Hamilton leads Mercedes one-two in Canada practice

Lewis Hamilton led George Russell to a Mercedes one-two in Friday practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was 0.027 seconds quicker than Russell.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was fourth, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, 0.424secs slower than Hamilton.

The day was disrupted by three separate red-flag stoppages over two sessions, and the first session was wrecked by a technical problem with the track closed-circuit television system, which is part of F1’s safety apparatus.

The CCTV problem meant the first session was stopped after only 12 drivers had set just one flying lap and officials decided to extend the second session by half an hour to 90 minutes so teams could make up some of the lost track time.

The revised schedule meant teams ran programmes that differed from each other more than would be usual in second practice.

Mercedes chose to do their race-simulation runs early in the session and their qualifying-style laps later, an unconventional approach.

Red Bull seemed to do their fast laps at the start of the session, when the track was at its slowest, while Ferrari ran medium-compound tyres at the start of the session before running soft tyres next.

That led to an unexpected order, with Verstappen slower than his usual pace and Mercedes faster.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was seventh fastest, with the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly completing the top 10.

The best comparison of pace was provided by the Ferrari and Red Bull drivers, who did their race runs at the same time on the medium tyres.

They provided encouraging numbers for Ferrari – Leclerc was less than 0.1secs slower than Verstappen over a run of more than 10 laps. Sainz and Perez were not a match for their team-mates.

It was a difficult day for Alpine. Gasly initiated the red flag in the first session when he stopped on track with a lack of drive. The officials then noticed the problem with the CCTV.

And in the second session, his team-mate Esteban Ocon pulled over with a loss of water pressure in his engine.

The other red flag was caused by Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas, which suffered an engine failure on the pit straight.

Rain that had been expected for both sessions held off for most of the day before finally a torrential downpour hit, initially at the hairpin towards the end of the lap, with five minutes to go.

It is expected to be a harbinger of events on Saturday, when the forecast is for heavy rain.