Everything that happened in first Canadian GP F1 practice

Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen headed Carlos Sainz in first practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, the first session in Montreal for three years.

Key moments:

> Verstappen loses time to rear rollbar issue but sets best time

> Ocon with front-right brake problem early in session

> Tsunoda whacks wall exiting Turn 8/9 chicane

> McLaren best of the rest with both cars

Red Bull driver Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez traded top spot on the first runs on medium tyres, though Perez’s best time of 1m15.660s stood as the benchmark for the first half of the session.

But Verstappen then pitted after reporting a problem, which team boss Christian Horner later disclosed was a rear rollbar issue, and Perez then failed to improve on his first attempt on soft tyres.

That opened the door for Sainz, who first split the Red Bulls then went fastest on a 1m15.441s as Perez found only a marginal improvement on his next run.

With his problem resolved, Verstappen returned to the track and duly set the fastest time of the session. His best time of 1m15.158s put him 0.246s clear of Sainz, who also improved again before the end of the session.

Fernando Alonso ended up third for Alpine ahead of Perez, with Charles Leclerc – whose Ferrari team has not yet decided to take a new turbo and therefore incur a penalty – fifth and George Russell sixth in the best of the Mercedes.

He and team-mate Lewis Hamilton were split by the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, with his Aston Martin team-mate Sebastian Vettel ninth. Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 10 for McLaren.

Alex Albon were among the drivers to struggle in the braking zone for the final chicane early in the session, both taking to the runoff, while Alonso got close to the wall on the exit having successfully negotiated the corner.

Yuki Tsunoda was also fortunate to escape without more damage when he scraped the wall exiting the fast Turn 8/9 chicane.

Yuki with the Montreal kiss 😘#CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Zju9jjbvp8

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 17, 2022

He was called back to the pits by his AlphaTauri team but was back out on track before the end of the session and ended up 14th.

The second Alpine of Esteban Ocon lost time early on in FP1 with a significant front-right brake problem that required him to pit.

He got back out before the end of the session, and ended up 0.014s behind Tsunoda in 15th.

Practice 1 Results