What we learned in Friday practice for the F1 Canadian GP

There's two things that Formula 1 can usually rely on with a trip to Montreal: either inclement weather, or a pecking order that deviates from the status quo just enough to keep things interesting. And, since the swelling of rainclouds did not - and do not - appear to be drifting on the horizon across the St Lawrence Seaway, the latter variable might have to do the majority of the legwork.

And if Friday practice is anything to go by, there was plenty of variance ensconced within the timing boards. We're used to McLarens and Red Bulls leading the way; instead, George Russell not only led FP2, but did so with a lap on the medium tyres to sit a scant 0.028s clear of Lando Norris's soft-tyre gambit.

But the timing boards don't really tell the whole story; the more fascinating aspect to that was that Russell seemed to be able to pull that time out of his Mercedes with relative ease on the C5 tyre, while Norris had to build up to his best on the C6s throughout the session.

There was a time where McLaren seemed all at sea through the session, perhaps suffused by the noise of bedding in its front wing and suspension updates during FP1. The team countered that the new wing, an evolution of its stiffer Spanish Grand Prix model to fit the new flex-test regulations, was only ever a 'test item' to gather preliminary data on through the first Friday session. Whether Woking's finest continues with its revised front suspension package will be determined overnight.

But the momentum seemed to come to the team over the session, following an FP1 that featured myriad wayward moments; Norris struggled with the Turn 10 hairpin - L'Epingle, to give it its proper moniker - in that opening session, while Oscar Piastri sustained his own moments of nervousness through the Turn 6/7 chicane.

The waters that Mercedes moved in looked far less choppy, aside from minor moments for both drivers with their own Turn 6/7 excursions early doors in FP1. Both Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli could be forgiven for that, as the track surface was so dusty that Indiana Jones could have been digging time-lost artefacts out of it. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve eventually began to clean up through the afternoon, helped by a relatively uninterrupted FP2 session.

On the basis of the qualifying simulations, which were irregularly strewn through the opening half of the session amid continued exploratory runs, Mercedes will likely be happiest with its potential grid-setting pace. It does depend on Russell reprising that C5 pace on the C6s, a tyre that the team hasn't necessarily enjoyed since its introduction for this season - although there's always the chance that the medium might prove to hold up better over a lap. Aston Martin, after all, used it to great effect at Imola in Q3...

Mercedes may have been the happiest team after Friday practice having topped FP2 with Russell on mediums

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Williams also looks to be in the hunt with McLaren and Mercedes for the higher grid placings, and a Q3 berth should at least beckon. Alex Albon was fourth overall and just over three-tenths shy of Russell's outright pace; Carlos Sainz was a little further back in seventh. The two dark blue cars were separated by Fernando Alonso, who did all of Aston Martin's FP2 running as Lance Stroll slapped his car into the wall on the exit of Turn 7 early on, and Piastri's McLaren.

Of the big hitters, Lewis Hamilton will be obliged to perform the puzzled head-scratching in the debrief room as he works out the half-second deficit to Russell, as will Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver headlined FP1, but struggled with braking in the second hour of running and was unable to draw closer to the duo of Russell and Norris. Still, if anyone can perform overnight miracles, it's Red Bull; the team is as adept at unearthing treasures in the dead of night as the proverbial grave-robber. 

Fractions separate top three teams in Canada long runs

If FP2's long runs are any indication of how the weekend Montreal city-break will stack up, then it'll be close. Very close. To represent their laps on reasonably similar stint lengths, we've taken Verstappen's pace in the Red Bull, Norris for McLaren, and Russell for Mercedes.

*Sauber ran only on hard tyres; the rest used mediums

**Aston Martin (Alonso) not included, as he only did short stints on softs

Just a tenth per lap appears to separate Norris from Russell, but the taller of the two Britons enjoyed a much longer stint on his medium-compound of tyres. In theory, this could potentially equalise the two; Russell did demonstrate some drop-off towards the end of his stint, as his low-1m16s then tended towards the higher end of that bracket.

One should expect Ferrari to be slightly closer to the likes of Williams, given the perils of having one set of data to extrapolate from. But if this is the Prancing Horse's true pace, then it only sits a hair's breadth clear of the remaining midfielders

To further underline the silver cars' pace, Antonelli's stint was largely similar - although slightly more inconsistent in the opening laps, perhaps down to the effect of traffic around the circuit. By comparison, Norris did dip into the 1m17s by the close of his 11-lap stint, but this was a jump of around 0.4s from his cadence over the previous tours, so one must assume that this was also marginally traffic-affected. The McLaren's strong tyre management would not usually decree that the tyres would fall off so sharply.

Verstappen is not far away, which Red Bull should be pleased with given its tentative approach to circuits like Montreal. The short-apex corners and low-speed sections don't usually play into the RB21's hands and, on a qualifying lap, Verstappen might find the car a bit flighty in those particular areas. But on a race stint, he might well remain in the realm of the two Mercedes-powered cars ahead of him on the long-run tables - so long as the degradation isn't too overwhelming deep into the stint.

Red Bull is lagging behind McLaren and Mercedes in Montreal, despite Verstappen topping FP1

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Then there's a three-tenth gap to Williams and, surprisingly, Sauber. Williams team principal James Vowles freely admitted that the squad continues to enjoy the strong form on circuits with very few corners - or at least, where none of them are of a high-speed or combined-entry nature. Over the past two seasons, Albon in particular has benefitted from Williams' characteristics in Canada - only his current team-mate denied him a bumper haul of points last year in their Turn 6 skirmish. 

Sauber's stint is even more surprising when one considers that the Swiss outfit only used the hard tyre. Team principal Jonathan Wheatley told Sky after the session that the team didn't want to dip into its supply of medium tyres too much, expecting it to be strong in the race, but Nico Hulkenberg's 10-lap stint on the C4s was nonetheless impressive. And it wasn't a one-off either; Gabriel Bortoleto's ultimate pace was in the same ballpark as his vastly more experienced team-mate. Although Sauber didn't show particularly stellar qualifying pace, sitting within the midfield runners and riders, its pursuit of greater consistency with its aerodynamics package may well have developed a good race-day prospect.

Similarly surprising, albeit for less auspicious reasons, was Ferrari. Like Aston Martin, Ferrari only had one car to perform the hard yards in FP2 as Charles Leclerc's FP1 crash at Turn 3 left the Monegasque requiring an entirely new survival cell. Thus, Hamilton was tasked with the long-run work - but his stint was about as consistent as a bowl of minestrone; it was very difficult to get a realistic read on Ferrari's actual race pace from his race simulations alone. 

One should expect Ferrari to be slightly closer to the likes of Williams, given the perils of having one set of data to extrapolate from. But if this is the Prancing Horse's true pace, then it only sits a hair's breadth clear of the remaining midfielders; Racing Bulls, Haas, and Alpine were all very tightly knit together. Of the trio, Racing Bulls' one-lap pace seems to be the best, and it should be capable of breaking into Q3 with at least one of its two cars, while Haas might straddle the Q1/Q2 cut-off line. Alpine - or at least, Pierre Gasly - should be somewhere in between.

Aston Martin is the unknown. Alonso has found a happy medium in one-lap pace and should once again be a Q3 contender. But given his only FP2 long runs were a) not even that long, and b) done exclusively on the soft C6 tyre, it's incredibly hard to pinpoint where the team lies after Friday's sessions.

Ferrari is closer to the midfield than it would have hoped - will the squad turn its form around in time for qualifying?

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images