Piquet laments lack of dry running

The Renault driver, in his first visit to the Montreal circuit, had to cope with a damp track in the morning and then hit trouble in the afternoon.

In the second session Piquet had problems with his gearbox and could only manage 17th laps on his way to the slowest time of the day.

"My main aim today was to try and get used to the circuit, but that was difficult as I did not do as much running as I would have liked," Piquet said. "It's a very difficult circuit, which is quite bumpy in places and we run very low aero here which makes it a challenging place.

"I did more in the morning when the track was wet, but the conditions were constantly changing and it was difficult to learn much. Then my afternoon ended early as I had a problem with the car and so I couldn't do much work."

Teammate Fernando Alonso completed a difficult day for Renault, finishing down in 17th place after spinning halfway through the session.

The Spaniard was unable to get his car restarted.

"I did not do much running this morning because we only have a limited amount of wet tyres and it made more sense to save them in case we need them later in the weekend," said Alonso. "And so we waited until the circuit was dry, which was only the last ten minutes.

"In the afternoon we did some work with the two different types of dry tyres, and although we did not manage to complete the programme, we still have some interesting information that we will use to try and improve the car for tomorrow."