Mercedes led the way in the first practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix with almost half a second in hand over Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton ended the first 90 minutes of running on top of the times with a best lap of 1’14.755, almost a second and a half quicker than he managed in the same session last year.
Hamilton set his best time on the super-soft tyres. Nico Rosberg was unable to lap quicker using the ultra-soft rubber, ending up three-tenths of a second down on his team mate.
Sebastian Vettel also favoured the super-soft tyres and got within half a second of Hamilton’s time for Ferrari.
Both Red Bulls, however, only ran on the harder soft compound. Max Verstappen was the quicker of the pair, ending up eight-tenths of a second down on Hamilton. He also earned the ire of Valtteri Bottas after delaying the Williams driver at the final chicane.
Bottas ended the session sixth-fastest but his team mate Felipe Massa‘s involvement in proceedings ended after just half an hour. The Williams driver’s car snapped sideways after his DRS failed to close properly in the braking zone for turn one and went backwards into the barriers. The badly damaged FW38 came to rest not far from the scene of his collision with Sergio Perez at the end of the 2014 race.
Both Force Indias completed the session inside the top ten, the pair separated by Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Toro Rosso. Fernando Alonso was tenth in the upgraded McLaren.
However Jenson Button managed just eight laps due to a problem with his Honda power unit. He was released from the pits late in the session in a cloud of smoke, only to return after a single slow tour of the Montreal track.
First practice visual gaps
Lewis Hamilton – 1’14.755
+0.331 Nico Rosberg – 1’15.086
+0.488 Sebastian Vettel – 1’15.243
+0.798 Max Verstappen – 1’15.553
+0.863 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’15.618
+1.546 Valtteri Bottas – 1’16.301
+1.709 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’16.464
+1.788 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’16.543
+1.822 Sergio Perez – 1’16.577
+1.908 Fernando Alonso – 1’16.663
+1.979 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’16.734
+2.253 Romain Grosjean – 1’17.008
+2.310 Felipe Massa – 1’17.065
+2.555 Daniil Kvyat – 1’17.310
+2.564 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’17.319
+3.100 Felipe Nasr – 1’17.855
+3.348 Rio Haryanto – 1’18.103
+3.374 Marcus Ericsson – 1’18.129
+3.654 Kevin Magnussen – 1’18.409
+3.698 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’18.453
+3.828 Jolyon Palmer – 1’18.583
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
2016 Canadian Grand Prix
- Hamilton edges Bottas for Driver of the Weekend win
- F1 underwhelms at popular Montreal
- 2016 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2016 Canadian Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix
Mike (@mike)
10th June 2016, 16:37
If nothing else causes the death of DRS, that this isn’t the first time it’s caused a crash should. Wasn’t it supposed to close due to airflow if anything went wrong?
Good to see the Williams cars with pace though. Ferrari should be worried if they get beaten by Red Bull here.
Mike (@mike)
10th June 2016, 17:01
For the record, I haven’t seen the session nor understand why the fault occurred.
Martin
10th June 2016, 17:05
“For the record, I haven’t seen the session nor understand why the fault occurred.”
Sounds like the best position to start spouting off from then ;)
It failed. If you banned everything that caused a crash when it failed there wouldn’t be much of the car left to go racing in.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
10th June 2016, 16:49
Strange engine note coming of the SFI of Perez. Ferrari looked to be on the ragged edge, which is not great considering the .5 tenths, in contrast the Merc was stable and responsive. Monaco and Canada were always going to be one of the toughest fortnights of the season for Ferrari regardless of the upgrades, only a miracle from the PU would grant Ferrari any hope in Canada.
Mike
10th June 2016, 18:25
Pray please tell why canada will be tough for Ferrari…man some of these comments…. didnt vettel start somewhere at the back of the field and finish 5th last year…..so how has Ferrari done on the power tracks so far this year? Can we at least wait till the quali simulations in practice 2 before we predict doom?… i cant wait to see [sarcasm on] red bull show how they are the second best team like Ricciardo claimed [sarcasm off]. Does anybody look in to “why” anymore and just throw out random predictions based on the last race..
A.S
10th June 2016, 19:04
@Mike. Hear, hear. Tired of it myself. Red Bull has a good race and suddenly they’ve uprooted Ferrari and are ready to challenge Mercedes. If Ferrari do well in Canada. The same nonsense will be spouted for the next few weeks.
Simeon Simeonoff (@simeonoff)
10th June 2016, 16:49
Not that it matters but in my world 0.488 is twice less than “almost” 1.
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
10th June 2016, 17:20
Yep in my world too.
markp
10th June 2016, 18:18
More like just under half a second, saying a second is a real put off for some as sounds like a Merc domination weekend before its really started. Glass half empty.
Mike
10th June 2016, 18:31
I was busy myself trying to figure out the fuzzy math involved in that sentence….i put that sentence in the same junk pile as all the talk of red bull jumping Ferrari and challenging mercedes along with williams in testing making similar claims.. seems as if the facts of the matter is never good enough
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
10th June 2016, 16:52
The cynic in me wants to say that Massa’s crash is a perfect reason for DRS to be scrapped. But then again tyres and wings fail and those haven’t been scrapped.
Park
10th June 2016, 16:52
I think it’s a new rear wing on Massa’s car, so it could be found some issues at early stage, Massa’s gearbox could have been damaged though.
Todfod (@todfod)
10th June 2016, 16:54
Lewis is an absolute boss around this circuit. I would be shocked if he didn’t take the pole, win and fastest lap this weekend.
Also interesting to see that max was only 0.5s off Rosberg’s time on a tyre two compounds harder. I think it will be an interesting fight for the last place on the podium between Ferrari and Red Bull.
After the top 3 teams, it looks like quite a gap to the next lot of Williams and Force India.
The heavily upgraded Mclaren looks like another disappointment yet again. I would be shocked to see this team even reach the upper midfield by the end of the year
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
10th June 2016, 17:23
@todfod On the contrary. Even if Vettel qualifies sixth, this track allows overtaking. The Ferrai engine is still plenty ahead of the Renault I believe.
Mark G (@)
10th June 2016, 17:48
Red Bull only 8 tenths down on Hamilton’s best is an early sign of their potential this weekend.
Mercedes didn’t seem to get as much out of the ultra-soft as Red Bull did in Monaco, so if that carries over to Montreal I think it’ll be close. I’d expect Red Bull to be at least 1 second faster on the ultra-soft compared to their runs on the soft, whereas Merc might only expect to gain another 3 tenths or so.
The common opinion is that the new Renault engine is still behind those of Mercedes and Ferrari… I think they’ve understated the amount of improvement they expect to get from it. It’ll be interesting to see what it can do in Q3 on this type of track.
Mike
10th June 2016, 18:12
So first practice session and we are already making performance predictions? SMH
Mark G (@)
10th June 2016, 18:54
I’d describe it as speculation rather than making solid predictions.
Besides, what should I be doing following FP1?
Mike
10th June 2016, 19:59
So after qualifying simulations its mercedes ferrari mercedes then red bull 9 tenths back…. you should watch the cars with pretty colors go round and round and soak in the sounds and atmosphere in practice 1 ..lol…
MG421982 (@)
11th June 2016, 5:22
Ferrari testing parts again on Massa’s car?!?