Mercedes has dealt a serious blow to the competition’s hopes of a quick change of power in Formula 1. At the start of the Canadian Grand Prix, the Silver Arrows were highly superior, with World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli setting the fastest lap in the first and only free practice session in 1:13.402 minutes. Teammate George Russell was a good tenth of a second slower, and the numerous updates to the Mercedes worked straight away.
Already seven tenths behind, record world champion Lewis Hamilton was the first pursuer, Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari came fourth ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. McLaren was only behind: world champion Lando Norris, most recently winner of the sprint in Miami, finished ahead of Oscar Piastri. Nico Hülkenberg started the weekend well in ninth place in the Audi.
Qualifying for the sprint is already scheduled for Friday evening (10:30 p.m. CEST/Sky) on Ile Notre-Dame, so the session at midday local time was the only free practice session of the race weekend – and it didn’t go according to plan.
Multiple interruptions
There were two red flags, the second, longer interruption had quite dramatic reasons: Alex Albon had run over one of the numerous marmots that live on the island in the St. Lawrence River and then lost control of his Williams. The training was extended by a total of 20 minutes.
For the teams it was a matter of finding the right settings for their cars in the shortest possible time, and a lot had happened recently: for the last race in Miami, the first after a month-long break, the pursuers had brought some extensive and effective updates and thus put Mercedes under pressure. In Canada, Mercedes now has its first major innovations of the year on the car, and the recent updates at McLaren are similarly extensive.
In the World Cup, Antonelli (100) is 20 points ahead of Russell, Leclerc (59), Norris and Hamilton (51 each) are further behind. Points will be awarded twice this weekend, first in the sprint on Saturday (6 p.m. CEST), then in the Grand Prix on Sunday (10 p.m. CEST/Sky).