Hamilton tops opening practice at Canada

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuveca

Lewis Hamilton drew the longest straw in the first practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend at Montreal. The Mercedes driver wasn't however far ahead, with the top 4 covered in little more than 4 tenths.

As always in Canada, the track was particularly on Friday morning, resulting in numerous off-track excursions and spins, including spins from both Ferraris early on in the session.

The session was of course mostly filled with drivers trying out the different tyre compounds available at the venue. Force India's Sergio Perez for instance set the initial pace on softs until Ferrari ended up topping his time by having both their scarlet cars do quick laps on the ultra soft tyres.

Mercedes later fired back, with their runs on ultra soft tyres proving faster, at least for Lewis Hamilton. The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas slotted into third, a close match for Vettel who ended up second fastest.

Meanwhile, there was trouble for Carlos Sainz, as he suffered an apparent engine failure on his very first lap out on track. Fernando Alonso's return to Formula One meanwhile was a shock into reality for the Spaniard. After the McLaren Honda driver had spent a lot of time in the box, his car eventually stopped with a gearbox failure 15 minutes from the end of the session. His team mate, Stoffel Vandoorne on the other hand enjoyed a trouble free session to go 11th fastest.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:13.809-36
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1:14.007+0.198s28
377Valtteri BottasMercedes1:14.046+0.237s21
47Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:14.230+0.421s28
511Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:14.578+0.769s34
631Esteban OconForce India Mercedes1:14.785+0.976s35
733Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:14.861+1.052s19
819Felipe MassaWilliams Mercedes1:15.106+1.297s31
93Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:15.441+1.632s23
1026Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1:15.658+1.849s26
112Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren Honda1:15.943+2.134s29
1220Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:16.233+2.424s25
1318Lance StrollWilliams Mercedes1:16.313+2.504s36
148Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:16.345+2.536s18
1527Nico HulkenbergRenault1:16.473+2.664s27
1614Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Honda1:16.521+2.712s13
179Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:16.805+2.996s24
1830Jolyon PalmerRenault1:17.004+3.195s26
1994Pascal WehrleinSauber Ferrari1:17.606+3.797s28
2055Carlos SainzToro Rosso--1