Charles Leclerc pipped Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel by less than a tenth of a second in Free Practice 2 at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Ferrari, who had been almost a second slower than Mercedes AMG Motorsport in Free Practice 1, bounced back in the best way by topping the afternoon session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Valtteri Bottas was third fastest while the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton was down in sixth after the Brit hit the wall, damaging the car and losing track time as he only completed 8 laps.
Carlos Sainz Jr. finished the session fourth fastest ahead of Kevin Magnussen who rounded out the top five.
The two Racing Point F1 Team and Renault F1 Team cars completed the top ten with Sergio Pérez in seventh, Daniel Ricciardo ahead of Nico Hülkenberg and home favourite Lance Stroll in tenth, however, the Canadian had a run in with the Haas F1 Team of Romain Grosjean in the closing minutes.
Robert Kubica was the first driver to venture out onto the circuit as he aimed to make up for missing Free Practice 1 after Canadian Nicholas Latifi drove the Williams Racing in that session. Both Ferrari’s went to the top of the timing sheet before Mercedes reasserted their dominance round Montréal as both Hamilton and Bottas went one and two with the Finn on the hardest of the tyre compounds.
All was not plain sailing for Mercedes as Hamilton lost the rear of the car and hit the wall on the exit of turn nine. The contact meant the championship leader had to limp back to the pits and would miss out on the rest of the session.
While Hamilton was in the pits, team-mate Bottas went six tenths of a second quicker before Vettel showed Ferrari were up for a fight this weekend by going fastest. Vettel’s Ferrari team-mate Leclerc brought out a cheer from the Canadian fans by pipping the German.
Max Verstappen was the next driver to give the walls a clip as he hit the wall of champions as both Red Bull Racing struggled down in twelfth and thirteenth while Stroll and Grosjean had a close call going in to the final chicane.
After a tough morning session, Ferrari have bounced back well and shown they are in the fight with Mercedes this weekend.
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