The incident-filled opening day at the Canadian Grand Prix saw George Russell set the benchmark while Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc sat out the majority of the first two one-hour session after his heavy shunt in FP1. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers what teams and drivers had to say after Day 1 at Montreal.

Mercedes

"It’s nice to top the timing screens but it is only Friday. That said, it has been a positive day for us as a team. We came into the weekend with the expectation that the cooler temperatures and smoother tarmac here would suit us and today at least, that seemed to be the case.

"I managed to hook up a strong lap in FP2 and probably optimised the car we had. That may have flattered us slightly, but we can hopefully be in the mix with the usual suspects over the rest of the weekend.

"It will be interesting to see what the tyre strategy is in Qualifying. With the C6 compound, the gap between the Soft and the Medium over a single lap is not as pronounced as it is when at the harder end of the compound range. Many teams, including ourselves, opted to only use a single set of Medium tyres today so have the option of deploying that tomorrow."

"Today was a good day for us as a team. Both our single lap and long run work were competitive, and I felt good with the car. We will keep pushing overnight to be in a good position for tomorrow, but we’ve given ourselves a solid base to work from. The cooler conditions and smooth track definitely helped us, but I think we’ve also made progress with the car as it felt more connected than in recent races.

"This track is a new one for me and I had a lot of fun out there. It’s not the easiest circuit to drive, particularly in FP1 when it was very dirty off line. I’ve continued to progress as the day went on and by the end of FP2, I felt comfortable out there. I also made a step with my ability to get the most out of the C6 tyre. I struggled with it in Imola and Monaco, but I worked hard on it today and felt like I made solid progress."

McLaren

“It’s been an interesting Friday. It’s been a little bit tricky at points, but it’s also looked good at points. I think the competition looks very close, and there’s still work to do on which tyres will be best for Qualifying. We’ll analyse what we can do overnight and see where we can find a bit more.”

“A tricky Friday, but it’s a tricky track. It’s a lot of fun to drive, but it’s just low grip with a lot of bumps. I think we’re there or thereabouts, but we’ve got a few improvements to make overnight to put us in the best position for Qualifying. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow.”

Red Bull

“Today was alright to be honest. In FP1 we felt quite happy in the car but FP2 was a bit more difficult for other reasons. There was a bit less balance and we felt a bit less comfortable in the car, which we need to investigate, but overall I think it was quite a positive day for us.

If we can get it back to what it felt in FP1 we will go well. Tomorrow for qualifying, let’s see. There is still one more session to get it right, we just need to get it in a good window and we can see how far we can get in Qualifying."

“The feeling in the car was okay today. We are making some adjustments for tomorrow, which is good and will give us some lap time. We also made good progress with the setup and balance but it wasn’t enough in the end today. The target for tomorrow is to be in Q3 and to maximise our results."

Ferrari

"In FP1, it was a small lockup with big consequences. Most of all, I feel bad for the team, because we couldn’t run for the rest of the first session and all of FP2. Other than that, I felt comfortable in the car which was positive, so I don’t think that what happened today should have any impact on the rest of the weekend for us."

"The car felt good to drive, but we’re currently lacking a bit of pace and saw some graining on the long runs. We’ll keep working overnight to get the car in a better performance window for tomorrow."

Williams

"Very positive day. We hit the ground running; we were maybe running a different programme to everyone else in FP1 but FP2 felt okay. The base car is strong, we’ve got a good package underneath us and Q3 is well within our targets tomorrow.

"However, we’ve still got work to do to improve the car and that’s good as it shows there’s a bigger envelope that we need to explore. At the same time because we are quick, we don’t want to change too much, so there is a balance to strike."

"Good feeling today. Being realistic, FP1 was a bit misleading in terms of our position on the time sheets, but in FP2 we were still fighting in the top 10, so we’re more or less where we expected to be.

"There is still more work to do ahead of tomorrow, but we seem to be in good form. We’ll focus on tyre strategy and continue building up the confidence around this circuit."

Racing Bulls

“It’s my first time driving here in Montréal and it’s nice to see that we’ve been competitive straight away since this morning. It was just a messy session this afternoon in FP2 due to the traffic but we’re confident going to tomorrow.

