Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets in the opening practice for the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix for his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team.
The Briton set a fastest lap of 1:14.755 to finish the session three tenths faster than team-mate Nico Rosberg. Five minutes into the session, Rosberg was the only driver out on track, producing an opening salvo of 1:30.434 but he finished the session with a time of 1:15.086 to finish ahead of the Scuderia Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
Behind Vettel was the Red Bull Racing of Max Verstappen who set a fastest lap time of 1:15.553, in front of Kimi Raikkonen, who completed the top five. Valtteri Bottas set a fastest lap of 1:16.301 to go sixth fastest, his highest position in FP1 this season for Williams Martini Racing.
Verstappen is under investigation by the FIA stewards after nearly causing an incident with Bottas. Leading up to the entry to the last corner, the Dutchman did not pay enough attention to who was approaching and appeared to make a gap for himself.
Rather than turning into the chicane the Finnish driver was forced to go straight to avoid Verstappen. Bottas discussed the incident with his engineer to show how unhappy he was with what took place. “Come on, did you see that?” complained Bottas, with his engineer responding with, “Copy that… dangerous.”
Carlos Sainz Jr set a fastest lap time of 1:16.543 for Scuderia Toro Rosso to split the Sahara Force India duo with Nico Hulkenberg finishing seventh and Sergio Perez ninth. Rounding up the top ten was the McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso, who set a time of 1:16.663.
Finishing in eleventh was the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo with a time of 1:16.734, while behind him was Jenson Button for McLaren, with the Briton only managing eight laps after reporting on team radio: “it feels like we’re in a temperature limiter”.
Romain Grosjean finished in thirteenth for Haas F1 Team ahead of the second Williams of Felipe Massa. The Brazilian’s session ended early after crashing at Turn 1, bringing out the red flag. His time set previous to the incident forced him to finish the session down in fourteenth.
For Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat finished in fifteenth ahead of the second Haas of Esteban Gutierrez, while Felipe Nasr was seventeenth ahead of the Manor Racing of Rio Haryanto.
Haryanto set a time faster than the second Sauber of Marcus Ericsson and the Renault Sport of Kevin Magnussen who finished the session in twentieth. Pascal Wehrlein finished behind Magnussen with a time only three tenths behind team-mate Haryanto, but ahead of Jolyon Palmer, who had a trouble-free session but he only managed a fastest lap time of 1:18.583 to finish last for Renault.
Canadian Grand Prix Free Practice 1 Times
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