Canadian Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli fastest as George Russell hits the wall

Kimi Antonelli headed a Mercedes one-two to kick-off the Canadian Grand Prix race weekend, FP1 having proven a disjointed session.

With three red flags, the FIA twice announced extensions to FP1 in-session, the biggest incident being Alex Albon’s heartbreaking strike of a groundhog. George Russell suffered a late FP1 spin, but escaped damage when his Mercedes lightly struck the barrier.

Kimi Antonelli tops Canadian Grand Prix FP1 in Mercedes 1-2

FP1 offered a first look out on track at the upgraded Mercedes W17, as the Silver Arrows bid to re-stamp their authority on F1 2026.

McLaren and Red Bull arrived in Montreal armed with further updates. Ferrari did not, despite Charles Leclerc suggesting in Miami that the Scuderia had been outdeveloped.

Like Miami, the Canadian Grand Prix is a Sprint weekend, making FP1 the sole practice session. It was back to the standard 60-minute session, rather than the 90-minute FP1 contested in Miami. Or that was the plan, anyway.

The FIA was also trialling a new rear lights system for MGU-K power derating, with different colours for different MGU-K states, rather than the flashing red light for all.

As FP1 got underway, there was an early setback for Franco Colapinto, whose Alpine was crawling into the pit lane. He reported that his throttle had stopped working after a sudden loss of power. Alpine would set about investigating a suspected power unit hardware issue.

Lando Norris was forced to cut the final chicane after a front-left lock-up on entry. Oscar Piastri did the same after a less dramatic locking of the front left.

Verstappen set the early pace with a 1:15.895. The hard tyres were predominantly in use early in FP1.

There was a pause to those runs as Liam Lawson parked his Racing Bulls car, claiming a loss of power steering as he went off at the first chicane. He parked it out of the second chicane and exited the car. Virtual Safety Car.

Lawson was referred to the stewards after the marshals found his car’s CDS 1:14.963 [clutch disengagement system] button to not be working as required under the regulations.

Verstappen helped himself to a front wing change, and gave rare positive feedback on the downshifts in his RB22.

Red flag. The session was now neutralised, with almost a quarter of FP1 gone, in order to clear Lawson’s stricken car. It proved a brief delay, but the FIA made a mid-session announcement that FP1 would be extended by four minutes in response.

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Russell and Piastri traded P1 as the session resumed, before Antonelli squeezed into second.

Esteban Ocon complained that he was feeling every bump with an “awful” ride height in his Haas machine.

Antonelli was down to third as Piastri upped the benchmark to a 1:14.963.

Back came the red flags. Alex Albon had hit the wall hard coming out of Turn 6/7. The medical car was deployed, but Albon, thankfully, was fine as he climbed out of the mangled Williams.

Albon, very sadly, had hit a marmot, triggering that shunt.

As the clock ticked under 30 minutes remaining, there was no news on any session resumption time.

The FIA announced another 15-minute extension to FP1. 21 minutes were left on the original clock, meaning 36 minutes remained.

Valtteri Bottas came back to the pits nine minutes later, as he reported an “issue” with his Cadillac.

No such issues for the Mercedes duo, who were pushing to the limit. Russell delivered a 1:14.4. Antonelli went five hundredths faster to go P1. Hard tyres remained the order of the day.

The Mercedes were half a second clear of McLaren at this stage.

Verstappen was getting “weird snaps” in the lower-gear downshifts.

15 minutes to go and the soft tyres were coming out to play.

Antonelli went four and a half tenths clear of Russell, a statement time from the championship leader early in the race weekend.

Charles Leclerc went P3, almost a second shy of Antonelli, a similar story for Verstappen, as Piastri was forced to cut the final chicane with a double front lock. Russell locked up and went over the Turn 1 run-off.

Russell went again, and narrowed the deficit to Antonelli to a tenth and a half.

The hairpin was forcing lock-ups from Antonelli and Norris.

There were double yellows as Russell went spinning into T2, his hit of the barrier subtle enough that damage to his Mercedes was avoided.

Ocon had lost his front nose cone and wing, triggering a third red flag. Ocon got on the power out of the second kerb, lost control, and clattered the opposite wall.

He nursed his nose-less Haas back to the pit lane.

There was just enough time left for some practice starts, as Antonelli headed a comfortable Mercedes FP1 one-two from Russell.

Ocon’s day worsened as the FIA announced a post-session investigation into him potentially leaving the pit lane under a red light. Ocon’s onboard seemed to suggest that the light was still green.

Full 2026 Canadian Grand Prix FP1 results

1 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:13.402
2 George Russell Mercedes +0.142
3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.774
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.953
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.964
6 Lando Norris McLaren +1.397
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren +1.561
8 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +2.050
9 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +2.296
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +2.461
11 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +2.812
12 Isack Hadjar Red Bull Racing +2.851
13 Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team +3.095
14 Alexander Albon Williams +3.240
15 Carlos Sainz Williams +3.258
16 Pierre Gasly Alpine +3.407
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +3.576
18 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +4.029
19 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +4.368
20 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +4.466
21 Sergio Perez Cadillac +4.524
22 Franco Colapinto Alpine No time

Read next – F1 2026 Canadian Grand Prix schedule: Sprint weekend practice, qualifying and race times