Kimi Antonelli tops Canada F1 practice after Alex Albon strikes groundhog
Kimi Antonelli heads a dominate Mercedes one-two in the only practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Formula 1 championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli continued his fine form by setting the pace in the sole practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix in his upgraded Mercedes.
Mercedes has brought its first major upgrade package of the 2026 season and laid down an ominous marker in the first and only practice session at Montreal, with Antonelli heading team-mate George Russell by 0.142 seconds.
Antonelli heads into the weekend 20 points clear of Russell, who suffered a late spin, in the championship after taking three consecutive victories.
2026 F1 Canadian Grand Prix: Full Friday practice results
Mercedes’ margin over the rest of the field was impressive, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton 0.774s adrift in third place.
The seven-time world champion, who is the joint-most successful driver with seven wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, was nearly two tenths clear of team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Max Verstappen put his Red Bull fifth, with the McLaren’s of reigning world champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri over a second off the pace in sixth and seventh. Piastri failed to set a representative lap after having a huge lock-up at the final chicane.
F1 rookie Arvid Lindblad was eighth-fastest for Racing Bulls on his first visit to Canada, while Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top-10 for Audi and Aston Martin.
It was a stop-start, incident-filled practice session with three red flags causing disruption and leading to FP1 being extended by nearly 20 minutes.
Liam Lawson caused the first red flag when his Racing Bulls car broke down inside 10 minutes after just five laps, while Franco Colapinto also lost crucial track time after his Alpine encountered an early PU-related issue.
Alex Albon then had an unfortunate incident after he was unable to avoid striking a groundhog in a big crash as he came out of Turn 7, causing significant damage to his Williams car and resulting in a red flag.
Haas’s Esteban Ocon then hit the wall to cause a late red flag in the closing moments of FP1. Ocon lost control of his car as he put the power down coming out of Turn 4 and smashed into the barriers on the opposite side of the track, with the impact completely destroying the front wing and nosecone.
F1’s governing body the FIA used the session to trial a new rear lights system to warn about MGU-K power derating, featuring blue, purple and yellow flashing lights to indicate different states of charge.
Following the test, the standard lights system will be used for the remainder of the weekend, before next steps are assessed based on collective feedback from teams and drivers.
Sprint qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix takes place at 21:30 UK time.
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