F1 | FP1 | Canadian GP | Verstappen leads Williams duo as Leclerc suffers shunt - Motorsport

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Round 10 of the 2025 F1 season is underway as FP1 has taken place at the Canadian GP, view the full report and results below.

Among the biggest talking points of the weekend is Lance Stroll and whether he is a hundred per cent fit to drive the car. Stroll missed the Spanish GP owing to discomfort in his wrists. The Aston Martin driver broke both his wrists in a biking accident ahead of the 2023 season start and missed the opener in Bahrain.

The hometown boy is back in action this weekend and is expected to drive for the team in all the sessions of the Canadian GP.

Another talking point is the uptick in performance that Ferrari is enjoying lately. More specifically, it is Charles Leclerc who has taken advantage of this recent upsurge. The Monegasque is on a back-to-back podium-finish run.

After the P2 in Monaco and P3 in Spain, Leclerc is hoping to keep the momentum going at the Canadian GP.

Finally, Max Verstappen will be one of the most closely watched drivers throughout the weekend. The Dutchman is one penalty point away from a race ban and only has two race weekends to see through.

It would be interesting to see how much the reigning champion is willing to curb his aggressive driving style.

F1 Canadian GP FP1: Esteban Ocon gets us underway

The drivers lineup at the end of the pit lane, waiting for the lights to go green. Leading Oscar Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton is the Haas senior driver Esteban Ocon.

Yellow flags come out early, after just two minutes into the session as Franco Colapinto faces the opposite direction of the circuit. The Alpine driver spun around but quickly made the correction to rejoin the correct course of the running of the track. Back to green flags.

Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli has a scary moment as he loses control of the rear of the car. The 18-year-old took the escape route momentarily to get the car back in control.

“Yeah, I just locked the rear there,” said Antonelli on the team radio.

Red flags come out as Charles Leclerc crashes into the barriers

And red flags come out after just 15 minutes into the session. Leclerc puts his car into the barriers and it looks to be a heavy shunt. Carrying too much speed into Turn 4, Leclerc fails to get the car under control and locks up.

The Monegasque locked up and slid onto the grass before crashing into the barriers. The impact ricocheted him from the inside line of the track to the outside. Notably, Leclerc was leading the pack with 1:13.885 before the crash.

FP1 resumes after red flag with 36 minutes remaining

Piastri, meanwhile, is yet to put a lap time on the board as the session resumes after marshals clear the track of Leclerc’s car and debris.

The Australian finally sets his first lap time with 1.7 seconds off of leader Leclerc’s timing. Teammate Lando Norris, meanwhile, gets his car under control just in time after carrying too much speed into the corner. The drivers’ standings runner-up cuts the corner through the grass.

Hamilton, in P16 with a 1.2-second deficit from Verstappen in P1, comes back into the pits. The seven-time champ had an incident similar to Colapinto’s at the start of the session. Like the Argentine, Hamilton’s incident too causes the yellow flags to come out momentarily.

Verstappen leads with 30 minutes remaining

Verstappen led the pack after beating Leclerc’s best timing before the crash. The Dutchman, in turn, loses the leader’s position to Mercedes’ George Russell, who sets a 1:13.535 lap time. Russell leads Verstappen by three-tenths of a second.

Alex Albon has been the unsung hero of the session so far. The Williams driver is in P4 with 23 minutes to go in the session. Albon is only behind Russell, Verstappen and Leclerc, and leading the likes of Tsunoda and Norris.

Meanwhile, teammate Carlos Sainz steals his thunder with a blistering lap that momentarily hands him the lead. The Spaniard loses the P1 to Verstappen by just eight-hundredths of a second. Verstappen sets 1:13.193 despite possible impeding by Hamilton with 20 minutes left on the clock.

Both Williams drivers in the top 3 now as Albon takes P2 with a 0.039-second deficit from Verstappen in P1. The Thai driver is, however, noted by the FIA for possibly impeding Fernando Alonso in Turn 2.

McLaren drivers struggle to find their feet with 15 minutes remaining at Canadian GP FP1

Norris continues to make mistakes on hot laps and is once again forced to save himself by cutting the corner through the grass. The Briton is 0.787 seconds behind Verstappen and only in P12 with 10 minutes remaining.

Piastri, in P16 so far, progresses to only P14 with a deficit of more than a second to the leader, who continues to be the Red Bull foe, Verstappen.

With less than seven seconds remaining, Norris has a dramatic slide but manages to get the car under control and escape the barriers. Another positive arrives in the form of the stewards’ decision, who deem no further investigation necessary for an earlier incident, where they noted Norris for possibly failing to follow the race director’s instructions.

With three minutes remaining, Norris climbs to P7 with a 0.458-second deficit to Verstappen. Surprisingly, among those leading him are VCARB’s Isack Hadjar and the Williams duo, who continue to be in P2 and P3.

A far from ideal session for Piastri as his final flying lap of the session fails to get him higher than P14.