By Camille Lebez Leroy
Three red flags, Mercedes on top and several drivers struggling; here’s what happened during the Canadian GP’s only practice session
FP1 got underway in Canada under bright blue skies, although the conditions were still quite cool with 15 degrees in the air.
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve looked extremely dusty in the opening minutes and the drivers immediately began struggling for grip, with several lock-ups and slides appearing as soon as the first laps started.
Teams quickly split their tyre strategies. Perez headed out on the softs, Racing Bulls chose mediums for Lindblad and Lawson, while most of the grid preferred the hard compound. Cadillac also divided strategies, with Bottas on mediums.
Alpine’s session started badly when Colapinto reported a throttle issue before losing power completely. He crawled back towards the pit lane but could only stop outside the Cadillac garage. Replays showed the car suddenly cutting out while weaving down the straight.
Alpine later confirmed they were investigating an electrical issue before eventually changing the power unit, ending his session early.
The first interruption arrived soon after when Lawson stopped on track with what he described as a power steering failure. The New Zealander climbed out of the car immediately and the session was red flagged because marshals could not move the Racing Bulls safely.
With only one practice session during the Sprint weekend, it was a frustrating setback for Lawson, especially with upgrades fitted to the car.
Once the session resumed, Verstappen briefly moved to the top of the timesheets with a 1m15.895s. Red Bull appeared encouraged by the progress made with their upgrades in Miami, and Verstappen sounded much happier with the balance of the RB22 over team radio.
Mercedes also arrived with several new parts including updates to the front wing, floor, diffuser and brake ducts. Haas tested upgrades only on Bearman’s car, while McLaren appeared to split specifications between Norris and Piastri. Russell and Antonelli soon traded fastest laps before Piastri jumped clear with a strong run on hard tyres.
However, another red flag quickly followed after Albon brushed the wall exiting Turns 6 and 7. The Williams driver suffered suspension damage and stopped immediately. Although he climbed out unhurt, the damage forced officials to deploy the Medical Car before the session could restart again.
At that stage, Piastri led the session while Colapinto, Lawson and Albon all remained without meaningful running ahead of Sprint Qualifying later in the day.
After a lengthy stoppage, Russell returned to the top with a 1m14.560s, narrowly ahead of Antonelli. The Mercedes pair looked particularly confident around the walls, both pushing aggressively and repeatedly brushing close to the barriers through Turn 9 and the Wall of Champions section.
Mercedes then held the top two places ahead of the McLarens and Ferraris, with Hamilton leading Leclerc. Lindblad impressed again for Racing Bulls by running seventh and comfortably ahead of the Red Bulls for a period. The rookie looked composed throughout despite the pressure of carrying the team after Lawson’s early retirement.
Alonso briefly climbed to ninth after using the soft tyres, although Aston Martin’s pace appeared slightly flattering given most rivals had not yet completed performance runs. Hamilton later locked up heavily, creating a large flat spot on his front-right tyre, but still improved to third place shortly afterwards.
As the final soft tyre runs began, Russell laid down the first major benchmark with a 1m13.850s before Antonelli responded immediately to go almost half a second quicker. The young Italian’s lap looked cleaner and more controlled, underlining Mercedes’ strong pace around Montreal.
McLaren’s response never fully arrived. Piastri locked up heavily on his soft tyre run and aborted the lap before reporting “pretty reasonable flat spots” over the radio.
The closing minutes remained chaotic. Russell spun at Turn 1 and lightly touched the barriers before recovering to the pits, while Ocon crashed after taking too much kerb and spinning into the wall. Debris from the Haas brought out another red flag with less than two minutes remaining.
The session eventually resumed just long enough for drivers to practise starts before the chequered flag. Albon, Lawson and Colapinto all remained stuck in the pits, while Antonelli finished fastest ahead of Russell and Hamilton, continuing the impressive form he showed previously in Miami.
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