Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli led a Mercedes 1-2 amid three red flags in the sole practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Mercedes is debuting its first major upgrade of 2026 this weekend in Montreal and it kicked off with some blinding pace in the first and only practice session ahead of sprint qualifying on Friday evening.

Points leader Antonelli traded places with team-mate George Russell at the top of the times throughout the session - with Antonelli ending up on top with a 1m13.402s. 

That was 0.142s quicker than Russell’s best effort and over seven tenths clear of the fastest non-Mercedes car - the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton. 

But it was a session dominated by session-stopping incidents with three separate stoppages. 

Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls caused the first red flag of the session as he had to pull to the side of the circuit on the run to the Turn 3/4 chicane. 

Lawson complained of power steering issues over the radio, but it’s likely to be a more significant issue, like a hydraulic problem. That limited his running to just five laps. 

And things could get even worse for him as his car has been referred to the stewards by the technical delegate, as while recovering his car, the marshals found the clutch release button (the ‘CDS’) on Lawson’s car wasn’t working - something that’s against the technical regulations. 

Then Alex Albon struck a groundhog exiting the Turn 6-7 chicane, which sent him into the wall.

It caused extensive damage to the left-hand side of the car, as Albon ground to a halt around 25 minutes into the session, which caused a delay that led to the FIA extending the session by 15 minutes. 

Then, inside the final 10 minutes of the session, Esteban Ocon lost control at the Turn 8/9 chicane and tore the front bodywork of his Haas off.

Ocon recovered his car to the pits but was noted at the end of the session for leaving the pitlane when the red light was displayed.

Franco Colapinto lost his entire session to a power unit issue. He was on his very first lap of the weekend when he had to crawl back to the pits. 

Alpine is working to ensure Colapinto can take part in sprint qualifying. 

Charles Leclerc was fourth quickest ahead of Max Verstappen who bemoaned “weird snaps” aboard his Red Bull RB22 and ended up nine tenths off the pace.

McLaren, which has debuted the second part of its two-step upgrade in Montreal, was sixth and seventh, but Oscar Piastri (seventh) in particular had a couple of scruffy flying laps - including locking up and running over the grass at the final chicane. 

Rookie Arvid Lindblad was eighth fastest ahead of Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso a surprise 10th for Aston Martin.

Results

1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m13.402s
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 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +4.368s
20 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +4.466s
21 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +4.524s
22 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) no time