Kimi Antonelli dominated a red-flag-strewn Canadian Grand Prix practice session in which Williams driver Alex Albon suffered a crash after hitting and killing a marmot.
Championship leader Antonelli, who heads into this weekend’s event at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the back of three straight victories, topped the timesheet with a lap of 1:13.402s, finishing 0.110s clear of Mercedes team-mate George Russell.
It was a practice outing, though, that was red-flagged on three occasions, initially for Liam Lawson stopping on track with a technical issue with his Racing Bulls, a second time after Albon’s crash, and the third when Esteban Ocon lost control of his Haas and hit a wall late on.
Due to the first two incidents, in particular, and the time lost, an additional 19 minutes were added to the session.
Behind the Mercedes duo, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were third and fourth quickest, albeit a long way adrift – 0.774s and 0.953s respectively.
Red red red
The Mercedes W17s of Antonelli and Russell were sporting a complete upgrade package, whilst the McLarens completed its MCL40s with the second half of a long list of updates, the first half of which were on the car in Miami.
It was Oscar Piastri who set an initial marker of 1:19.489s. The Australian traded fastest laps with Max Verstappen in the opening minutes, with the four-time champion posting a 1:15.895s before the first red-flag period occurred.
For Lawson, his practice lasted less than 10 minutes. The New Zealander was forced to park his Racing Bulls on the side of the circuit due to what he described as a power-steering problem, sparking a red-flag period to allow the stricken car to be moved off the circuit.
Although the red flag lasted four minutes, FIA race director Rui Marques opted to exercise a new regulation introduced for this season for sprint weekends that allows him to add on any time lost.
Upon the resumption, and with the hard tyre the rubber of choice for the bulk of the field, Russell set a series of fastest laps, lowering the benchmark to 1:15.414s before being comfortably deposed from top spot by almost four-tenths of a second by Piastri.
It was at that stage, 23 minutes in, that the session was red-flagged for a second time due to Albon’s unfortunate accident.
Once running resumed, just past the halfway point, Russell and Antonelli formed a Mercedes one-two, with the Briton posting a 1:14.560s, 0.110s ahead of his championship-leading team-mate.
Russell improved to a 1:14.444s, yet moments later, Antonelli shaved 0.052s off that time, and that was despite losing four-tenths of a second in the middle sector after an uncomfortable moment which saw him come within centimetres of hitting a wall.
With just under 17 minutes remaining, Russell was the first of the leading drivers to switch to the soft tyres, and he immediately went fastest with a lap of 1:13.850s.
It was a time, though, that did not last long as Antonelli returned to the top spot minutes later, and comfortably so by 0.448s.
Piastri then appeared poised to challenge, posting the fastest middle sector, only to lock up on entry to the final chicane, before a second push lap from Russell pulled him to within 0.142s of Antonelli.
Another attempt from Russell saw him slide out of the first chicane and across the circuit, lightly tapping a barrier with his front-right wheel. Moments later, there was a third red flag for Ocon’s crash.
On this occasion, the clock counted down, with no further time added.
Behind the top four, Verstappen was fifth quickest, but 0.964s adrift, followed by the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Piastri, however, they were 1.397s and 1.561s off the pace. Piastri’s time, though, was on hard tyres due to the lock-up on the softs.
Arvid Lindblad in his Racing Bulls, Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg, and the surprise package of Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin, completed the top 10. Lindblad and Alonso were on the medium compound, with Hulkenberg on the hards.
The second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar was 12th, 2.851s down, but on the hard tyres.
Franco Colapinto finished at the bottom of the standings, without a time to his name, due to suffering a power unit issue on his opening outlap, requiring a change to allow him to compete in sprint qualifying later in the day.
