Hamilton tops opening practice at Canada

F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Lewis Hamilton drew the longest straw in the first practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend at Montreal. The Mercedes driver wasn't however far ahead, with the top 4 covered in little more than 4 tenths.

As always in Canada, the track was particularly on Friday morning, resulting in numerous off-track excursions and spins, including spins from both Ferraris early on in the session.

The session was of course mostly filled with drivers trying out the different tyre compounds available at the venue. Force India's Sergio Perez for instance set the initial pace on softs until Ferrari ended up topping his time by having both their scarlet cars do quick laps on the ultra soft tyres.

Mercedes later fired back, with their runs on ultra soft tyres proving faster, at least for Lewis Hamilton. The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas slotted into third, a close match for Vettel who ended up second fastest.

Meanwhile, there was trouble for Carlos Sainz, as he suffered an apparent engine failure on his very first lap out on track. Fernando Alonso's return to Formula One meanwhile was a shock into reality for the Spaniard. After the McLaren Honda driver had spent a lot of time in the box, his car eventually stopped with a gearbox failure 15 minutes from the end of the session. His team mate, Stoffel Vandoorne on the other hand enjoyed a trouble free session to go 11th fastest.