Mercedes’ George Russell set the pace in the second practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, setting a time on 1:12.123 on Medium tyres. Mclaren’s Soft-tyre shod Lando Norris was second, just under three hundredths of a second off the pace, while Kimi Antonelli, on Softs, was third in the other Mercedes car. 

Oscar Piastri kicked things off with a conservative 1:15.400 and the McLaren driver’s time was swiftly surpassed by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and then by Mercedes’ George Russell who stopped the clock at 1:13.482. 

Lance Stroll was then forced to stop completely. The local hero went wide at the exit of Turn 7, and he slapped the wall on the left-hand side, breaking the front left suspension. He tried to drive back to the pit lane but quickly told to pull over and stop. The Canadian obliged by limping into an escape road at the Turn 10 hairpin.

As he did that, McLaren’s Lando Norris jumped to the top of the table with a time of 1:13.335 set on mediums. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen then moved clear on Soft tyres with a lap of 1:13.246 but it was Russell who stamped his authority on P1 at this point, crossing the line in 1:12.602 on C6 Soft tyres. 

Verstappen moved back up the order, to second, with a lap of 1:12.815, but as in the first session, the Dutchman was unhappy with the handling of his RB21, saying that it was “jumping like crazy at the rear”. 

The Red Bull driver was then dropped to third place by Carlos Sainz who took his Williams to within two tenths of a second of Russell using Medium tyres. 

Russell then bolted on a set of Medium tyres and the Mercedes driver lowered the benchmark by almost half a second, logging a time of 1:12.123 to cement himself into first place. Hamilton then jumped to second place, but the Ferrari driver was half a second off the pace of his former team-mate. 

Kimi Antonelli joined his Mercedes team-mate at the top of the order, with the Italian driver setting a Soft-tyre time of 1:12.411 to take P2, 0.288s off Russell. 

After a difficult opening session and a tricky start to the second hour, McLaren appeared to suddenly snap into gear and Piastri climbed to third place, 0.472 off Russell, with Lando Norris just behind his Australian team-mate. And the Briton found more pace on the third flying lap of his run, taking P2, 0.028s off Russell. 

With the session then turning towards longer runs on the Medium tyre, the timesheet froze and behind the top three of Russell, Norris and Antonelli, fourth place went to Albon, 0.322 off the pace. Fernando Alonso took fifth for Aston Martin ahead of Piastri and Sainz, while Hamilton was eighth ahead of Verstappen who ended the session 0.543 off Russell. The top ten order was rounded out by Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson. 

2025 FIA Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:12.123 33 217.678
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:12.151 0.028 32 217.593
3 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:12.411 0.288 33 216.812
4 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:12.445 0.322 36 216.710
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:12.458 0.335 31 216.671
6 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:12.562 0.439 32 216.361
7 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:12.631 0.508 37 216.155
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:12.653 0.530 34 216.090
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:12.666 0.543 31 216.051
10 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:12.751 0.628 30 215.799
11 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:12.799 0.676 31 215.656
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:12.874 0.751 34 215.434
13 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.896 0.773 32 215.369
14 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.914 0.791 33 215.316
15 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:12.939 0.816 35 215.242
16 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:13.080 0.957 36 214.827
17 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:13.175 1.052 33 214.548
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:13.898 1.775 33 212.449
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes - 2 

 Verstappen tops opening practice in Montréal ahead of Albon and Sainz

Max Verstappen went quickest in the opening practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, beating the Williams pairing of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz by less than a tenth of a second. Championship leader Oscar Piastri was 14th while team-mate Lando Norris was seventh as McLaren appeared to struggle in a session dominated by running on Pirelli's C6 Soft tyre. 

At the start of the session there was brief yellow flag when Franco Colapinto spun his Alpine at Turn 2 as he embarked on his first flying lap. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton then took top spot with a lap of 1:17.018s, but Max Verstappen quickly moved ahead with his first lap, a 1:16.067. on his first tour with the C6s. However, the Dutchman was unhappy with his car, reporting that that its steering wheel felt "very heavy".

After Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli had an off at Turn 6, reporting that he suffered with rear locking, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc moved ahead of Verstappen with a time of 1:13.885. However, the Monegasque driver was soon out of the session. On his next flyer, the Ferrari driver locked up on the approach to Turn 3 and though he tried to avoid an incident, he smeared the left side of his Ferrari across the edge of the barriers at Turn 4, causing significant damage to his car. 

After a nine-minute delay the action resumed and after Hamilton became the next drive to spin, at Turn 10, Verstappen returned to the top of the timesheet with a time of 1:13.863 set on the C6 Softs. 

Track evolution was now beginning to become a factor and Mercedes’ George Russell moved a chunk clear of the Dutchman, posting a lap of a 1:13.535, 0.328s quicker than Verstappen's earlier benchmark.

The Red Bull driver wasn’t in the mood to be deposed, however, and after Williams’ Carlos Sainz briefly took top spot, the defending champion once again returned to P1 with a lap of 1:13.193. Sainz’s team-mate Alex Albon then climbed to P2, just 0.039s off the champion and four hundredths ahead of the Spaniard as Williams got off to a positive start. 

Behind the top three, Russell clung onto fourth place, three tenths off Verstappen, with Hamilton in fifth. Isack Hadjar got Racing Bulls off to a good start with sixth place and a best time of 1:13.631, 0.438 off top spot. The French driver was separated from team-mate Liam Lawson by McLaren’s Lando Norris, who session was regularly punctuated by wayward moments as he struggled with the handling of the MCL39. It was a similar story for Norris’ team-mate and championship leader Oscar Piastri, who ended up in 14thplace. 

Behind Lawson Pierre Gasly was ninth for Alpine, and the unfortunate Leclerc ended the session in 10thplace thanks to his opening lap. 

2025 FIA Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:13.193 28 214.495
2 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:13.232 0.039 28 214.381
3 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:13.275 0.082 31 214.255
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:13.535 0.342 29 213.498
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:13.620 0.427 30 213.251
6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:13.631 0.438 31 213.219
7 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:13.651 0.458 30 213.162
8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:13.737 0.544 30 212.913
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:13.817 0.624 29 212.682
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:13.885 0.692 9 212.486
11 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:13.927 0.734 27 212.366
12 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:13.972 0.779 25 212.237
13 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:14.002 0.809 30 212.151
14 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:14.198 1.005 28 211.590
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:14.203 1.010 25 211.576
16 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:14.324 1.131 30 211.231
17 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:14.520 1.327 30 210.676
18 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:14.605 1.412 23 210.436
19 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:14.645 1.452 29 210.323
20 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:14.821 1.628 28 209.828