Button tops first Canada practice

The reigning champion set a best time of 1m18.127s, 0.156 seconds ahead of Mercedes driver Schumacher, and 0.225s clear of his McLaren team-mate Hamilton.

Though weather conditions were dry, bar a few spots of rain, all morning, drivers reported a very dirty and tricky surface on their exploratory laps, so half an hour elapsed before anyone tried setting a time - and it was halfway through the session before the quick men started lapping in earnest.

When they did, the morning quickly became a battle between Schumacher and the McLaren duo, with all three having turns in first place. McLaren spent much of the rest of the session holding a one-two, but in the end Schumacher was able to get between Button and Hamilton. The former champion was clearly testing the limits, having a few near-misses under braking and the odd trip over the run-off areas.

Schumacher was not the only one to venture off-road, with Fernando Alonso, Vitaly Petrov, Bruno Senna, Hamilton and Sebastien Buemi among the others to go straight on at chicanes, and Pedro de la Rosa spinning his Sauber at the hairpin.

To complete a promising morning for Mercedes, Nico Rosberg moved the second car up to fourth with his final lap, just ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, whose team-mate Mark Webber was a low-key 14th.

2008 Montreal winner Robert Kubica (Renault) took seventh for Renault, ahead of Alonso's Ferrari, and the two Williams.

Lucas di Grassi was the only driver not to set a time, spending most of the session in the Virgin pits and then stopping out at Turn 6 not long after taking to the track.


Pos  Driver         Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:18.127            23
 2.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:18.285  + 0.158   19
 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:18.352  + 0.225   19
 4.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:18.356  + 0.229   23
 5.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:18.549  + 0.422   27
 6.  Kubica         Renault                 1:18.662  + 0.535   19
 7.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:18.726  + 0.599   21
 8.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:19.097  + 0.970   25
 9.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:19.282  + 1.155   31
10.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:19.313  + 1.186   19
11.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:19.373  + 1.246   12
12.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:19.511  + 1.384   21
13.  Petrov         Renault                 1:19.549  + 1.422   24
14.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:19.609  + 1.482   26
15.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:20.186  + 2.059   33
16.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:20.320  + 2.193   27
17.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:20.584  + 2.457   21
18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:20.823  + 2.696   28
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:21.869  + 3.742   24
20.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth            1:21.977  + 3.850   27
21.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:22.543  + 4.416   12
22.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:22.701  + 4.574   28
23.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:22.713  + 4.586   20
24.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth                              4

All Timing Unofficial