Mercedes driver George Russell concluded Friday’s second free practice for the Canadian Grand Prix with the fastest time. The Briton impressed in Montreal on medium tyres. Both McLaren and Red Bull have considerable work to do. Max Verstappen clocked the ninth fastest time in FP2, after being the fastest in FP1 earlier in the day.
FP2 in Montreal started with nineteen drivers due to the absence of Charles Leclerc, who had a clumsy crash in the first free practice earlier in the day. Early in the session, another driver dropped out, home racer Lance Stroll. The billionaire’s son of Lawrence Stroll crashed his Aston Martin coming out of turn seven on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, causing his suspension to break. The Canadian managed to park his car neatly off the track, so the session did not need to be interrupted. Stroll is making his return behind the wheel in Canada after missing the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago, but he had an unfortunate first day.
Max Verstappen started off Friday with the fastest time in FP1, but in FP2, the four-time world champion from Red Bull quickly reported to engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over the radio. Verstappen described the behaviour of the RB21 as nervous. ‘It’s jumping like crazy,’ he reported, among other things.
Front Wheel Suspension
Midway through the session, Mercedes driver George Russell, on his medium tires, has the fastest time to his name (1.12,123), followed by teammate Kimi Antonelli, former teammate Lewis Hamilton, and Williams driver Carlos Sainz (all on soft tires). Notably, both McLarens of World Championship leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are again not really in the mix, likely due to a modification to the front wheel suspension that so far seems to have backfired.
Norris does improve to the second fastest time on soft tires, just 0.028 seconds behind Russell. Max Verstappen ultimately has to settle for the ninth fastest time (1.12,666). He spends some time in the pits during the session for necessary adjustments to the set-up, without immediately achieving the desired effect. Both McLaren and Red Bull therefore have a fair amount of work to do in preparation for Saturday’s qualifying session.
Top ten: Russell, Norris, Antonelli, Albon, Alonso, Piastri, Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen, Lawson.
