#CanadianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets ahead of Spanish duo. #F1

Verstappen Canadian GP FP1 – Points leader Max Verstappen placed his Red Bull RB18 entry quickest of all in the opening FP1 session at the Canadian GP ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who rounded out the top three.

 

 

The reigning world champion was consistently was the front of the time-sheets in Montreal, which made it’s return to the Formula 1 calendar following a three-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Verstappen started off his race weekend on the right track on which he is set to take part in his 150th Grand Prix start by lapping the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with a 1:15.158 benchmark, and 0.246 seconds in-front of Ferrari’s Sainz and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso third who pipped the second Red Bull RB18 of Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

 

Whilst the threat of rain was at 20%, the hovering grey clouds lead to a hive of action as soon as the clock went green.

 

AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was followed out onto the circuit by the Alfa Romeo duo and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo as only the Williams drivers and Alonso initially remained in their garages.

 

All those that headed straight out except for Tsunoda and Leclerc (sporting the C5 softer-rubber) were running the C4 yellow side-walled medium compounds.

 

The initial runners were posting times in the low 1:20’s and high 1:19’s effort before Verstappen started to lower the benchmark as the Dutchman set a 1:17.991 to sit 1.4 seconds clear of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton.

 

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, Ricciardo and Sainz all lapped the track a second adrift of Verstappen before Hamilton cut it down to a 1:18.613 to close the gap to six tenths.

 

All 20 cars had come out after six minutes to maximise their track time following yesterday’s torrential downpour, before Bottas flew to the top of the pile on a 1:17.902.

 

Verstappen at that point was on a cool lap to re-energise his tyres then rapidly smashed the quickest sector two and three parts of the tour to reclaim P1 on a 1:16.507. Which hammered Bottas’ effort by 1.4 seconds.

 

The initial run from Perez moved him half-a-second off his Red Bull team-mate until Verstappen set up another hot-lap.

 

The Dutchman completed all purple sectors to drop into the 1:15.799 seconds, at first putting him 1.2 seconds clear of Perez at the top of the order.

 

Verstappen gained another nine hundredths the next time round before team-mate Perez jumped to the top after 14 minutes with a 1:15.660 effort, which placed the Monaco Grand Prix winner four hundredths clear.

 

After the busy start to the session, the track activity subsided after the opening third of Free Practice 1 before Perez then Verstappen switched to the C5 Pirelli red-branded soft tyres after 28 minutes.

 

However, Verstappen returned to the pits as a rear anti-roll bar glitch caused his inside wheel to lift.

 

But after Sainz went on top with a 1:15.441 to sit a tenth clear of Perez, Verstappen – despite being adrift of the Spaniard in sector one and two – shot to the top of the classification – setting the best effort of the session.

 

Verstappen’s 1:15.158 to sit 0.246 clear of Sainz before a final run on the mediums for the field as they sought to understand their respective race pace.

 

Behind Verstappen, who complained of clipping as his re-branded Honda power-train greedily ate it’s electrical hybrid assistance, and Sainz was Alonso onboard his A522 racer.

 

The double world champion had played his rapid and loose out of the last corner as a snap of over-steer pushed him towards the “Wall of Champions”.

 

Perez took fourth as Leclerc, who was forced to retire after leading the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last time out due to an engine failure, was half-a-second off Verstappen as the Ferrari driver completed the top five.

 

Leclerc entered FP1 with a newly-fitted internal combustion engine (ICE), but ran a used turbocharger to leave a looming grid-penalty unconfirmed at this point of time.

 

Mercedes’ George Russell ended the session sixth in the classification whilst Lance Stroll kick off his home Grand Prix weekend in a high of seventh place for Aston Martin.

 

Hamilton, who complained of over rear car balance of his F1 W13 E Performance racer, split the Aston Martin pairing as Sebastian Vettel ran to ninth place – the German was the pole-sitter last time Formula 1 raced in Montreal and set a 1:10.240.

 

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten and was 0.925 seconds adrift of former team-mate Verstappen’s benchmark time.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished outside the top ten in 11th place and ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who was 12th, Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who placed 13th in the pile and the other AlphaTauri AT03 entry of Tsunoda taking 14th.

 

The other Alpine A522 entry of Esteban Ocon, whose session was disrupted by an early right-front brake fire caused by litter working into the car’s brake duct, took 15th in the order and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Bottas and Zhou Guanyu who finished 16th and 17th respectively in the classification.

 

Haas F1 Team pairing Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen ended opening practice in 18th and at the rear respectively as Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi split the duo in-between.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 AWS Canadian Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1113/canada/practice-1.html

 

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#Formula1 AWS #CanadianGP 2022 Preview. #F1