- Antonelli leads Canadian GP practice as Mercedes’ upgrades impress.
- Three red flags, a groundhog and a clutch violation disrupted the session.
- Ferrari, Verstappen and three stranded drivers faced a difficult Sprint Qualifying.
Kimi Antonelli topped the only Free Practice session ahead of the Canadian GP at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Saturday, leading a Mercedes one-two ahead of team-mate George Russell.
Lewis Hamilton finished third for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc fourth. The session, which ran for an extended period due to three red flags, confirmed that Mercedes’ new upgrade package had arrived in strong working order.
Antonelli’s fastest time was a 1m 13.402s on the soft Pirelli compound. Russell had set the early soft-tyre benchmark with a 1m 13.850s. But Antonelli found 0.448 seconds more when his own performance run came around. On a circuit as short and unforgiving as Montreal, that margin carried weight.
The 19-year-old Italian heads into Sprint Qualifying with a 20-point championship lead over Russell and three consecutive Grand Prix victories behind him. FP1 gave little indication that he intends to slow down.
As it happened in Canada
All 22 cars headed out at 12:30 local time when the pit lane opened, and the problems began almost at once.
Franco Colapinto radioed in within the opening five minutes, reporting that his throttle was not working. Alpine later confirmed that a full power unit change was required, ruling the Argentinian out of the session.
Verstappen set the early pace, going fastest on the hard compound before Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls triggered the first red flag.
Lawson pulled to the side of the track on the run to the Turn 3/4 chicane, reporting power steering issues. The session was then handed a secondary complication when marshals recovering the car discovered that the clutch release button was not functioning.
It was a breach of the technical regulations that referred Lawson’s car to the stewards.
After resumption, Oscar Piastri briefly led the session before the second red flag arrived. Alex Albon struck a groundhog on the track before spinning and hitting the wall at Turns 6 and 7.
Albon walked away without injury, but his car was too heavily damaged to continue.
When running resumed, Mercedes’ new parts for the front wing, diffuser, floor and brake ducts began to show their hand. Russell and Antonelli exchanged fastest times through the middle part of the session.
Esteban Ocon, meanwhile, complained over the radio that his Haas was riding terribly. He described the sensation as “awful” across the bumpy surface of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The third red flag came late. Ocon lost control of his Haas on the exit of Turn 4, spinning into the barrier head-on and destroying the car’s nose.
When the chequered flag fell, Hamilton was 0.781 seconds behind Antonelli in third. Leclerc was 1.008 seconds back in fourth, and Verstappen finished fifth.
Full Canadian GP FP1 results
Below is the complete classification from Practice 1 at the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time / Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1m 13.402s |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | +0.142s |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +0.774s |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.953s |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +0.964s |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +1.397s |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +1.561s |
| 8 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | +2.050s |
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | +2.296s |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +2.461s |
| 11 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | +2.812s |
| 12 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | +2.851s |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | +3.095s |
| 14 | Alex Albon | Williams | +3.240s |
| 15 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | +3.258s |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +3.407s |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +3.576s |
| 18 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +4.029s |
| 19 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | +4.368s |
| 20 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | +4.466s |
| 21 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | +4.524s |
| 22 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | No time |
What to make of it all
Ferrari heads into Sprint Qualifying without a new upgrade package, despite Leclerc having said in Miami that the Scuderia felt it had been outpaced in development.
Third and fourth in a disrupted session is a reasonable result, but the gap to the two Mercedes cars is not a reasonable one to carry into a Sprint weekend.
Verstappen’s complaints about the handling of his Red Bull were a notable theme throughout the session. He still finished fifth, but the pace relative to Mercedes was a concern for Red Bull that they will need to address quickly, given the compressed Sprint format.
For Albon, Lawson and Colapinto, the situation is more urgent. All three lost almost all of their running in the weekend’s only practice session. Montreal is a circuit where setup confidence is built on track time.
None of the three will have that going into Sprint Qualifying, and there is no further opportunity to find it before the session begins.
