F1 | Montreal, Free Practice 1: Verstappen in front, Sainz is close

Max Verstappen presents his credentials in Canada: the Dutchman was the fastest in the first free practice session of the Canadian GP which is back on the calendar after two missed years for Covid. Max with the soft tire (C5 compound) reached 1’15 “158, even though he complained about various problems that made him nervous. aerodynamic efficiency.

Ferrari is not far behind with Carlos Sainz: the Spaniard brought the F1-75 to 246 thousandths, but the feeling is that the red started with a particularly deflated engine and an overly loaded rear wing. Carlos is the driver who has completed the most laps (34) because forecasts give rain in the second round and in tomorrow’s qualifying, so the teams wanted to collect the useful data to define the race strategy.

Charles Leclerc finished fifth with the red with the 3 engine, but with the turbo from Baku that was saved: the Monegasque achieved his performance with a used red tire, without looking for a single lap. Charles, in fact, was among the first to devote himself to the race simulation with the averages, demonstrating a good pace.

Between the two Ferraris there was a surprising Fernando Alonso third with the Alpine. The A522 is certainly growing and performance proves it, but Renault engineers have a habit of keeping the mapping threshold higher than the competition. If the Asturian impressed, the teammate found a moment of glory for another reason.

Esteban Ocon suffered from a strange problem: a plastic bag pushed by the wind closed the front right brake duct which caused a fire in the closed basket. The Frenchman managed to return to the pits to allow the Alpine mechanics to intervene to repair what the fire damaged: nothing serious because the Frenchman was able to return to the track to finish the session in 15th place.

In fourth place is Sergio Perez who has returned to the historical role of “gregarious”: the Mexican, in fact, followed the strategy that Ferrari used for Leclerc and dedicated himself to simulating a part of the race, but the gap di Sergio is back to over four tenths.

George Russell is sixth with a Mercedes that has managed to partially mitigate the porpoising with two tie rods to stop the oscillations of the fund. Lewis Hamilton is eighth but only 5 cents behind the youngest teammate. Between the two W13s which also had a different bottom and a rear suspension revised for aerodynamic purposes in the toe arm, Lance Stroll slipped and is beginning to understand the revised and corrected Aston Martin.

The Canadian preceded by a tenth Sebastian Vettel ninth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo tenth with the best McLaren, even if Lando Norris is not far in 12th place. Pierre Gasly was the first out of the top 10 with the AlphaTauri, while Yuki Tsunoda did not go beyond the 15th place after touching the “wall of champions”. The Japanese only rubbed the rims and was able to continue, but he understood what the risk is at that point …

Alexander Albon is growing, leading Williams to 15th place, with Nicholas Latifi 19th. Alfa Romeo is 16th with Valtteri Bottas: the Finn trimmed seven tenths to the Chinese Guanyu Zhou who had a gradual approach. Mick Schumacher does no damage (just a straight in the chicane) and is ahead of Kevin Magnussen, last. The Haas don’t impress, but the feeling is that the Ferrari engines were very low in mapping.