F1 Canadian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2
Friday's action from the eight round of the 2023 Formula 1 season.
F1 begins its eighth round this weekend with another trip across the Atlantic for the Canadian GP.
Max Verstappen leads the drivers’ standings by 53 points from Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, following his latest win in Spain coupled with the Mexican’s fourth place finish behind both Mercedes drivers.
First practice starts at 6:30pm BST with second practice at 10pm BST.
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It meant that the rest of the session was suspended, with Valtteri Bottas officially fastest after setting his time in the opening moments. You can check the report out here.
With essentially no running taking place in the opening session, it means that FP2 has been extended by an extra 30 minutes, with the session getting underway at 2130hrs BST.
There's sure to be plenty of track action over the next 90 minutes, although a 40% chance of rain could well have an impact on proceedings.
Sun
But right now the sun is beating down, with the track temperature at 38.7C and air temperature at 22.9C.
Not that the warm weather is bothering the fans, who have packed the grandstands and will be hoping to see F1 cars in action for longer than a few minutes...
Just a few minutes until FP2 gets underway, and expect a queue to start forming at the end of pitlane.
Green flag
This is where the fun begins, as the green light appears at the end of the pitlane and FP2 is underway.
Bottas and the two Aston Martins of Stroll and Alonso are the first to hit the track.
Gasly is also out, which is encouraging after his Alpine came to a stop in the opening moments of FP1 with a driveshaft issue and which necessitated a red flag.
Stopwatch
Bottas is the first to put a time on the board - a 1m16.895s.
Alonso slots into second, ahead of Gasly and Stroll.
Unsurprisingly the track is busy, with all drivers bar Albon out on circuit.
Stopwatch
Leclerc jumps to the top of the times with a 1m16.564s on the medium tyre.
Perez and Verstappen, both on the softer rubber, move into second and third respectively.
Leclerc's time at the top doesn't last long, as Alonso and then Bottas both set a faster lap. The benchmark is down to a 1m16.330s. Expect the times to tumble over the opening 30 minutes.
Stopwatch
It's a purple S1, S2 and S3 for Verstappen who jumps to the top of the times with a 1m15.333s. The Red Bull driver isn't happy though, complaining that the downshifts "are a joke".
Albon is the last of the drivers to get out on and track and posts a 1m17.905s for his first effort, which currently puts him P18.
An onboard replay shows Ocon getting held up by one of the Ferraris into the left-hand T6, costing the Alpine driver his lap.
Stopwatch
Gasly showing there's nothing wrong with the pace of the Alpine once it is up and running, posting a 1m15.224s to go top - fractionally faster than Perez who is now second.
Stopwatch
Verstappen is the first man to break the 1m15s barrier, setting a 1m14.726s to go fastest.
Leclerc back out on track on a set of softs and fastest in S1. Interestingly, the Ferrari driver isn't sporting the Gilles Villeneuve tribute helmet in this session.
Stopwatch
A personal best in S2 and fastest of all in S3 puts Leclerc top on a 1m14.576s.
And just because he's not using it at the moment, doesn't mean we're not going to share his Gilles Villeneuve tribute helmet which I think we can all agree is very fever!
Photo by: Ferrari
Stopwatch
And while we were getting excited about that retro helmet, Leclerc goes faster again with a 1m14.394s.
Stopwatch
Not to be outdone, Leclerc's Ferrari team-mate Sainz now tops the leaderboard with a 1m14.196s.
Further down the order - in fact at the bottom to be precise - are the Mercedes drivers of Hamilton and Russell. Both have done 16 and 17 laps respectively, so no doubt plenty of data gathering for both cars at the moment.
Bottas bangs in a lap good enough for P3 at the moment using the soft tyre. The Finn and the Alfa Romeo team need a strong weekend in Montreal after a difficult run of form.
Red flag
Well this doesn't look good for the Haas of Hulkenberg. The German has smoke coming from the back of his car and reports a loss of drive, coming to a stop on the start/finish straight. Red flag!
There's plenty of smoke coming from that Haas as marshals spray it with fire extinguisher foam. Replays show that as Hulkenberg got on the power out of the final chicane it completely lost power.
With only 30 minutes of the scheduled 90 minutes gone, it's going to be a huge amount of time that Hulkenberg and Haas now lose compared with their rivals.
There's quite a large patch of extinguisher foam and possibly other fluids that's been left as a result of the Haas coming to a stop. But luckily it's right by the pit exit wall and way off the racing line so shouldn't be an issue.
The car has been recovered to the pitlane, and hopefully means we'll be back underway soon. The last thing we want is a repeat of the continuous red flag from FP1...
Green flag
And we're green again!
Just as the Haas of Hulkenberg was coming to a stop, Verstappen jumped into second with a time less than a tenth off the best from Leclerc. Sainz still occupies third, with Bottas in fourth.
Perez is on track with a set of soft tyres, posting a personal best in S1. But then he blows the lap by cutting the T8/T9 chicane!
The Mexican decides that's enough for now and heads to the pits, but then immediately rejoins. Replays show that he may have made slight contact with the wall exiting T7, so perhaps a precautionary visit to his mechanics?
Stopwatch
While that was going on, Sainz is the first driver to dip into the 1m13s - setting a 1m13.844s to go fastest.
Red flag
Ocon has come to a stop exiting the T8/T9 chicane.
There's no visible damage to the Alpine, so perhaps another driveshaft issue which blighted his team-mate Gasly in the opening session.
Ocon is told by his engineer to stop the car, so obviously the team has seen something in the telemetry it most certainly doesn't like.
By: Autosport Staff
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