Antonelli leads Mercedes one-two in incident-filled FP1 at Montreal
22nd May 2026Kimi Antonelli topped Free Practice One at the Canadian Grand Prix as he looks to extend his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.
Feature image credit: Pirelli
Antonelli’s time of 1:13.402 was +0.142s ahead of his teammate, George Russell, with Lewis Hamilton over seven tenths back from the leader in third.
It was a stop-start session filled with incidents, with three red flags. As FP1 was the only practice session of the weekend, it led to a total of 19 minutes being added on.
The first of the red flags was shown in the first ten minutes of the session after Liam Lawson stopped on track. He came onto the team radio saying he had “lost power steering.”
Racing Bulls will be hoping they can fix that issue before Sprint qualifying, especially with their new upgrade package this weekend – Lawson has lost crucial track time with just one practice session before the teams jump into qualifying trim.
Alpine’s Franco Colapinto lost crucial track time after he encountered a power unit issue early on. The Argentine suffered accelerator problems, which kept him in the garage throughout the practice session, as the team worked on repairs.
Liam Lawson referred to stewards for technical breach at Canadian Grand Prix
With 35 minutes to go, Oscar Piastri was leading the times from Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, but the session was red-flagged for a second time as Alex Albon had a big shunt on the exit of turn seven after hitting a marmot.
The closing stages of the session turned into a battle between Antonelli and Russell, trading fastest laps between themselves.
With 15 minutes remaining, the drivers bolted on the soft tyres. Antonelli then set the session topping time, which his teammate couldn’t beat before almost ending up in the wall at turn one. In the last few moments, Esteban Ocon lost control of his Haas and damaged his front wing, meaning the third red flag of the session was brought out.
Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen made up the top five, with the latter +0.964s behind Antonelli. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – who failed to set a representative lap after a huge lock-up at the final chicane – followed in sixth and seventh with Arvid Lindblad, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso making up the top ten.
Read more Formula 1 here:
- Liam Lawson referred to stewards for technical breach at Canadian Grand Prix
- “Absolute Bull***t” says Komatsu on Ocon rumours
- Lawson hopeful Racing Bulls upgrade can boost Canadian GP challenge
- Ocon denies Haas exit rumours ahead of Canadian GP
- Hamilton on F1 future: “get used to it”
- Russell looks to hit back in Canada after Miami setback
- Canadian Grand Prix: the latest forecast expects wet race
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