Hamilton quickest as crash ends practice early

Lewis Hamilton emerged as the pacesetter for the Canadian Grand Prix before a late crash ended Friday practice prematurely.

The Mercedes driver topped both 90 minute sessions at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve with his best time arriving in Practice 2, following a run on the super-soft tyres.

Hamilton clocked a 1:15.988s effort which proved to be 0.316s quicker than Sebastian Vettel in the upgraded Ferrari.

The German had set the initial pace having been one of the first to switch to super-soft tyres.

However, the Hamilton’s day came to a sudden halt when he was caught out by a heavy rain shower with 50 minutes of the second session remaining.

Mercedes elected to send the world champion and his team-mate Nico Rosberg out in the worsening conditions, which resulted in Hamilton aquaplaning into the barriers at the hairpin, damaging the front of his car.

“Looking at the replays, I wasn’t going that fast,” said Hamilton.

“But it was like sheet ice into Turn 10 so the car aquaplaned and I went off.

“It maybe wasn’t the right call to go out but, with the weather as it eventually turned out, it didn’t affect our running.

“I’m fine and it looks like it’s just the front wing that was damaged to it’s not the end of the world.”

Practice did resume after the accident but the treacherous track conditions prevented any running.

Kimi Raikkonen confirmed Ferrari’s pace with the Finn third fastest ahead of Mercedes’ Rosberg, who was almost half a second adrift of his team-mate.

Lotus impressed throughout practice with Pastor Maldonado finishing the day in fifth spot, while Romain Grosjean was seventh.

Williams showed signs they will be fighting towards the sharp end following their blip in Monaco, with Valtteri Bottas sixth and Felipe Massa eighth fastest.

Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing completed the top 10 as Daniil Kvyat pipped last year’s Canadian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo.

The first run for McLaren’s updated Honda engine saw Fernando Alonso set a time good enough for 15th while Jenson Button ended practice in 18th position.

Result: Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix Practice 2, Montreal

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:15.988s	–	22
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:16.304s	+0.316s	19
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:16.310s	+0.322s	20
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:16.440s	+0.452s	22
5	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Mercedes	1:16.600s	+0.612s	15
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1:16.849s	+0.861s	18
7	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Mercedes	1:16.864s	+0.876s	15
8	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1:17.041s	+1.053s	19
9	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull/Renault	1:17.092s	+1.104s	10
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1:17.111s	+1.123s	16
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1:17.120s	+1.132s	15
12	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1:17.261s	+1.273s	17
13	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:17.318s	+1.330s	23
14	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1:17.367s	+1.379s	20
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1:17.627s	+1.639s	21
16	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:17.657s	+1.669s	23
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1:17.751s	+1.763s	21
18	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1:18.135s	+2.147s	20
19	Roberto Merhi	Marussia/Ferrari	1:19.531s	3.543s	15
20	Will Stevens	Marussia/Ferrari	1:19.734s	+3.746s	13

Result: Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix Practice 1, Montreal

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:16.212s	–	34
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:16.627s	+0.415s	38
3	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Mercedes	1:17.721s	+1.509s	35
4	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1:17.871s	+1.659s	34
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:17.905s	+1.693s	25
6	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1:17.985s	+1.773s	28
7	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull/Renault	1:18.021s	+1.809s	30
8	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Mercedes	1:18.026s	+1.814s	41
9	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1:18.128s	+1.916s	34
10	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:18.257s	+2.045s	24
11	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1:18.325s	+2.113s	40
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:18.439s	+2.227s	26
13	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1:18.503s	+2.291s	28
14	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1:18.775s	+2.563s	24
15	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1:18.786s	+2.574s	25
16	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1:18.948s	+2.736s	30
17	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:19.065s	+2.853s	23
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1:19.165s	+2.953s	32
19	Roberto Merhi	Marussia/Ferrari	1:20.616s	+4.404s	33
20	Will Stevens	Marussia/Ferrari	1:20.624s	4.412s	27