Canada – FP1: Mercedes takes the lead

On a Gilles Villeneuve route where the sun was shining, Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in the first driving session of the Canadian Grand Prix. The world champion placed his Mercedes W07 Hybrid at the top of the timesheet thanks to a time established in 1'14"755, already within the 2015 pole position times, also to the credit of the Briton in 1'14"393.

Nico Rosberg places himself in the wake of his teammate by more than three tenths (after having notably used a new rear wing brought by Mercedes) and is ahead of the Ferrari de Sebastian Vettel, which benefits from a new turbo on its car. Max Verstappen, who pilots a Red Bull RB12 equipped with engine developments brought by Renault from Monaco.

Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) follows in fifth position and precedes the first Williams de Valtteri Bottas, more successful than his teammate Felipe Massa. The Brazilian caused the only interruption of the session starting to make a mistake braking for the first corner of the Canadian track.

The Auriverde driver's FW38 – Mercedes ended its race in the tire wall, largely damaged at the rear. Massa indicated that he had completely blocked the rear wheels, after having deactivated his DRS, which did not close correctly according to the instructions from the Grove team on his Twitter account.

Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso), Sergio Pérez (Force India) and Fernando Alonso (McLaren) complete the top 10. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) only ranks 11th ahead of Jenson Button who encountered a problem with his McLaren MP4-31 when he started with a smoking car during a stint before slowing down. Romain Grosjean (Haas) ranks 13th, the two Renaults Magnussen and Palmer finished 20th and 22nd.

Several drivers shot straight into the loophole at the last chicane of the circuit, including Lewis Hamilton (impeded by Fernando Alonso), Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas (impeded by Max Verstappen)

The second session will begin at 20 p.m. French time.

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