F1 Grand Prix practice results: Verstappen fastest in Canadian GP on Friday

Verstappen was fastest in both FP1 and FP2 in Montreal, with his Ferrari rivals Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc taking it in turns to be second. Leclerc ended the day 0.081 seconds slower in FP2.

Canadian Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Sainz

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	27	1'15.158			208.887
2	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	34	1'15.404	0.246	0.246	208.206
3	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	31	1'15.531	0.373	0.127	207.856
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	32	1'15.619	0.461	0.088	207.614
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	30	1'15.666	0.508	0.047	207.485
6	George Russell	Mercedes	29	1'15.822	0.664	0.156	207.058
7	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	32	1'15.877	0.719	0.055	206.908
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	27	1'15.877	0.719	0.000	206.908
9	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	33	1'16.041	0.883	0.164	206.462
10	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	29	1'16.083	0.925	0.042	206.348
11	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	29	1'16.165	1.007	0.082	206.126
12	Lando Norris	McLaren	17	1'16.211	1.053	0.046	206.001
13	Alex Albon	Williams	29	1'16.308	1.150	0.097	205.739
14	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	33	1'16.322	1.164	0.014	205.702
15	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	26	1'16.421	1.263	0.099	205.435
16	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	27	1'16.426	1.268	0.005	205.422
17	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	30	1'17.152	1.994	0.726	203.489
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	25	1'17.223	2.065	0.071	203.302
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	33	1'17.241	2.083	0.018	203.254
20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	31	1'17.555	2.397	0.314	202.431
View full results

What happened in Canadian GP Free Practice 1?

Verstappen set the early pace during a long run on medium tyres – starting off at 1m17.991s and working down to 1m15.703s after 13 minutes. Perez just topped him by 0.043s with 1m15.660s.

Sainz was third at this point, 0.74s down on mediums, with Leclerc fourth, 0.84s off on softs.

Neither Perez nor Verstappen improved on softs at first – Max not helped by a rogue set-up issue that sent him straight back into the pits. Sainz jumped to the top with a 1m15.441s, and Perez responded with a 1m15.619s to go P2.

Verstappen’s first proper go on the softs produced 1m15.158s with 20 minutes remaining. Sainz improved to get within a quarter of a second of the pace but then had a very near miss with a groundhog.

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso got to within 0.373s of the fastest time to take third on medium tyres, ahead of Perez and Leclerc – everyone else setting their best times on softs. George Russell ended the session in sixth for Mercedes, ahead of local hero Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Sebastian Vettel (Aston) and Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren).

There were no late improvements as teams were keen to run high fuel loads due to the threat of rain in FP2.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was delayed by a front-right brake issue, after its duct injected a paper towel.

Canadian Grand Prix FP2 results: Verstappen fastest from Leclerc

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	33	1'14.127			211.793
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	32	1'14.208	0.081	0.081	211.562
3	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	32	1'14.352	0.225	0.144	211.152
4	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	35	1'14.442	0.315	0.090	210.897
5	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	24	1'14.543	0.416	0.101	210.611
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	34	1'14.879	0.752	0.336	209.666
7	George Russell	Mercedes	31	1'14.971	0.844	0.092	209.408
8	Lando Norris	McLaren	30	1'14.987	0.860	0.016	209.364
9	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	31	1'15.033	0.906	0.046	209.235
10	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	32	1'15.119	0.992	0.086	208.996
11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	29	1'15.167	1.040	0.048	208.862
12	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	34	1'15.396	1.269	0.229	208.228
13	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	25	1'15.421	1.294	0.025	208.159
14	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	34	1'15.499	1.372	0.078	207.944
15	Mick Schumacher	Haas	35	1'15.516	1.389	0.017	207.897
16	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	31	1'15.526	1.399	0.010	207.870
17	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	37	1'15.567	1.440	0.041	207.757
18	Alex Albon	Williams	30	1'16.171	2.044	0.604	206.109
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	27	1'16.509	2.382	0.338	205.199
20	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	3
View full results

What happened in Canadian GP Free Practice 2?

Verstappen set the bar on mediums at 1m15.618s, 0.77s up on Perez, and then improved to 1m15.096s, two tenths up on Leclerc, who had risen to P2.

Verstappen dipped into the 1m14s bracket with a 1m14.792s, then went faster again with 1m14.532s – still on mediums – versus Leclerc’s 1m14.830s on softs. Sainz – who was suffering major bouncing issues – improved to third on mediums, 0.455s off the pace.

Verstappen’s first soft run produced 1m14.127s, to which Leclerc responded with a 1m14.208s, 0.081s down. Sainz again moved up to third, albeit 0.225s down.

Vettel was an impressive fourth, three tenths off the pace, a tenth ahead of Alonso and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. Russell was seventh, ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren), Ricciardo and Ocon.

Perez was a lacklustre 11^th in this session, over a second off the pace.

Valtteri Bottas suffered an apparent transmission issue that forced him into the pits, while a virtual safety car was briefly required for a marshal to retrieve a beer can from the track.