"I believe Q1 will be tough traffic-wise, but then Q2 and Q3 will be easier, and getting through these sessions is obviously our realistic target. It’s a small and fast circuit, so I’m sure the gap between each car will be really close, so it will be important to put it all together in Qualifying without making mistakes."

“Personally, it's been a positive and fun day. It's a cool track and a place I've wanted to come to for a long time, so I enjoyed it. It's very close, so we need to keep pushing the limits and finding every bit of speed we can.

"Traffic is tough here being a small circuit, but that's something we all have to deal with. The car has been very strong recently, so as long as we keep chasing the balance through the weekend, we can be hopeful of reaching Q3 tomorrow.”

Aston Martin

"The car felt okay for us today but it's not an easy circuit to put everything together around. The tyres seem to have a very small window too. We know the track is getting grippier throughout the weekend, so in Qualifying we will need to be focused on achieving a clean lap at the right time."

"Feels good to be back in Canada and I'm happy to be back in the car. We've made some setup changes to the car ahead of Canada but unfortunately I had a bit of understeering in FP2 and touched the wall, therefore we didn't get to learn about the changes we made as much. So it's tough to say how the car feels around this track, but we'll restart and go again tomorrow."

Alpine

“I think the general picture on our side is okay after today’s Practice sessions. I am relatively happy, and we will see what we can do to improve a few things. We do know where we lack so it gives us some areas to really focus on.

"Once again it is so tight amongst a number of cars so every single detail will count and maybe it will take a little bit of magic tomorrow in Qualifying to make the difference between a number of positions.

"Again, we have the C6 compound here, so we have more to learn on that tyre to see how to maximise it. First things first, we have to try to get the car in the best place possible and our hard work will continue tonight going into the rest of the weekend.”

“Today was not the easiest of Practice days and in general I was struggling a lot in the slow speed corners. The car does not feel as connected as we would like, and I am still struggling with the balance.

"When I try to go to the limit the car is not staying there or giving me the confidence. But this is what Friday is for and to learn what changes to make in order to improve the feeling with the car. The long run on high fuel felt much more positive and the car felt much better. So, we need to understand why that is and translate that also to low fuel.

"I think there is enough potential to do a good job tomorrow and put everything together. We turned around the weekend in Spain from one day to the next with the changes we made so there is certainly margin to improve.”

Kick Sauber

“Overall, a solid Friday for us. The circuit is as tight and technical as ever, and with such a short lap, you really have to stay on top of things. Compared to Barcelona, it’s a completely different challenge—much lower downforce and a focus on low-speed corners, which definitely changes the approach.

"We worked through the usual Friday program and made several setup changes between FP1 and FP2, which gave us some valuable insights. The tyres were a bit of a surprise—the softs held up better than expected, which could have an impact this weekend. We’ll go through all the data tonight and see where we can make some gains ahead of tomorrow.”

"It was a very positive start for our weekend today. Being my first time on this track, I was really focused on understanding how Montreal works, and I'm satisfied with the very solid session we had. Looking at the progress we've made, particularly in terms of understanding the car and the work we did to put it into a good operating window for tomorrow I have to say, that I am really happy.

"Overnight, we’ll dive deeper into some specific areas we've identified: there's plenty we can study to ensure we're better positioned ahead of qualifying. It’s tricky to predict where everyone is going to be, as we have seen that, once again, the field is extremely tight. Here it will also mean to run a clean qualifying lap without traffic which was already an issue today and will likely play a significant role tomorrow.

"Whoever manages to find the best position on track and secure a clean lap will have an advantage. Hopefully qualifying will run cleanly and smoothly for everyone."

Haas

“It was interesting to get some laps in proper conditions as last year the track was wet all weekend, and we only had one session in the dry. Today is all about understanding to get a good qualifying tomorrow.

"We have a clear direction, it’s very close out there and execution will need to be perfect in qualifying, but this is what we’re working on, and if we do this we should be in the mix.”

“It’s been a tough day, but this afternoon was definitely better than this morning. We made some changes for the afternoon and that’s moved us in the right direction and closed the gap in the midfield, but we still have a bit of work to do tonight before tomorrow.

"The kerb riding has been difficult, but we were expecting that going into this weekend as it’s a bit of a trait on our car. We’re a bit down on performance, so let’s see what we can do overnight – we often perform better on Saturday than we do on Friday.”