Antonelli starts strong as Albon hits marmot during Canadian GP FP1

Franco Colapinto’s session got off to a difficult start after reliability issues on his A526 forced him back into the pits for an extended period. A few minutes later, Liam Lawson also came to a halt on track, with the Racing Bulls driver forced to park his car after just 10 minutes of running. This prompted Race Control to bring out the red flag in order to recover the stricken car, with the session resuming after roughly five minutes of interruption.

Fernando Alonso enjoyed a brief moment in the spotlight at around the halfway point of the session, setting the fastest time in the opening sector before eventually finishing fifth overall. However, the Spaniard was running on the soft compound, giving him a two-tyre advantage over the drivers at the top of the standings, who were still using the hard tyres.

With just under 30 minutes remaining in the session, Albon brought out the second red flag of the afternoon after crashing heavily at Turn 7. Initial onboard footage from the FW48 appeared to show the Thai driver losing control moments after striking a marmot on the exit of the straight leading into the second sector, before slamming into the barriers and bouncing back onto the track.

Albon was able to climb out of the car under his own power and was escorted away from the scene by the marshals, with the Williams driver appearing unharmed despite the impact. Following the repeated interruptions throughout FP1, Race Control later confirmed that the session would be extended by an additional 15 minutes.

On the hard tyres, meanwhile, the closing stages of the session turned into a battle between the two Mercedes drivers at the top of the timesheets, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli trading fastest laps multiple times. Lurking just behind them was Oscar Piastri, quietly keeping himself in contention.

With 15 minutes remaining, the frontrunners finally began to push properly on soft tyres and qualifying-style runs, with Kimi Antonelli moving ahead of his teammate by almost half a second after stopping the clock at 1:13.402. The Briton responded shortly afterwards by improving his own time, although he still remained 0.142s adrift. He then suffered a snap in the closing stages, nearly ending up in the wall at Turn 1 before managing to catch the car and continue running. In the closing stages, Esteban Ocon also lost control of his car and damaged his front wing, bringing out the third red flag of the session.