Russell goes fastest as McLaren misses Friday sweep

George Russell led a Mercedes-powered top three lockout in the second hour of practice at the Canadian Grand Prix, with McLaren failing to top either Friday session — a rare miss for the in-form team.

With one hour of practice under their belts — uncovering that the soft compound tyre was not the favoured compound to run on — it was a tame start to Free Practice 2 in Montreal.

When McLaren unleashed both drivers for FP2, neither Oscar Piastri nor Lando Norris were sporting the upgraded front wing as McLaren confirmed the component was for testing purposes only.

Additionally, Norris’s #4 McLaren was now the only McLaren to have the upgraded suspension set-up, with Piastri reverting to the old set-up for Free Practice 2.

Opting to run the medium compound tyre during his first stint, Piastri completed ten laps before returning to the pitlane. 

During those first ten laps, he recorded a fastest time of 1:13.783s, leaving him out of position in P13 and just under five-tenths behind his teammate in P7. 

Piastri rejoined the session on the red-marked compound, finally making an impact on the order as he skyrocketed into the top three, setting the third-fastest time of 1:12.595s within a Mercedes-powered top four.

Following a brief reset in the McLaren garage, Piastri rejoined the session on a fresh set of medium compound tyres for the final 15 minutes of FP2. 

The Australian switched his focus to race simulations, showing pace as he lapped around the 1:16.100s-mark — one second faster than his Mercedes rival’s race pace.

Ending the session as the sixth fastest driver, Piastri took the chequered flag over four-tenths behind Russell’s medium tyre benchmark as he rounded the circuit to complete a practice start on the grid. 

Kickstarting his session after a few additional minutes in the RB garage, Lawson also opted to start the second hour of practice on the medium compound tyre.

He completed six laps before returning to the pitlane, remaining towards the backend of the order after setting a fastest time of 1:13.846s — a lap that left him almost eight-tenths behind Isack Hadjar.

With just over half of the session remaining, Lawson rejoined the track action with another set of fresh medium compound tyres at the ready, only for traffic to ruin his initial few runs.

Arriving on the scene of Turn 6, Lawson was impeded by the slow-moving Alpine of Franco Colapinto — a moment that was noted and later dismissed by race control, much to Lawson’s dismay.

The Kiwi vented his frustration to his race engineer, Ernesto Derniderio, who informed Lawson that the traffic issues would not change ahead of Qualifying and that he simply needed to get used to it.

Putting his head down, the Kiwi brushed aside the unavoidable traffic problems of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to move into the top ten, with three personal best sectors resulting in a time of 1:12.751s.

He headed back to the pitlane to bolt on yet another set of the medium compound tyre, focusing on race simulations to round out Friday in Montreal.

Lawson made his way to the start/finish straight to complete his final practice start of the day, returning to the garage as the tenth-fastest driver in FP2.

In terms of the rest of the field, only 19 drivers completed the second hour of practice, with Charles Leclerc’s crash during FP1 and subsequent chassis change ruling him out of this session, leaving all the responsibility of the hour on Lewis Hamilton’s shoulders. 

Fernando Alonso soon felt that same weight of responsibility when a bout of understeer and a heavy brush with the wall on the exit of Turn 7 left Lance Stroll limping towards an escape road, his front left tyre barely clinging to his Aston Martin as he retired from the session.

That incident didn’t disrupt the flow of the session, with the medium tyre the most popular choice as the timesheet started to take shape.

Lando Norris was the fastest C5 runner, recording an early benchmark of 1:13.335s, however, he soon lost out to three drivers who remained on the red-marked compound, including Max Verstappen who said the car felt “more nervous” than FP1.

The Red Bull driver soon added that his RB21 was bouncing around through the 4.36km lap, and that ride was “terrible” as he slotted into second fastest. 

The man ahead of the Dutchman was George Russell, who sat at the head of the field with a solid early benchmark of 1:12.123s.

Carlos Sainz proved his pace wasn’t a one-off by joining last year’s front-row starter in the top three, before a short-lived lull fell over the circuit.

When the track action resumed, Franco Colapinto opened the second half of FP2 by replicating his FP1 spin at the first corner, forced to right himself under the scrutiny of the watching grandstands.

The Argentine driver found himself noted for impeding Lawson, however, it was his teammate who was on the receiving end of a similar incident just moments later when Pierre Gasly was blocked by a slow-moving Sauber as the bulk of the field switched to the C6 tyre. 

Russell held his ground at the head of the pack with his original benchmark untouchable in the face of the red-marked attempts.

The closest driver to Russell soon became Lando Norris, who was just two-hundredths behind the Mercedes driver as the final 15 minutes of the session approached.

Falling towards the border of the top ten, Verstappen’s woes continued as he struggled with tyre warm-up, running wide at the final chicane on more than one occasion.

It was there that the Red Bull driver remained as the field shifted its focus to race simulations, allowing Russell, Norris and Antonelli to cement the top three fastest times of the hour. 

Every team still has a lot of work to do ahead of an important Qualifying session, with overtaking possible but not always given around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on race day meaning the final hour of practice will be crucial tomorrow.

Free Practice 3 will kick off bright and early at 02:30 AEST on Sunday morning, followed by Qualifying at 06:00 AEST. 

Image: Formula 1

Free Practice 2 Results:

2025 Canadian Grand Prix Schedule (AEST):

Saturday, June 14th:

FP1: 03:30 – 04:30

FP2: 07:00 – 08:00

Sunday, June 15th:

FP3: 02:30 – 03:30

Qualifying: 06:00 – 07:00

Monday, June 16th:

Race: 04:00

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