I like about racing."


Despite stopping one more time than his main rivals Hamilton said he never doubted he could win the race.


"I never had a doubt in my mind that there was no possibility to win, but I was thinking that these guys were quite far behind so assumed they were doing one stop," he said.


The McLaren driver now leads the championship from Alonso by two points.


Romain Grosjean admitted after finishing second in the Canadian Grand Prix that he wasn't aware he was fighting for a podium position in the closing stages of the race.


The Frenchman, who took his second podium place of 2012 having finished just 2.5s behind winner Lewis Hamilton, used a one-stop strategy to move up from seventh on the grid.


But as he moved ahead of Mark Webber, he didn't realise he was so far up the race order.


In the end, his decision to one-stop paid off as Vettel pitted ahead of him and Fernando Alonso's tyres dropped away.


"We thought about going for one-stop [before the race] and decided to see what was going on later on. The question was whether to go with the option tyres from the beginning, especially since they had already done two runs in Q2 and Q3," he said.


"But then the car felt pretty good and when we put the prime tyre on, I didn't know what was going on in front of me. I had Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber in front, so I was fighting with them and was pushing quite hard, but I knew that I was trying to go for a one stop and finally when I saw Mark coming in my tyres were still quite fresh.


"I didn't realise I was third and then I saw Fernando [Alonso] was slowing down and I was second. So it was like a crazy end to the race, because I was thinking P4 or P5, but the pace stayed there.


"The team did a fantastic job to give me a car which was good on tyres, we knew with the heat we would be better today and thankfully the sun came and that was fantastic for us."


Grosjean added that he believed that his result was further evidence that Lotus is capable of fighting at the front regularly.


"It means we are in good shape for working with the team and improving every time," he said. "We had a bad Friday with different conditions from today.


"I was sure we could have achieved better, we are working quite well so I am pretty pleased with this podium and it means we are still here after seven races, it shows we are fighting at front and having good results."


Sergio Perez admitted that he had absolutely no expectation of finishing on the podium after only qualifying 15th for the Canadian Grand Prix.


The Sauber driver made excellent use of a one-stop strategy and strong late-race pace to come through to finish third, having stayed out until lap 41 on his first set of tyres.


The result was Perez's second podium finish of the season, and saw him overtake Fernando Alonso - the man who had narrowly denied him victory in Malaysia - for third place in the closing stages.


"To be honest, starting 15th the last thing you think about is to end up on the podium," he said. "We went quite aggressive, the first stint was quite good, the stop very goo, and the second stint very, very good.


"We managed some overtaking manoeuvres, and then I saw that the degradation was not so high for me, I could manage my pace well and then I managed to get some other drivers."


Perez had not been in the points since his Sepang podium, so was thrilled that Sauber had been able to rediscover its form after some low-key races and a frustrating Saturday.


"It's a great result for the team after such a bad day yesterday," he said. "We had a lot of troubles with the brakes, and today it's just great to finish on the podium, it's a great boost for the team.


"After Malaysia it is our second time we get into the points and our second podium - hopefully we can keep it this way.


"We were really unlucky what happened in Monaco, for example, and Barcelona as well. It's great to come back and get a podium for the whole team."


Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn has apologised to Michael Schumacher for the DRS problem that forced the German into retirement from the Canadian Grand Prix.


Schumacher, a seven-time winner in Montreal, was hoping for a strong result this weekend following a series of races where strong form has been dashed by disappointment.


The German, who had retired from the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago because of a problem with his car, failed to reach the end once again on Sunday when a loose hydraulic pipe caused his DRS to stick open.


Brawn was left feeling sorry for Schumacher, who has scored just two points in seven races.


"He suffered a hydraulic issue which left his DRS jammed open and it was not possible to fix it in race conditions," said Brawn after the race. "I can only apologise to Michael for a further technical failure."


Schumacher said there was no use in blaming anyone for the problems that have been affecting him this season.


"Of course it's disappointing for all of us but it's not a question of pointing fingers; stuff like this happens. I know the team are doing their best and that it probably hits them even harder than me. We'll be back on the attack in Valencia."


Team-mate Nico Rosberg finished in sixth position and has now 67 points.


Fernando Alonso has defended his Ferrari team's decision to not pit for a second time during the Canadian Grand Prix, despite dropping down to fifth

position.


The Spaniard was fighting with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton for victory when the Briton decided to pit again with 18 laps to go, dropping down the order.


Alonso, having stopped just once, stayed out in the lead, but his tyres began to degrade and his pace deteriorated considerably, costing him four places.


The Ferrari driver, however, says his team's decision to try and go for victory was the right one, and he said only the tyre degradation was to blame for missing out.


"I feel good. We tried to win the race," said Alonso, who lost the lead of the championship to Hamilton. "With 18 laps to go Hamilton stopped and we either stayed out and covered [sebastian] Vettel or we stopped with him and see what happened.


"If we had stopped with Hamilton we would have returned in fourth and then with [Romain] Grosjean's degradation we would have finished fourth in the race and it would have been a huge mistake to stop. But now it seems the mistake was ours and Vettel's, so somebody had to get it wrong when there's a stop with 18 laps to go.


"We made the decision to try to win the race and it didn't work out, not because of the strategy, but because of the tyre degradation. I want that to be very clear because there will be confusion tomorrow, from people who don't understand the race.


"We stopped on the same lap as Grosjean, as he finished second with the same laptimes as Hamilton. So it's not about stopping with Hamilton or deciding not to stop, or stopping once or twice. The problem is that Grosjean did 55 laps with the tyres with a good pace and we did 45. That's the only problem."


Alonso said that despite losing the chance to finish second, the weekend had only been full of positives for him and his team.


"It's all positive. The strategy we tried was positive, the result was positive and, again, the points scored are positive.


"No one is going to win the championship in the seventh race, there's a lot left. But race by race, if you don't score strong points you may start to lose it. So when it comes to points for the championship it's another very good weekend."


And the Ferrari driver claimed his team did not even expect to be fighting for victory this weekend given the nature of the Montreal circuit.


"We know Canada is a McLaren circuit. It has won a lot here and Hamilton has scored most pole positions. When we caught the plane to Canada I don't think anyone thought about winning the race, or maybe about finishing second. We are talking about having settled for third or fourth. We are talking about 12 or 15 points tops. We have 10. Perfect."


Felipe Massa thinks he has now turned the corner on his season, after another encouraging performance over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.


The Brazilian had struggled in the early stages of the campaign, and was under pressure to get things sorted amid speculation that Ferrari could elect to replace him.


But with set-up changes having helped him deliver his best weekend of the season so far in Monaco, Massa has been further encouraged that similar pace has been carried through to Montreal.


"I feel the car is much more comfortable to drive since Monaco," explained Massa. "In all the sessions I have been competitive, and in all the qualifyings as well.


"The car is easier to drive: it is more consistent, and more comfortable for my style as well. I really think that the direction will be from Monaco on, improving and fighting for much better positions like now compared to before."


Massa believes the transformation in his form has been the result of both general progress to the F2012 as well as specific revisions to the way his car was being set-up.


"We improved the car," he said. "The car is better, definitely. I changed many things on my set-up. I feel much more comfortable. It took a little bit of time, but we understood some directions that work better for me."


Jenson Button says he hasn't got a clue how to rectify the grip problems he currently faces with his McLaren after finishing the Canadian Grand Prix a lap down in 16th position in what he called his 'worst race in many years'.


The 2009 world champion started the race on the harder of the Pirelli compounds but still had to pit before the cars around him using super-softs, having suffered from severe tyre degradation and an overall lack of grip.


Afterwards, the Australian Grand Prix winner described himself as "lost and confused" and admitted he had no idea whether he would be able to resolve the issues in time for the European Grand Prix at Valencia.


"I haven't got a clue what to do at the moment and every time we have good ideas we don't seem to make any progress," he said.


"I love driving an F1 car so I am confident every time I jump in and then after two laps there is no grip anywhere.


"Out of the front pack I was the slowest by a long way, and I am not two seconds a lap slower than Lewis [Hamilton]."


Button added that he didn't believe the problems stemmed from the Pirelli tyres directly, when asked whether the harder compounds on offer in Valencia could help him solve his problems, and pointed towards it being a set-up problem.


"It's not the tyres, it's definitely not a tyre issue. I'm the only person who can't drive the tyres? No, it is impossible."


"I have massive degradation and I stopped before most runners and I was on the prime tyre. Obviously the car with a certain set-up is very quick but what I was driving was not a winning car.


"It's been the same for the last couple of races and I don't know why because it is normally something I am pretty good at. I'm driving round 1.5 seconds slower than the leaders and one is my team-mate but I can't go any quicker."


McLaren is refusing to believe that it has got itself back in the driving seat for the world championship, despite Lewis Hamilton's victory in the Canadian Grand Prix.


Hamilton moved to the top of the drivers' standings with a brilliant win in Montreal, as he executed a perfectly timed two-stop strategy to overcome main title challengers Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.


But although the success has added momentum to the team's challenge after its strong start to the campaign, team principal Martin Whitmarsh reckons the result makes little difference to its approach.


When asked by AUTOSPORT if he believed some normality was returning to this amazing F1 season - with seven different winners from the first seven races – Whitmarsh was not convinced.


"I'd love to say that is the case but I have no idea," he said. "You guys have as much data as me. I think it is so close that it is so tricky, and the tyres can swing any way.


"You see that going through qualifying it is bloody difficult to get through conserving your tyres. You have to make the right engineering and operational decisions every step of the weekend now, being error free, so it is massively tough. But that is how it should be, isn't it?


"It is great for Formula 1. I'd love to be walking away with another championship but it's not going to be that way.


"I think this is an abnormal season and I think it going to be like this to the end, so we leave here with Lewis leading the championship but we don't think we are now in cruise mode and we're going to win. It could go horribly wrong at the next race and that is how it should be."


McLaren's victory in Canada was the first win since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but Whitmarsh denied that the result was vindication of its efforts after some recent difficulties.


"Everybody will say the pressure is on, but it always is because if you are McLaren, since 1966 you have won 25 per cent of all F1 grands prix.


"So if you are the team principal and you go four or five races without a win and say you aren't under a little bit of stress you probably aren't telling the truth. That is what we expect and we are tough on ourselves."


Sebastian Vettel praised Red Bull's late decision to switch his strategy in the Canadian Grand Prix after admitting that the one-stop plan he was on was the wrong choice.


Fernando Alonso and Vettel both attempted to complete the race with just one service after leader and eventual winner Lewis Hamilton made a second stop, leaving the duo out front with a clear advantage over the McLaren.


But the Briton's pace on new tyres allowed him to haul them both in again, and not long after he re-passed Vettel for second position on lap 62, the German came in for fresh prime tyres of his own.


"We could have [done something differently] but now it is easy to say that," said Vettel afterwards. "In the end Lewis decided to go for the second stop - I think we tried then to get the place back by going for one-stop, the same as Ferrari.


"But it turned out to be the wrong call, so we decided to come in again, which I think was a good call, and a great call at the time, given the position and what you can lose etc."


Vettel insisted that even though there were just six laps to run, it was still worth pitting again in a stop that dropped him to fifth. He regained a position when Alonso, who didn't stop again, ran into tyre trouble of his own.


Asked whether he thought he would have finished lower than fourth had he not stopped, Vettel replied: "Yes, at the time we were three or four seconds behind Fernando and we finished ahead of him. In the end I think he had no more chance.


"It's quite sudden... [the drop-off]. I mean if you think how many laps we did on that set of primes without any trouble and then the last three or four laps you could really feel the rear tyres just didn't deliver the traction anymore and it was extremely difficult."

Post-race press conference:


[spoiler]TV UNILATERAL


Q. Lewis, one word: wow. What a race. That must feel incredible?


Lewis HAMILTON: It does, it does. Firstly, I want to say congratulations to these two guys [Grosjean and Pérez], who have done an incredible job, but also just to the team, who never seem to give up. Also, the race, I want to dedicate this one to all the fans out there, who are constantly sending letters and messages and always being so positive and supportive throughout the year. What a great feeling this is where I won my first grand prix. I knew today would be a tough, tough race but I loved every single minute of it and I'm really grateful.


Q. You say you loved every single minute of it but two delays on your pit stops and then you get out and the team tell you, 'actually the guys ahead are one-stopping'. Did you ever think for a moment that it wasn't going to happen today?


LH: I never had a doubt in my mind that there wasn't a possibility to win but I was thinking that these guys are falling quite far behind so I assumed they are doing a one-stop but I don't think I'm going to be able to do a one-stop so I'm going to keep on pushing, increase the gap... Yeah, I had a couple of problems pulling away. It might have been my fault, I don't know. But otherwise the pit stops were great and finally we've got some good pit stops and of course we can keep on improving in every area.


Q. Romain, an amazing result for you and the team. Was the plan always to go for a one-stopper or was that something that developed as the race went on?


Romain GROSJEAN: Well, we thought about going for a one-stop and see what was going on later on. The question mark was can we go with the option tyres at the beginning especially that they are already two runs [old] from Q1 and Q3 , that was the one I set my fastest lap time with. But then the car felt pretty good. When I put on the prime tyre, I didn't know what Nico Rosberg was doing in front of me or Mark Webber so it was difficult. I was fighting with them, pushing quite hard but I knew that I was trying to go for one stop and finally when I saw Mark coming in my tyres were quite fresh and then I didn't realise I was third and I then I saw Fernando slowing down and I was second. It was a crazy end to the race because I was thinking P5 or P4 but the pace stayed there and the team did a fantastic job with the car, which was good on tyres. We knew with the heat we would be better today, so hopefully the sun came and it was good for us and it is fantastic to be on my second podium this season.


Q. Sergio, again an incredible drive, an incredible race. At what point did you know that a podium was on the cards?


Sergio PÉREZ: Well, to be honest, until I passed Fernando, because starting 15th the last thing you would think about is ending up on the podium. We went quite aggressive, the first stint was quite good. Then the stop was very good. The second stint was really, really good. I managed to overtake some cars in difficult manouevres. I saw that degradation was not so high for me. I could manage my pace well. Then I managed to get some other drivers. It's a great result for the team after such a bad day we had yesterday. We had a lot of trouble with the brakes. Today, it's just great to finish here on the podium. It's a great boost for the team. After Malaysia it's our second time to get in the [major] points and the second podium, so hopefully we can keep this way. Obviously we have been very unlucky: what happened in Monaco for example. We were very quick there and in Barcelona as well. It's great to come back and do a podium for the whole team and with this here being so close to home with a lot of Mexicans around, it's great.


Q. Lewis, back to you. As you said, this is the place you won your first grand prix five years ago and we can see how much this meant to you today. Can you just sum up your emotions at the end of an incredible race and a wonderful weekend?


LH: It's still sinking in. It's been five years since I won here for the first time but it feels just as good. Again, just massively proud of the team for continuing to push and it feels great to finally be here on the top step. Definitely, as always, we'll never take it for granted and this for me feels like one of the best races that I've had for a very, very long time, so thank you to everyone.


PRESS CONFERENCE


Q. Lewis, obviously you really enjoyed that. As you said, a huge amount of satisfaction from that.


LH: Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the most enjoyable races that I've had 'til now. I was just thinking today to finish at the front, as I did in my first win here in 2007, would be very, very special for me - which it has been. I couldn't believe it when I was coming across the line. That feeling inside, it's like an explosion. It's really just incredible. And that's what I love about racing and if I continue to have this feeling for many, many years, then hopefully I'll be here for a long, long time.


Q. The tactics on the pitwall worked absolutely perfectly. You must have thought, 'perfect', every time you overtook somebody 'yes, that's the way it was meant to work out.'


LH: I think the team did a really great job with the pitstops and the strategy. I was very, very surprised that I was able to look after my tyres and then push at the times that I needed to push. I was very, very surprised in the first stint, that I was able to close up on Sebastian. I never thought they would have such degradation. And so to catch them, and see them go in, and then still be able to push, was a real pleasure to see, because it's very, very rare. But I knew that Fernando was going to be the one to beat. When he was behind me I thought he was going to be the one to beat today, as he generally has great pace on long runs. But we did it. I wasn't able to do a one-stop. I don't think I would have been able to do it – I think I would have fallen back as they did: perhaps even further. I think a two-stop was just right.


Q. Was that a result of knowing that you had trouble with the hotter temperatures?


LH: No… well… of course we were aware of that. Of course we went into the race knowing that we'd be doing a two-stop. And when the guys were behind me I kinda had a feeling that Fernando would be doing a one-stop, so I knew I had to make a gap while looking after the tyres. I was able to make a gap and then hold it, even though Fernando started to pick his pace up. It was one of the best stints that I've had for a long, long time. And then at the end I had a serious gap to catch up but I was able to be 1.5-1.7 seconds faster than Fernando each lap, which was fantastic. And the greatest thing here is that at this circuit you can overtake. Even if it's not the back straight, you still have opportunities to overtake, which always gives us good races.


Q. Romain, you were in traffic early on. That must have been very interesting. What did you think?


RG: It wasn't easy at the start because basically I was fighting in the traffic and I didn't know whether the guys were going to do one-stop, two-stops. And then I tried to jump Rosberg on a pitstop but it didn't work, so I was behind him again. And when you follow a car it's not easy to save your tyres and protect a little bit. I know that we were trying to go for one-stop and I didn't really know what to think about. And then I saw Nico coming to the pit and thought 'good news.' And then I caught Mark. Mark was quite the same pace as I was, so it wasn't easy, and then he went to the pit as well. Then I was more safe and I couldn't realize from P9 – I think – on my pit board to P2 in a few laps. I didn't really understand what was going on but I knew that we had to carry good pace. Again, the team did an incredible job to give me a good car in the race. We knew with the sun it would be better today. I really want to dedicate this result to them, to friends and to, today, Guillaume Moreau, which was on my helmet, who had a crash at the Le Mans test day last week. I wish him a good recovery. And I'm very happy that he was on my helmet for this race.


Q. You've been a rookie here and obviously learnt the circuit. You've enjoyed taking on the Montreal accent – you're feelings about your podium here.


RG: It's good. I'm feeling more at home. People speak French, the city is quite nice and the people are really welcoming, so it's good to be here. The track is interesting; not an easy one to learn but as we say most of the time: if you have a good result then you like the track – so I think now I like Canada and I'm looking forward to coming back next year. But before that we have 13 more races until the end of the season and I hope we can keep our pace, our results and keep up the team.


Q. Sergio, you were almost a rookie, apart from three laps, and from 15th on the grid, one-stop, once again showing that you can keep the tyres alive.


SP: Yeah. It was a great race for the whole team because after such a disappointing qualifying that we had yesterday, with so little pace as well – we didn't have the pace we wanted to – so we had to fight in a different way with the strategy and try to make it work and make it happen with the strategy. We didn't have any reference on the long runs. The long runs we did with the tyres, it was 10-15°C less track temperature. So, it was a lottery, basically, but I think the team has done a great job with the stop and the strategy, myself too, keeping the tyres alive and being so consistent. It's been a great result for the whole team. We have been so unlucky since Malaysia. We had the pace but for some reason or another we don't manage to get the result in the end. I think it's great to come back into the points with another podium.


Q. You mentioned you had brake problems yesterday, was there any trace of that today?


SP: No, when I mentioned we had a brake problem it was nothing like a failure. It was just that the balance was really bad for me and I could not manage to stop the car, I flat-spot my tyres, so I have a lot of vibration in qualifying. In the race it was different. We worked a lot during the night – yesterday – to fix the problems and today we did a great job.


Q. And after these two podiums that you've had, as you say a little bit of frustration that since Malaysia you haven't had better luck. What do you feel you can do in the rest of the Championship?


SP: The thing is we long to fight for a podium every race. Today was a very crazy race, as we have had many of this year. But I think we have the potential to do it. This has to be the target, to get the first win this season for our team.


QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR


Q. (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Romain, earlier this weekend, you said that this was your favourite circuit because you learned it on Playstation. Do you think Playstation was a contributing factor to your strong performance today?


RG: I think I should say XBox or Microsoft. It's true that on a video game it's my favourite track and looking at it, it's quite interesting. It's more bumpy than on X-Box sitting on a sofa, but it's pretty interesting and when you have a good result in a race, normally you quite like it and so I'm pretty happy about today.


Q. (Julien Febreau – L'Equipe) Romain, what does this podium mean to you compared to Bahrain, because the start of the weekend wasn't easy for you, so what does it mean?


RG: It means quite a lot. It means that we're in good shape for working with the team who are improving every time. We had a bad Friday with quite different conditions compared to today and having to learn the track and the set-up of the car wasn't easy and I'm sure we could have achieved better but we know it for the rest of the season. We are working quite well, so I'm pretty pleased with this podium. It means that we are still here after seven races and it was not one shot that we could get in Bahrain. We are still fighting at the front with good performance and the team is doing well with the Lotus E20.


Q. (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Checo (Sergio), how do you feel now compared to the podium in Malaysia, and now you've got a second and a third place, there's just one spot still missing on the podium; when do you think you might get that?


SP: Well, I think every podium is special, especially when it's only your second podium in Formula One, it's a very special feeling. In the position that I am with my team, we are still fighting to get to the top, to be a top driver one day. It's great, every opportunity I have to show my potential, because you don't know how many opportunities you will have. I have been very unlucky in the last races so I think it feels great but I think the first podium feels a bit better.


Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Lewis, when did you think about victory: when you passed Vettel, when you passed Alonso or when you crossed the line? Were you afraid of these two guys?


LH: When I crossed the line. Of course when I saw them, and I saw that I was catching them and there was a possibility, and I knew how many laps that I would have to get past so I was not desperate to get past them in a real rush. I had a lot left in me, in the tyres so I was generally driving a little bit off the pace. There was no need to push because the guys had fallen behind and when I heard that these guys were catching a little bit, I knew that I had plenty in me if I needed to match the same times, and there were only a couple of laps left, but perhaps if circumstances were different and they were much quicker, then we would have had even more of a race.


Q. (Paolo Ianieri –La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, were you surprised when you saw that neither Fernando nor Sebastian stopped immediately after you? And now you're also leading the championship, so is that a big bonus in this season which is completely crazy?


LH: No, it definitely is… as I said going into the race, if I was to finish where I started, I would be very very happy with it, but anything above that would be a bonus, so it's definitely a bonus for us today. I knew, when I had done the stop where Fernando came out in front and I had to overtake him and I was pulling the gap, I had a feeling that they were dropping back so quickly that they would definitely be doing a one stop and I did mention that to my team and they said they thought so, so I had to make sure that I got the gap that I had and tried to maintain it. I did think in my mind that at some stage Fernando would start putting in some very very quick times but then again he didn't as he was doing such a long stint. I think I got absolutely everything out of the car today. I wouldn't have been able to do a one stop, I don't think. Again, the team did a great job in the strategy department.


Q. (Bill Beacon – Canadian Press) Lewis, you're only the third driver to win this race three times after Michael and Piquet. I just wonder, is there something particular about this track that suits you?


LH: It's like a go-kart track, isn't it? It's great fun, you're bumping over the kerbs, with the low grip it's very much mechanical grip like a go-kart. It's the weather, it's the city, the fans here are incredible, absolutely incredible, and there's very few places that we go to throughout the year like this. I always say that Monaco is real special because of the amount of people there. I think this race here is perhaps even more special for me. Obviously my home Grand Prix, Silverstone, is very special. Today, with so many British flags and Grenadian flags, which was fantastic to see, and so many people wearing the caps and shirts, support has been phenomenal this weekend, so that's why I wanted to dedicate this win to them.


Q. (Julien Febreau – L'Equipe) Romain, how close to your first victory do you think you are, and do you think that the gap is still big or not?


RG: The gap is not that big. We need to qualify better, that is not our strength this season but we are working on it. I think Friday and Saturday were quite difficult for us but we have been learning a lot about the car so it's good that we now have that in our pocket for the next races. Then you never know. Lewis was maybe cruising a little bit at the end. We were not cruising that much but not trying to make any mistakes either. To be honest, when I was P5 or P4 I thought that would be a good result, having started in P7 but then Fernando was struggling and I could catch him up and then tried a little bit to catch Lewis but you never know what's going on. It's not an easy race, we were asking a lot of the car and the tyres and so on. When you pit on lap twenty-something and you know there are seventy laps and you have to stay on one set of tyres, you never know when they're going to drop so you are a bit cautious about that.


Q. (Randy Phillips – Montreal Gazzette) Lewis, when you passed Alonso in the DRS, you looked like you made a couple of tenths before that; can you just give us an indication as to how bad his tyres were at that particular point?


LH: Those guys, Fernando and Sebastian, they looked like they were having oversteer moments and definitely struggling. I had so much traction with fresh tyres that there was almost a two second difference in pace between us. He must have been close to the limit already, the end of the tyres.


Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) What changed from yesterday, Lewis, because yesterday after qualifying you were worried, you were happy to be second but looking at Sebastian and probably also Fernando, you were not so sure you could have such a race? And this is also a track where McLaren is doing very well: five victories in the last seven years.


LH: Yeah, I think I was just very cautious. I think the Red Bull and the Ferraris seemed to… you know, we've not come here with any upgrades, we didn't in the last race whereas Red Bull and particularly Ferrari have been upgrading their car consistently. They were just as quick as us in qualifying but then in the race, generally, they can look after their tyres a little bit better than us and maybe that was a little bit the case today. Obviously they were able to do a one-stop. I would have fallen even further behind maybe if I had done a one stop, so that's just an area I know that we need to get stronger and we need to improve on as the season is probably going to be a lot like this, where you are having one or two stops throughout the season. If we can improve on that, then I think we are in a really good strong position but then again, when I was out there, when I was able to keep up with Sebastian and maintain the gap to me and Fernando, then I started to think, OK, we're in a good fight here, we're in with a good chance for winning.


Q. (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN Radio) Lewis, yesterday you were sitting here with Alonso and Vettel and you guys were asked about normality in Formula One, because, well, we had a McLaren, a Ferrari and a Red Bull driver, but now the race is finished, we have a Lotus and a Sauber driver on the podium. To all three of you, will there be a point when Formula One will reach this so-called normality this year, and what is normal for you and Formula One 2012?


LH: I think this mix-up is normal, this is what is going to be normal for the season. It's just my feeling, but then again my guess is as a good as yours. I think it will continue to be like this throughout the year. We're still trying to fully understand these tyres. Sometimes you're overheating them, sometimes you're not heating them up enough. We don't understand why sometimes a Lotus is quicker than us, or a Mercedes is quicker than us and then we're quicker than them another time. But I think it's great for Formula One, it's great for the fans to see. I'm guessing there was a lot of overtaking today and a real mix-up and as I said, seven different winners in seven races – I can't remember hearing of anything like that. I hope there's no more, I hope there's not eight winners in….


SP: I hope so.


LH: I hope not! I hope we're able to keep it at seven and no more!


RG: I think it's pretty interesting for everybody. Who will complain about seeing different drivers and different cars fighting throughout the races?


Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Lewis, the Drivers' championship is very close now. There are seven points between you and Mark Webber in fourth. Does it mean that you plan your next victories now that you are leading. Do you think: maybe if I finish second or third… is it better in a season like this to be more consistent than to take a risk? Are you going to change your approach to the races now that you're leading the championship?


LH: I'm definitely not going to change my approach, but I think it's working reasonably well so far. I probably definitely had to be more on the limit today to catch the two guys ahead, perhaps a little bit more risky than in the past but it is about consistency this year. I think it will be about consistency. It's unbelievable to see just how close it is. We got a win and 25 points and I only have a two point lead, so it's incredible how close it is and I think it will stay that close throughout the year. Again, it just highlights how important consistency is.[/spoiler]

[Lineker]

Ferrari reckons it did the right thing in gambling on trying out its doomed one-stop strategy to try and beat Lewis Hamilton to victory in Canada - but concedes it was wrong to have not reacted to Sebastian Vettel's late tyre change too.

Fernando Alonso was battling for victory in Montreal throughout the race, and moved to the front of the field in the closing stages when race leader Hamilton pitted for fresh rubber.

Ferrari elected not to cover that move by keeping Alonso out, and hoping that his tyres would not drop off enough to allow Hamilton to catch up with him.

However, with degradation turning out higher than the team expected, Alonso's pace fell away at the end - and Hamilton, Romain Grosjean, Sergio Perez, and the late-stopping Sebastian Vettel all overhauled him before the chequered flag.

Ferrari is not shying away from the fact that it would have done better if it had stopped Alonso at the right time, but team principal Stefano Domenicali fully understands why the one-stop decision was made.

"Of course with hindsight it is easy; and my kinds who are seven and eight years old could do the right thing," he explained about the strategy call.

"Honestly when we did the first pitstop, we did the right choice because we jumped one position, but it was not clear at that moment if it would have been one or two stops - because otherwise we would have kept Fernando longer on the track.

"Then, considering the pace and considering the way that Fernando was managing the tyres, we discussed with Fernando and apparently the tyres were keeping up a pace that was good in terms of having a one-stop strategy.

"Then, when you arrive at a certain moment, you have to go for one solution or another one, so at that stage the situation – the elements that we had – were okay so we kept going in that direction. After that, I cannot say anything more than with hindsight of course it was the wrong thing to do.

"But the real mistake was not to cover Vettel, because we were not expecting for him to catch up so quickly or the other way around, the tyres [on Alonso's car] going off the cliff in such a strong way."

Alonso said after the race that he backed Ferrari's decision to gamble on being committed to its one-stop strategy – even though changing tyres at the time Hamilton did would probably have delivered a better result.

"I don't agree that it was the wrong strategy. Grosjean nearly won the race with one stop, so one stop was the right strategy," he said.

"If I stopped behind Hamilton I would finish second behind Hamilton, but if I had the degradation of Grosjean, I would have won the race, Vettel would have been second, Grosjean third and Hamilton fourth - and now you [the media] would be in the McLaren garage saying two stop is the wrong strategy.

"We tried to win the race not stopping behind Hamilton and we went for it and it didn't work, but I was happy with the approach and the points."

Jenson Button is more than capable of bouncing back from his current troubles in Formula 1, claim his bosses, even though his tyre struggles risk derailing his world championship challenge.

The Briton endured a torrid time in the Canadian Grand Prix, as he struggled for grip throughout the race and eventually finished a lacklustre 16th.

With him admitting he is baffled by what has gone on, the fact he has scored just two points in the last four races - and sits 43 points behind championship-leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton - suggest that he needs to get on top of the matter immediately if his title hopes are not to evaporate.

Button's McLaren bosses think that the problems are not as dramatic as they appear, however, and they reckon that the Canada issues were the legacy of a lack of running from Friday practice – when a gearbox problem hampered him.

"It is not a long-term concern, it is a frustration and a disappointment," explained McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh when asked by AUTOSPORT about how much of a worry Button's struggles were.

"Jenson is a great racing driver and we served him badly this weekend. His rear tyres were completely shot. We didn't long-run with this suspension set-up on Friday and that was our fault - as we didn't give him a race car he could perform in.

"But we know how smart and strong-minded he is. So he will keep his head up, and he could be the first driver to repeat a win this season."

Whitmarsh revealed that McLaren tried out a new rear suspension configuration with Button in Canada, to try and help him overcome his main problem which is switching the tyres on.

"I think these tyres have such a fine peak window and if you fall out of that, you are history. Or you start wearing your tyres, or getting them too hot, and the grip is gone then it gets away from you.

"I think Lewis was clearly able to turn the tyres on very quickly. I think he was driving with confidence and he was able to attack with the front tyres and get them fired up very quickly, so I don't think that was such a significant factor as some of us thought it would be before the race.

"With Jenson we had different suspension and we weren't able to long run that on Friday, so his rear left tyre was shot. We will do the analysis but Jenson is a smooth driver and if he is doing that [wearing out the tyres] then we didn't get the set-up right.

"We will do more analysis, but he has a smart head on his shoulders and he is capable of coming back, and I hope he does."

Nico Rosberg still thinks Mercedes has the potential to get involved in the championship fight, despite failing to challenge the frontrunners in the Canadian Grand Prix.

The German finished sixth in Montreal, after seeing his qualifying efforts compromised by a lack of running in final practice and him losing some ground in the early stages of the race.

However, the fact that he was able to recover so well - and he is tied with Sebastian Vettel as the highest-scoring driver from the last five races – gives him some cause for optimism about what the season can hold.

"It is still some good points, and over the last five races I am the one who has scored the most points, together with [Vettel]," explained Rosberg in his official video blog after Canada.

"That still shows good consistency, and I am still confident for the future, and for what is going to happen. I will keep pushing. We are going to make it happen in the next few races and we will make it happen in the championship."

Rosberg thinks one of the areas that Mercedes needs to address with its W03 is its tyre management – with him openly admitted it would have been impossible for the car to have executed the one-stop strategy that Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez put to good use.

"I think it is just mainly the one stoppers who beat me in the end, because they just made it work. And that was just a better strategy than mine.

"Our car could not have done a one-stop today so that is what we need to work on: to become even better with tyre management in terms of set-up and everything that comes together."

Sauber says its second podium finish of the year has delivered a valuable boost to the team - because it proves its result in Malaysia back in March was not a freak result.

Sergio Perez bounced back from a difficult qualifying in Montreal, which left him down in15th on the grid, to finish third after a brilliantly executed one-stop strategy.

With that result ending a recent run of frustrating outings for the Mexican, and being his first points finish since he was runner-up in Sepang, his boss think the result is probably even more important than what happened back in March.

Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn said: "Everybody has been saying: 'the car is fast, the car is competitive' - but our efficiency in getting the points has been really bad.

"So this kind of result shows it was not just a one-off or a freak event in those Malaysia conditions, but that we really are there. It boils down to how we do our weekend and that we do not do mistakes."

Perez's chances in the race were boosted by the fact he was able to look after his tyres so much on a day when hot temperatures meant other drivers suffered from higher degradation.

Kaltenborn thinks, however, that it was not the weather that played the most important part in helping the team battle for the podium finish.

"I don't think it was the key factor," she explained. "We all know that tyre management is important this year but I think it would be too simple to reduce it down to that.

"We clearly have a competitive car and the team chose a very good strategy that worked out through many other reasons. Sergio did a fantastic job, the crew there with the pit stop which lately have not really been our strength, did a fantastic job as well. It really all worked out well and it is a great moment."

Lotus team principal Eric Boullier has admitted that he continues to be surprised by the progress of Romain Grosjean, after the Frenchman finished runner-up in the Canadian GP.

Despite being in only his first full season of F1, Grosjean has produced some impressive qualifying performances as well as two podiums up until now.

And although the decision to sign Grosjean as Kimi Raikkonen's team-mate was Boullier's, he has confessed that he never expected him to be able to deliver the kind of drives he is putting is now.

"He keeps surprising me, because he has the same characteristics as we always knew he had," Boullier told AUTOSPORT. "He is a hard worker; he listens, and he works a lot with his engineers.

"But it is not only work, because he learns from the data, from advice, from everything. What is I think is very promising is that he has the pace and as he has shown in Canada he can do a full race.

"He did 45 laps on these tyres, with being very consistent in not destroying them. He is learning and learning fast."

Grosjean is now just two points behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in the drivers' standings, and Boullier says that extra work needs to be done in also helping the Finn improve his qualifying performances.

"We definitely need to help Kimi, as they have different driving styles," he said. "We had this issue in Canada with the differential which doesn't help, but we need to work on helping him qualify better. For the race there is no issue."

With Lewis Hamilton becoming F1's seventh winner from seven races in Canada, Lotus now has the best chance to produce an eighth different victor in the next event in Valencia.

When asked about that possibility, Boullier said: "It's a nice pressure. If it is hot it should be okay. Then the layout of Silverstone and Germany should also help us, and Hungary maybe."

[Lineker]

Pirelli plans to test a new hard compound tyre in practice at the British Grand Prix, which will be easier for teams to work with, but has admitted it is wary of introducing it for races because of fears it could have an impact on the tight world championship battle.

F1 teams are in agreement this year that getting the tyres in to the right operational window is a key element to performance, because cars are now so similar in terms of their speed.

However, many teams have struggled to unlock the secrets of Pirelli's 2012 rubber - especially when it comes to extracting pace from it in both low fuel conditions for qualifying and then for the race.

To help that situation Pirelli is looking at a new hard compound that will have a wider operational range – and should therefore be a help to teams who are struggling to get into the right temperature window.

But despite plans to test it, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery says his company is seriously concerned about making any change to the tyres because it could change the competitive situation in F1.

"There is a big point to make that if we make a change, particularly with the way the championship has been played this year so close, we don't want to risk creating an advantage for a particular team," he told AUTOSPORT.

"So if you imagine, suddenly, for races 10, 11 and 12 one team starts running away, then we're going to come under all the criticism.

"We'll test because we want to understand the effect and impact, but it's not necessarily going to happen that we bring it to the races. We've got to be very careful because there's a big difference with the teams on where they are with the tyres at the moment.

"We talk to the technicians, so then they're trying to find the success of finding that key of keeping the performance at the highest level for as long as possible.

"They would be rather upset, I think, if suddenly it was a little bit easier, and the people that have worked so hard felt that they were getting there, and another team then gets there. You need to be careful with things like that because it changes during the championship."

With a wider temperature range, the new hard compound would be particularly well-suited to warmer conditions, where many teams have struggled to find the right car set-up.

Red Bull Racing believes Formula 1 teams may never totally get on top of the tyres this season - as a number of outfits chase the secret to having both good qualifying performance as well as long-distance pace in the race.

Sebastian Vettel had looked quick throughout practice and qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix, but he was not as able to look after his tyres as well as race-winner Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner says he does not expect anyone to truly understand why performances shift around so much - and that races will be characterised by varying speeds shown by cars between qualifying and the race.

"I think that the [tyre] window is so narrow on this that it's difficult," explained Horner. "You can move the performance around: you can attack qualifying and maybe it hurts you in the race, or you can go soft in qualifying like Lotus did and perhaps be stronger in the race.

"I think this is going to be a factor for probably another 13 races. It's a tricky one. Fernando [Alonso] is probably sitting there wishing he had pitted with 15 laps to go, but again, seven laps from the end he is leading the grand prix."

Horner says it is more difficult this season to predict the right strategies for the race – especially because some cars are better in their long-run pace than their single-lap performance.

"Two guys that went on the one stop, one started 15th and the other at the back end of the top 10 and they have come out second and third," he said. "We have qualified on pole, been in the lead on lap 15, yet run into trouble seven laps before the end."

Ferrari has called on Formula 1's bosses to take urgent action to prevent the sport being damaged by the fall out from the worldwide financial crisis.

With several countries facing debt problems, and the future of the Eurozone being questioned, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo reckons that there must be no delay in F1 moving to reduce costs.

"The world economic situation, and that of Europe in particular, is very serious and the world of Formula 1 cannot ignore the fact," di Montezemolo told the official Ferrari website.

"We cannot lose any more time: we need to tackle urgently and with determination the question of costs. Ferrari is in agreement with the FIA's position that drastic intervention is required. We are absolutely convinced that, as I have always said, the teams and the commercial rights holder must work together with the Federation on this front.

"This is no longer the moment for getting bogged down in sterile discussions or the meanderings of engineers, usually only concerned in defending the interests of someone or other: the question has to be tackled at the highest level, without further delay."

The FIA met with teams after the Monaco Grand Prix to discuss ways to control costs in F1, with much focus being put on how much more expensive the implementation of new car and engine regulations for 2014 will be.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali thinks the Formula 1 title battle is now boiling down to a three-way fight between Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

Although F1 has had seven different winners in the first seven races - which has never happened before – Domenicali believes that the way the championship is developing means only a trio of men now have a realistic chance.

"I think that at the end of the day, I believe looking at how things are, the championship can be a fight between Fernando, Lewis and Sebastian," he explained.

"That is what I feel but everyone knows something before each race, and then changes their mind after the race. Maybe after Valencia the situation will be different. But honestly, I think the championship could evolve into a fight between the first three drivers."

Although Alonso lost the championship lead to Hamilton in Canada, Ferrari is still upbeat about its overall chances for the championship.

"The car is on the right line in terms of competitiveness and this is the most important thing considering that the championship is now completely open," said Domenicali. "Hamilton is leading and Fernando is second [by] two points, so there is nothing in it.

"The only thing is to keep pushing and to put the performance on the car. Up to the moment where at least we will not be in pole position, we cannot be happy."

Michael Schumacher insists he will not lose faith in Mercedes despite suffering his fifth retirement of the season in Montreal.

With the exception of Barcelona, where he crashed into the rear of Bruno Senna's Williams, Schumacher's four other retirements have all been caused by technical problems - the latest coming when his DRS stuck open at Canada, for which team boss Ross Brawn later apologised to the seven-time champion.

That lack of reliability has left Schumacher languishing in 18th in the 2012 world championship, having scored just two points, 65 fewer than team-mate Nico Rosberg.

The German says he understands problems can arise during a season, and insists his recent retirements have done nothing to dim his faith in Mercedes.

"I wanted to emphasise once again that Formula 1 cars are prototype vehicles and hundreds of components are made specially [sic] for them. For me, it's completely understandable that things can go wrong from time to time," Schumacher explained on his personal website.

"Of course it was a disappointing outcome in Montreal. But I won't lose my nerve or my faith in the team. I still believe that we will achieve something special together with Mercedes."

Schumacher said he was not looking to apportion any blame, and had immediately sat down with his engineers to see how future issues could be best avoided.

"There is no reason to blame anyone - unfortunate circumstances like these are part of motor racing. Indeed, I'm certain it's even tougher for the guys in the team.

"That's why I sat down with my race engineers immediately after my retirement, to discuss how we should approach the time before the next race and to make sure we stay in close contact over the coming days."

Mercedes has vowed to prioritise finding an answer as to why Michael Schumacher has faced such poor reliability this season, on the back of yet another retirement at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion has scored just two points this season, after seeing promising positions in several races taken away by a range of issues with his car.

Schumacher has suffered gearbox problems (Ausralia), a wheel not being fitted correctly at a pitstop (China), DRS issues, (Bahrain), a fuel pressure failure (Monaco) and a total DRS failure (Canada) so far this campaign.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says that there is no obvious explanation as to why Schumacher has suffered so much this season - with team-mate Nico Rosberg being one of the few drivers who has completed every lap so far.

"Both cars are designed and built to exactly the same standards, according to the same processes," Brawn told Bild Zeitung. "Our target is always zero-defect reliability and we are not achieving that at the moment, which is compromising our championship position and our chances in the races. Resolving it is our highest priority."

Brawn has said that the team needs to be quite detailed in understanding what has gone wrong, and ensure that it does not further compound the problem by reacting too swiftly in a bid to solve the issues.

"We have to ensure that we fully understand the reasons for the problems and then deal with them in a clear and systematic way," he said. "Every member of the team is acutely aware of their responsibilities in these areas and the problems we have experienced are not due to a lack of attention or diligence.

"However, whilst we have to improve we must not create new problems by reacting in the wrong way. There is no magic bullet.

"We can get the job done, because Nico has completed every racing lap this year and the team has historically a very good reliability record. We must continue with a controlled logical approach working at our maximum capacity 24/7 to resolve these current issues."

When asked whether Schumacher''s trouble could lead to him electing not to continue with the team in Formula 1 next year, Brawn said: "In my experience with Michael, difficult times lead him to give even more to the team to pull through. And we will give our utmost to build a perfect, totally reliable car for Michael."

Lotus is confident that it will be able to deliver on its target of improved qualifying performance in the next few races, having just missed out on victory again in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Romain Grosjean secured another second place in Montreal after producing stunning consistency in the race when hot conditions favoured the nature of his E20 car.

The team is well aware, however, that it needs to start qualifying further up the grid so it can capitalise better on its race pace. That step forward will come if it can learn to use its tyres better for single-lap performance rather than long-term degradation.

"I am not sure if the car is very sensitive," team principal Eric Boullier said when asked if the 2012 Lotus was best only at hot temperatures.

"We know these tyres have a range that is very small, and obviously when you have a car that is conservative with the tyres you need some help to heat the tyres and make them work.

"But we definitely have some ideas about what to do now. There is a way to do it. I am not saying we will be fighting for pole position, but we will definitely be qualifying better."

Boullier thinks the result in Montreal will be a big boost to the team's morale, and acts as a good reward after the disappointment of Monaco, where Lotus had been expected to fight for victory.

"Monaco was a special case," said Boullier. "Romain was fast in free practice, and fast enough in qualifying, but he had an issue at the start of the race. So it is good for him and the team to show in Canada that we can keep the momentum."

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Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting visited the Circuit de the Americas ahead of this year's United Stated Grand Prix.

The 3.4-mile circuit is scheduled to host its inaugural race on November 18, and work is continuing on in order to have the track ready in time.

Whiting visited the circuit after the Canadian Grand Prix to monitor its progress, and he was happy with the progress.

He will return for the final pre-race inspection in September.

"It is clear that the significant resources Circuit of the Americas has committed to completing this facility on time and to FIA specifications is making a difference," Whiting said.

"The more than 500 construction workers on site daily are making great progress, and I plan to return to Austin at the end of August for an update.

"My formal pre-race inspection is set for September 25, which is 60 days before the scheduled start of the United States Grand Prix."

Sauber's Monisha Kaltenborn says one of the main priorities for the Swiss squad is to try to improve its qualifying form.

The Hinwil-based squad secured its second podium of the season in last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, where Sergio Perez finished in third position.

Perez, however, had started from 15th on the grid, highlighting Sauber's difficulty to emulate in qualifying what it can achieve in terms of race pace.

"It is our clear target to improve on the qualifying because if we can manage to get the car further in front on the grid, we can be far quicker and show even more the potential of this car, so this is really going to be our target to get further in front," Kaltenborn said.

However, she made it clear that the team must find a solution that does not compromise its strong race form.

"That is a difficult one," she said. "I think that has also a lot to do with how we ourselves prepare ourselves in qualifying, and there are enough areas that we have to improve as a team and if we can manage to get the qualifying session better together then we can really show these better kind of results."

Although Kaltenborn is convinced Sauber's car is very strong, she acknowledges that a lot of things must come together in order to be back on the podium.

"I am convinced that this car is competitive but to be on the podium a lot has to fit together," Kaltenborn added.

"There are certain factors we can influence and some we cannot, so the ones we can influence we have to work on, which are ourselves and our actions and our strategies and if we can get that together then the other ones will fit in as well so I do hope to see these moments more often."

And she admitted the feeling of having secured a podium in Montreal was very different to that in Malaysia, where the weather played a part in Perez's charge.

"It is a totally different feeling again. They are different circumstances and you had to look at different things here; it wasn't an exceptional crazy race, so you have to take every moment for its own.

"We are extremely happy and I just hope we don't have to wait for the next moment that long since Malaysia."

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Renault will decide in September just how many customer teams it will be able to supply when Formula 1 switches to the new V6 turbo engines from 2014.

Amid some concern in the paddock about dramatic cost increases for teams because engine makers have to pass on the development costs of the new power units, sources have revealed that efforts are being made to ensure that the situation does not destabilise the sport.

Renault Sport F1's managing director Jean-Francois Caubet believes that a lifting of the current limitation of manufacturer to supply a maximum of three teams would be a big help - especially amid uncertainty about the number of outfits independent suppliers PURE and Cosworth may reach deals with.

That would leave the way open for Renault to supply up to six teams, which could mean that the costs of its deal may not be as high as those engine makers only supplying two or three teams like Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT about the situation, with Renault due to dyno test its V6 for the first time this week, Caubet said: "Today we have four customers. I think we will keep four next year as there is no way to change.

"The problem we have is that we need to choose what will be our strategy for 2014. We have two kinds of options: to focus on two teams or to choose a bigger figure. In any case, the decision will be taken in September this year because we need to decide what we do.

"What we first want to understand is what will be the position of the World Council about how many teams. That will be discussed next week.

"We are quite clear with Jean [Todt] and we talked with Bernie that we need to have an open market because under old rules it was right [to limit the number of teams] when there was Ferrari, us, Cosworth, Mercedes, Honda and BMW and Toyota. We told Jean that now, though, we need to have an open market, with no limitations for 2014."

Although engine and power train deals that will cost around 20 million Euros for 2014 will be a big hike for some teams, manufacturers are adamant that a glide path reduction in costs means that over a five-year period costs will be the same on average as they are now: around 15 million Euros for a top-line package.

Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug said: "If you introduce a new engine it can cost more in the beginning, but it is a five-year period we are talking about. I think we can achieve comparable spending over a five-year period and that has to be the target."

FIA president Jean Todt says the governing body is intent on ensuring that costs are kept under control in Formula 1, amid concerns from some teams about a ramp up in expenditure for 2014.

With outfits bracing themselves for a likely increase in the money needed for customer engine deals for the new V6 turbos from 2014, there have been some suggestions that the less well-financed outfits may struggle to find more money amid the current worldwide financial turmoil.

Adding his voice to the worries earlier this week, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo called for urgent action to help save F1 from the economic situation in Europe.

Now, ahead of a meeting of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council on Friday, Todt has confirmed that the governing body is keen to undertake a co-operative stance with teams and engine manufacturers to try and help the situation.

"It is true that the [2014] package will be more expensive, but it is also true that the FIA has been in consultation with the engine suppliers in order to reduce the cost increase," he told AUTOSPORT in an exclusive interview.

"For example we have already agreed to a reduction in the number of power units. From eight per driver per season in 2012, we will reduce this to five per driver in 2014 and to four per driver per season in 2015."

Todt called a meeting with F1 teams on the Monday after the Monaco GP to address the general costs situation in the sport, and has said that efforts to finalise the implementation of a Resource Restriction Agreement are ongoing behind closed doors.

"We are discussing this as we have been asked by 10 of our 12 teams to control costs," he said.

"The FIA's Chief Administrative Officer Damien Clermont is talking to the financial heads of all the 12 teams in F1 concerning the chassis costs and with all engine manufacturer for the engine costs. This follows the meeting with all the teams I called on the Monday after the Monaco GP."

One rule change that has been suggested by Renault to help reduce engine costs for 2014 is to free up the limit of supply deals that manufacturers are allowed to provide.

Currently, no manufacturer can provide more than three teams without express permission of the FIA - while Renault believes fallowing it to increase the number of its partners could help make deals cheaper.

Todt has indicated he is reluctant to embrace such a move, however, but would not rule it out if it was decided that it would be best for the sport.

"At the moment the plan is to continue to apply the existing rules, but of course if we need to adapt to a specific situation, we will look into it," he said. "It is up to the President of the FIA to make a proposal to the WMSC."

One thing Todt has ruled out completely is to make any imposition of radical rule changes without having gone through the normal channels of approval by the F1 Commission prior to any WMSC vote.

When asked if he believed the lack of a Concorde Agreement for 2014 meant the FIA was free to implement cost-saving rule changes that had the support of a majority of teams, Todt said: "In the first place, the FIA is responsible for the safety, and for all sporting and technical matters relating to the FIA F1 Championship.

"As such, the federation is in discussions regarding the conditions of a new Concorde Agreement with the Commercial Right Holders and the teams, and this will define the F1 Commission.

"As these talks are ongoing, and until they are resolved, any changes to the 2013 Championship Regulations should comply with the relevant provisions of the International Sporting Code."

Pirelli expects Formula 1's leading teams to now stamp their authority on the remainder of the season - with only limited chances now of a repeat of shock results like Pastor Maldonado's Spanish GP success.

Although F1 has produced seven different winners from the first seven races, Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery believes the main title contenders have made big strides in understanding tyres - which will help them consistently battle it out at the front from now on.

"I think we're going to see that for the rest of the season," Hembery told AUTOSPORT.

"We might get one or two odd results simply by virtue of how close the cars are this year, and somebody might get something like Maldonado in Spain where they get a certain circuit spot on, but overall we will now see the top teams go forward and stake their claim on the championship."

Hembery does not buy into any arguments that this season's racing has been a lottery – and believes there are straightforward engineering explanations for all that has happened this year.

"There are very good engineering reasons; it's down to facts and figures and making your calls based on the figures you've got in front of you," he said.

"It's easy for us to sit there and look at the numbers and say, well why didn't you do that? When you're out there and you've got seconds to do it, then it's not so easy. I'm glad I'm watching it as a fan rather than having to make those calls.

"It's always been like that. F1 has always had an element of what the pit wall calls and decides; that's always been a part of the strategy of the sport.

"When there were fuel stops, of course it was more important then, but it's an element that the teams are used to having, and will probably have for a long time yet."

Formula 1 teams are still hoping to resurrect plans for the young driver test to take place at Silverstone this year, despite doubts about whether or not the venue will be able to host it.

Although nine teams had hoped to take up the option of running at Silverstone in the week after the British Grand Prix, it has emerged that the track informed them recently that its race deal with Formula One Management meant the circuit could not be used that week.

That move has also cast doubt on whether or not the second option of a test in Abu Dhabi can go ahead, or whether a totally new test at a venue like Jerez will need to be arranged for post-season.

AUTOSPORT understands that efforts are being made to find a solution with Silverstone, with Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn optimistic about the outcome.

"I think we have got more discussions going on," explained Brawn. "We are hopeful the Silverstone test will go ahead and therefore we will not have to address that. But I think if Silverstone cannot go ahead we have to sit down and see if we can find a good solution for all the teams."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, whose outfit joined Scuderia Toro Rosso and McLaren in electing to run at Abu Dhabi rather than Silverstone, said he was open-minded about what should happen if Silverstone was cancelled.

"It was not part of our thought process to do Silverstone," he said. "We felt that for the young drivers who we would be interested in taking a look at, it would be more relevant for them at the end of the year.

"In an ideal world, all the teams would test at the same venue as they have over the last couple of years. If that was Abu Dhabi great, but if that has to be after the end of the season in an Jerez test then no problem for us.

"Abu Dhabi is a good venue for newcomers to F1. We would not have any issue at all with that. If others feel sufficiently strongly that we need to do it after the season, then so be it."

Lotus boss Eric Boullier reckons if Silverstone did not happen then it would make more sense from a cost and logistics reason to do Abu Dhabi rather than require staff to travel again in December.

"Jerez testing in December would be a lot of money," he said. "It would not be perfect timing in terms of weather and it would be another burden for the staff."

Ferrari believes that Sergio Perez's return to form in the Canadian Grand Prix was helped by him learning to tame his aggression.

Up until last weekend's race in Montreal, the Mexican had not scored a point since he finished runner-up to Fernando Alonso at the Malaysian Grand Prix back in March.

That run of disappointment prompted talks between the Sauber driver and Ferrari Driver Academy head Luca Baldisserri to work out exactly what was happening.

And Baldisserri suggested in an interview with the official Ferrari website that Perez's recent plight was not being helped by him being too aggressive in the races.

"After Monaco, we had a discussion with Sergio," said Baldisserri. "We wanted to find out why recent results had not lived up to expectations after the Malaysian Grand Prix.

"Perez is undoubtedly talented, but he often lets himself down by being too aggressive which, especially in Formula 1, does not deliver results.

"The Montreal race was a great response, a race in which Sergio not only ran at a great pace, but also managed his race very well, managing to stay on track for fifty laps on the same set of tyres."

Speculation that Perez could be in the frame for a drive at Ferrari had cooled recently, after Luca di Montezemolo suggested the driver was not experienced enough - although it is not clear if the Montreal result will change that stance.

"Perez is a good driver but to drive a Ferrari you need more experience," di Montezemolo was quoted as saying by Reuters last week.

"I think he is one of the potential best young drivers for the future but before putting a young driver in a Ferrari I need more experience and more results."

Formula 1 has never been better or more exciting than it is now, reckons Peter Sauber.

Having produced seven different winners from the seven races held so far - and teams having had to work hard to unlock the secrets to Pirelli's 2012 rubber – F1 has got used to witnessing some unpredictable grands prix.

But although the topsy-turvy nature of the campaign has led to some criticisms that F1 has become too much of a 'lottery' – Sauber is adamant that it is the opposite and the racing has never been as good.

"As far as I can see it's just a handful of people in the paddock who can't get used to not knowing by Friday who's going to win on Sunday," he said in an interview issued by his team on Thursday.

"I think the fans see it in a completely different light. They're delighted with the unpredictability, the sheer variety and the unbelievably close competition.

"I've been in Formula One for 20 years now and for me it's never been better or more exciting. That's partly down to Pirelli, who are supplying the tyres for this show."

F1's previous record of different winners from the opening races was five back in 1983, but this year Mark Webber in Monaco and Lewis Hamilton in Canada have helped increase that tally by two so far.

Peter Sauber has not ruled out his team grabbing a victory this season, on the back of Sergio Perez's latest podium finish in Canada.

Perez recovered from 15th position on the grid to finish within a few seconds of race winner Lewis Hamilton in Montreal, after a performance which highlighted the strength of the C31 package in the right conditions.

And with Sauber convinced that his car is better than previous results had suggested, he reckons that more podiums - and even a win – could be on the cards.

"If we manage to exploit our full potential as a team, in other words get everything right from Friday morning to Sunday evening, a great deal is possible," said Sauber in an interview released by the team on Thursday.

"After seven races it is patently clear that the C31 can be fast on virtually any kind of track."

When asked about the possibility of a victory, Sauber said: "Before the season I don't suppose anyone would have put that question to me. But now, after seven races with seven different winners, so much seems possible.

"In Malaysia we came very close to winning. Further podium places certainly seem a realistic prospect. The prerequisite of course is that our drivers go into the race from good grid positions."

Sauber has historically not been able to match the expensive development programmes of rival teams, but the signs are that this season things are working much better.

"Of course the four big teams have very different financial possibilities compared to the private teams in the middle of the pack. But that doesn't in any way discourage us," he said.

"Our forte is efficiency. The development package that was given its first airing in Barcelona showed what we are capable of. The crucial thing is that the C31 gives us an excellent foundation with real potential for further development."

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Formula 1 team principals are confident that the season will not be marred by a spate of further technical controversies - despite Red Bull Racing having had to make two changes to its cars in recent weeks.

With the field being so close in terms of laptime this year, the increased scrutiny in what rival outfits are up to has contributed to rules clarifications being requested about holes in the floor and inside the wheel hubs of the RB8 over the Monaco and Canadian GP weekends.

Those decisions went against Red Bull Racing, which meant the team had to make two changes to its cars in as many races.

But although that run of events has pointed towards perhaps there being a spate of rule interpretations as the world title battle heats up, leading figures are hopeful that the situation will be much calmer going forward.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn said: "There has always been a lot of diligence between the teams of what others are doing; it is almost the self policing nature of F1.

"If you think back to any of the innovations, like the double diffuser, it was brought to the attention of the FIA and challenged, and it has always been the case in F1.

"We have just had a couple of incidents come together and it looks intense, but there have always been lots of things going on and lots of teams inspecting each other's cars. The advent of the digital camera with a long lens means we all have a good insight into what other people's cars look like.

"It is all part of modern F1: making sure you are not missing interesting innovation because of interpretations or regulations. And, if you don't agree with it, getting a clarification and trying to understand it."

When asked by AUTOSPORT if he felt there would be a run of technical controversies this year, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: "No, I don't think so.

"People are always trying to understand how the rules are interpreted. Every team will try and push the boundaries, and every now and again the FIA takes a view and they change some guidance.

"I don't think it will be a major feature of this season, we need to primarily focus on our car and our programme - not on that of other teams."

The FIA is hoping to finalise the implementation of cost-control measures in Formula 1 for 2013 by the end of this month, the governing body said after a meeting of its World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Friday.

As AUTOSPORT revealed on Thursday, FIA president Jean Todt is keen for moves to be taken that will help secure the future of the sport, amid concerns from some teams about rising costs.

Those efforts are focused on trying to frame a type of Resource Restriction Agreement into the 2013 regulations - which will be policed by the FIA.

A statement issued by the governing body said: "At their request, the FIA is having active discussions with teams regarding cost control and any amendments to the technical regulations resulting from a further limit on expenditure on the chassis will be submitted to the WMSC via a fax vote before 30 June. The intention is to help all teams participate in the championship in a fair and equal manner."

The June 30 date is significant because it is the late day that 2013 regulations can be changed with only majority support from the teams.

Any attempt to implement an RRA after that date would require unanimous support – something that is not present at the moment because it is understood that Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso are against the FIA policing budgets in the sport.

The FIA also said that it hoped to finalise the terms for a Concorde Agreement in the next few weeks – and that that matter was sorted there was little point in proceeding with official entries for the 2013 championship.

It was therefore decided that rather than stick with the normal July 15 deadline for entries for next year, that the closing off point would be in September instead.

The statement added: "Constructive Concorde Agreement discussions are on-going between the FIA and the Commercial Rights Holder, with the intention of finalising an agreement in the coming weeks. It was also decided that the deadline for the closing of entries be deferred to 30 September."

Lewis Hamilton says the pressure remains on him to keep delivering results this season - despite his victory in Canada having moved him to the top of the title standings.

With the championship battle starting to boil down to a straight fight between the leading teams, Hamilton says the fight is wide open – and no one can afford to relax yet.

"While it's always pleasing to be leading the championship, I'm only two points ahead of Fernando [Alonso] – which is nothing, particularly when there are a handful of really strong drivers all separated by a couple of points, so there's still everything to play for," he explained.

"Secondly, the intensity of this year's championship means there's so little breathing space – we may have won in Canada, but there's an enormous amount of pressure to keep racking up good results at every grand prix.

"I think that consistency, rather than individual strong results, will be the key to winning this world championship, so we need to back it up in Valencia with another strong result."

He added: "People are always asking me to predict what will happen at the next race and I always tell them it's really difficult to make an accurate prediction – but I'll be heading to Valencia feeling super-motivated to get another strong result and maintain my momentum before we head into Silverstone and the Santander British Grand Prix."

While Hamilton's focus is firmly on victory, team-mate Jenson Button just wants to get himself back in the title fight after recent troubles.

"Canada was just one of those weekends where things didn't come together – after some difficult races, I really needed the track time on Friday to find a clearer direction with the set-up, and, unfortunately, that didn't happen due to a number of technical issues," he said.

"And I think that set the tone for the rest of the weekend: we lacked the data we needed to tackle the race and we struggled. Still, there were important lessons to be learned from those issues, and we addressed everything back at MTC once we'd returned from Canada in a bid to get a clearer direction for Valencia next weekend. A day like that is enormously productive and I think we covered a lot of ground.

"The last few races haven't delivered the results I'd like, but there are still 13 races to go. We've had seven different winners and no clear championship leader has emerged, so I'll be looking to get a decent result under my belt next weekend in order to get my title bid back on track."

Lotus is not far away from grabbing the victory that has eluded it so far this season, and it could come as early as the next race in Valencia.

That is the view of Romain Grosjean, who says that hopes are high at the team that its first win of 2012 could be just around the corner on the back of his strong second-placed finish in Canada last weekend.

On a low-grip track that is not ideal for the characteristics of the E20, Grosjean brilliantly executed a one-stop strategy to overhaul Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso in the closing stages and come home right behind Lewis Hamilton.

And although Montreal marked yet another occasion Lotus has had the potential to come out on top but not quite been able to get the victory, Grosjean thinks that it will not take that much to get the team to the front.

"The gap to the win is not that big," he said. "We need to qualify better. That is not our strength this season but we are working on it. I think Friday and Saturday were quite difficult for us in Canada but we have been learning a lot about the car so it's good that we now have that in our pocket for the next races.

"We have to go into every weekend aiming for a win; approaching a race in any other way is like putting yourself on the back foot from the start.

"I'm mainly hoping for an improvement in qualifying, a good start and then we'll see what happens from there. It's great to be fighting at the front and that's always what we want to do, but we're in a tight battle this season so of course the most important thing is to score some good points again for the team.

"If we have a strong weekend from the start then I think we are capable of fighting for a podium or even a win. We'll see after qualifying where we are; hopefully we can get another good result."

Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen is equally eager to find out how strong the team will be in Valencia - after his hopes in Canada were wrecked by a differential problem in qualifying.

"I was a bit frustrated overall as I think we could have achieved more from the weekend," he said. "Still, we gained more points for the championship which is the most important thing, especially with everything so close this season.

"I love winning and that's what I'm always trying for. I've never won in Valencia, so it's a good target. Last time I raced in Valencia I finished in third after starting from sixth on the grid which was not too bad."

Lotus must improve its qualifying performances if it is going to grab its first win of the season, says technical director James Allison.

Although the E20 has shown very strong pace in several races this year, including Canada last weekend when Romain Grosjean charged to second place behind winner Lewis Hamilton, its victory chances have been hurt by its often poor grid positions.

And Allison believes that even a small improvement on its Saturday pace will be enough to allow it to achieve the breakthrough it is looking for.

"We've often been devastatingly fast on the harder of the tyres in qualifying but then come up a bit short on the softer option; that's an issue we're working on at the moment," he explained. "You can point to cars on the grid that are very quick in qualifying but not so competitive in the race and vice-versa.

"We seem to have a car that is not among the very quickest in qualifying at the moment but has very good race pace. It's not a bad combination, and we'd rather have it this way round than the other, but if we want to win races we are going to have to improve our qualifying performances.

"It's not going to take much, we just need that little bit extra if we want to challenge for higher honours."

Allison also revealed that Grosjean's tyres in Montreal had even more performance left in them at the end - despite having elected to run a one-stop.

"We could in fact have gone quite a lot further than we did," he said. "There was still plenty of rubber left on them at the end of the race. It really was an excellent performance from Romain, and the car looked very competitive on the soft compound tyres.

"If you look at the cars who made two stops, their middle stints were around the same pace that Romain was running and he managed to continue until the end of the race. Indeed, after Lewis [Hamilton] stopped for the second time he was only pulling away from Romain at around 0.4s per lap on tyres that were 37 laps younger."

Michael Schumacher says he and Mercedes are heading to the European Grand Prix in an optimistic mood, despite a disappointing outing in Canada last weekend.

The Brackley-based outfit had been singled out as one of the favourites for victory in Montreal, but it did not manage to unlock its full potential - and Schumacher's race ended with a rare DRS failure that left his wing flap open.

The team has worked hard since the event to get to the bottom of why Schumacher has suffered such horrendous reliability this season – and the seven-time champion is upbeat that progress has been made.

"Our entire focus is now on the race in Valencia, and I am sure that everybody's motivation is even stronger because the weekend in Canada didn't go as well as we had hoped," explained Schumacher.

"Our motto in the last few days has been to roll our sleeves up and focus on the job in hand; everybody in the team has taken that approach to heart, so we can travel to Valencia in an optimistic mood."

Team principal Ross Brawn said that achieving zero tolerance to reliability issues was a priority – and that he was upbeat about the potential of the team for Valencia.

"The performance of our car and our tyre management were generally good in Canada, however our competitiveness was compromised by reliability problems and mistakes," he said.

"This is a disappointment that is deeply felt by everyone in our team. We have been working hard to ensure we understand the reasons and deal with them. Achieving zero-defect reliability is our highest priority. The opportunities available if we can give both drivers a reliable car and a clean weekend are clear."

Pastor Maldonado believes Williams' form since its Spanish Grand Prix victory has not been as bad as its poor results suggest.

Williams has scored just a single point in the two races since Barcelona, with neither Maldonado nor Bruno Senna making it in to Q3 at either Monaco or Canada.

But although that form is a disappointment after the highs of Spain, Maldonado thinks that things are not as bad as they appear - and the poor results are more down to things just not clicking together rather than any inherent weakness with the car.

When asked by AUTOSPORT why he believed Williams was so strong in Barcelona but had not been that quick since, Maldonado said: "I think we've been good as well. We've been good in Monaco because we were always there, top five. In Canada as well; I just missed the qualifying but I think it was a consequence because I got traffic.

"I did my best in only one lap I had. I just try, and I just missed, which can happen. From our point of view I think we've been competitive; but we didn't get any luck. The car is there; my pace is there; I'm always quick. We just need to try to improve. We are not the quickest on the track but we are not that far away."

Maldonado thinks that if the team can get on top of the challenges of each venue as well as it did in Spain then there is little reason not to think that more success is possible.

"We need to work hard, especially with the car, to try to improve qualifying and the race," he said. "We need to try to get the balance, and the best compromise, between qualifying and race.

"I think we are not that far off, we just need to put everything together. The last couple of races, it was quite difficult to put everything together, but we are competitive. We need to just concentrate on our pace and everything."