Lewis Hamilton was quickest during FP1 for the Canadian Grand Prix after Felipe Massa crashed early in the session.
The defending champion was the only driver under the 1m15s mark, with Hamilton posting a 1:14.755 to sit 0.331s clear of team-mate Nico Rosberg. Hamilton’s best time came on the supersoft tyre while Rosberg ran the ultrasoft during the opening session in Montreal.
Sebastian Vettel was third fastest and also set his fastest time on the supersoft tyre, ending up just under half a second adrift of Hamilton. More encouraging was the time of Max Verstappen,who was 0.8s off Hamilton but quicker than Kimi Raikkonen despite only using the soft tyre in FP1.
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Massa’s crash came half an hour into the session, with the Williams driver losing control on the approach to Turn 1 and sliding on to the grass. Once on the grass, Massa was a passenger and the car spun before he hit the wall with his right rear corner, heavily damaging the rear of the car. He then radioed to the team: “I think I had a problem, I closed the DRS and lost the rear completely”.
The session was red flagged to recover the Williams, with Massa’s car needing plenty of repair work. His team-mate Valtteri Bottas was then the busiest driver in the session to try and gather more data for the team, and finished sixth overall but over 1.5s off the pace. Bottas was also annoyed at Verstappen having been blocked by the Red Bull at the final chicane and having to take to the escape road to avoid contact.
While Ferrari’s updated turbo appeared to be reliable and competitive in the opening session, the same could not be said for Honda as Jenson Button completed just eight laps. Sent back out to try and get mileage late on, Button emerged from the garage with smoke pouring from the rear of his car and limped round before returning to the pits as his engineer reassured him “Honda know what the problem is”.
Button’s team-mate Fernando Alonso was tenth fastest, just 0.1s quicker than the 2009 world champion, with Daniel Ricciardo sandwiched between the two McLarens.
Encouragingly for Manor, Rio Haryanto ended the opening session 18th quickest, close to Felipe Nasr and ahead of Marcus Ericsson, both Renaults and team-mate Pascal Wehrlein.
AS IT HAPPENED: Canadian Grand Prix FP1
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01
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
1:14.755
22
02
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
1:15.086
30
03
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
1:15.243
22
04
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
1:15.553
29
05
Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari
1:15.618
23
06
Valtteri Bottas
Williams
1:16.301
30
07
Nico Hulkenberg
Force India
1:16.464
24
08
Carlos Sainz
Toro Rosso
1:16.543
21
09
Sergio Perez
Force India
1:16.577
25
10
Fernando Alonso
McLaren
1:16.663
18
11
Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull
1:16.734
28
12
Jenson Button
McLaren
1:16.788
8
13
Romain Grosjean
Haas
1:17.008
22
14
Felipe Massa
Williams
1:17.065
7
15
Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso
1:17.310
24
16
Esteban Gutierrez
Haas
1:17.319
24
17
Felipe Nasr
Sauber
1:17.855
21
18
Rio Haryanto
Manor
1:18.103
21
19
Marcus Ericsson
Sauber
1:18.129
8
20
Kevin Magnussen
Renault
1:18.409
13
21
Pascal Wehrlein
Manor
1:18.453
30
22
Jolyon Palmer
Renault
1:18.583
28