Due to a glitch in the CCTV system, the first free practice session, which was interrupted by a red flag, was almost completely quiet. The result was determined by the first laps: during these laps, Valtteri Bottas was fastest, followed by Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.
After European venues, the 2023 World Championship season continues in Canada, with the eighth weekend of the season, which has so far revolved around the dominance of defending champion Max Verstappen and the defending champion Red Bull Team.
So it’s no surprise that they are the favorites even ahead of Montreal. The best way to change your deck is the weather, as many services are forecasting rain this weekend.
As for Friday, especially for the second practice, everyone took to the field quickly for the first practice, which could easily be “estimated” if the rain washed out the second practice. But after four minutes, training stopped, and the team immediately lost time.
The red flags came after Pierre Gasly’s car stopped on the track due to an early technical issue (first reports indicated a gearbox failure in the Alps).
The red flag stage was very long, and not only because Gasly’s car was saved: in the meantime there was a problem with race control, due to which the signal remained in effect for a long time (this also confused Mercedes; the team) I had to return both cars to the garage after learning that The break period will be longer.)
The FIA later provided a precise report: the local CCTV system had failed, and the stadium would not be restarted for safety reasons until it was repaired.
At that time, by the way, based on the first laps, the order was in effect: Valtteri Bottas was in front, then came Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, and in fourth and fifth places were Verstappen and his brand partner, Sergio Perez, based on “feeling the lap”.
Piastri was sixth, then Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, with there still time for Cho Kuan Jho, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc and Nyck de Vries.
Since the problems with the camera system could no longer be resolved, this result was also the “final result” of the first practice, which brought only five minutes of track time, i.e. Bottas’ success ended the first sharp test of the weekend. Since the teams lost a significant amount of time (and an hour) due to this failure, the race management extended the second practice by half an hour, which starts 30 minutes before the scheduled time.
The second free training session in Canada has been extended due to a camera system hack
The first free practice of the Canadian Grand Prix was sunk by a technical error. The practice that was almost completely blocked by the red flag will be replaced by the second free practice.
This is scheduled to start at 10:30pm, and you will be able to follow the action live on M4 Sport again (if the problem can be fixed and there will be practice sessions)!
Final result of the first training session:
