Hamilton heads Mercedes one-two in extended but disrupted second practice

Lewis Hamilton was quickest in a specially extended second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix ahead of his team mate.

Both Mercedes drivers took advantage of fresh soft tyres late in the session to set the quickest times of Friday, with Hamilton less than three-hundredths of a second quicker than George Russell in the other Mercedes, before heavy rain fell in the closing minutes.

After the first practice session was effectively cancelled due to a problem with the circuit’s CCTV system, half an hour was added to the start of the second session to allow teams to recover some of the track time they had lost. Nineteen of the 20 cars took to the circuit as soon as the extended practice session began, with only Alexander Albon remaining in the garage in his heavily updated Williams.

Charles Leclerc set the early pace on the medium compound tyres, with a 1’16.564 putting him two tenths ahead of the two Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. Perez then improved to a 1’15.230 to move to the top of the times, with Verstappen then going second a tenth behind his team mate.

Pierre Gasly had brought out the red flag that ended the earlier session after his Alpine lost driver. However, his team had successfully solved the problem for the start of second session and Gasly demonstrated how healthy his car now was by jumping to the top of the times with a 1’15.224. His time at the top was not long lived, however, as first Verstappen, then Leclerc eclipsed him on the soft tyres, both breaking under the 1’15s.

Just before the bonus 30 minutes had elapsed, the session was red flagged after Nico Hulkenberg came to a halt on the start-finish straight with smoke rising from the rear of his Haas VF-23. The marshals quickly extinguished the car and pushed it clear, allowing practice to resume again after a delay of just under 10 minutes.

When the session resumed, Perez immediately pushed in the Red Bull on soft tyres, and brushed the wall on the exit of turn seven, abandoning his run and returning to the pits for a suspension check and a change of tyres. Carlos Sainz Jnr moved to the top of the times with a 1’13.844, before the session was stopped for a second time when Esteban Ocon ground to a halt at turn nine with a loss of water pressure in his Alpine, prompting the second red flag intervention of the session.

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After another brief delay, practice began again with just under 45 minutes remaining. By this time, rain was slowly approaching the circuit from downtown Montreal, making this phase of the session crucial for teams to collect dry running data while the conditions still allowed it. Ferrari returned to the circuit on used tyres on both Sainz and Leclerc’s cars, while Mercedes sent out their two drivers on new soft tyres. Russell went quickest of all with a 1’13.745 on his fresh tyres, before that was beaten by team mate Hamilton by only 0.027s, despite encountering traffic at the end of his lap.

With just under half an hour remaining, the rain was now threatening to fall over the circuit at any moment. However, drivers continued to circulate as the rain appeared reluctant to begin. Lando Norris had an off in turn one before McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri kissed the ‘wall of champions’ with the right side of his car, causing concern on his pit wall.

Storm clouds continued to gather overhead but the rain remained away. The wind picked up, blowing leaves and pollen all around the track. Eventually, with seven minutes left, the long-anticipated rain finally arrived at the hairpin of turn 10, falling heavily from the south side of the circuit while the north remained relatively dry. After staying out for an extra lap on intermediate tyres to explore the conditions, Norris was the final car to return to the safety of the garage.

With two minutes of the session remaining, the two Aston Martins opted to head out into the rain on intermediate tyres. They were joined by the two Ferraris, Alfa Romeos and Norris’s McLaren, who returned to the track for a final lap. After a final lap at crawling speeds, all seven successfully made it back to the garage and the session finally concluded.

The two Mercedes ended the session quickest, with Hamilton just ahead of Russell. Sainz was third in the Ferrari, ahead of Alonso, Leclerc and Verstappen sixth in the Red Bull. Valtteri Bottas split the Red Bulls in seventh, with Perez eighth ahead of Stroll’s Aston Martin with Gasly completing the top ten.

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2023 Canadian Grand Prix second practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’13.718		30
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’13.745	0.027	31
3	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’13.844	0.126	39
4	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’14.044	0.326	38
5	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’14.094	0.376	38
6	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’14.142	0.424	34
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’14.220	0.502	40
8	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’14.250	0.532	29
9	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’14.419	0.701	31
10	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’14.477	0.759	39
11	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’14.533	0.815	38
12	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’14.544	0.826	36
13	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’14.617	0.899	40
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’14.811	1.093	37
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’14.941	1.223	43
16	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’15.002	1.284	38
17	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’15.003	1.285	33
18	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’15.092	1.374	17
19	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’15.426	1.708	38
20	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’16.369	2.651	11

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2023 Canadian Grand Prix

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