Lewis Hamilton - who has only started outside the front row once in Canada - sets the pace yet again in 2015 despite spinning at the final hairpin right in front of Nico Rosberg.
Lewis Hamilton may have topped the time sheets, 0.415 seconds ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg during FP1 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, however it wasn't a problem free opening session for the Championship Leader who had a spin at the final hair pin whilst he was setting purple sector times. Hamilton also seemed to be suffering from some major wobbling on his rear left wheel, which at first appeared to be a lose wheel however his wheel stayed attached to the Mercedes W06. Hamilton reported over team radio an upshift issue also.
Mercedes overrall look a cut above the rest here though as Rosberg in second was over one second ahead of third placed Romain Grosjean. The team have some new engine parts, which are not upgrades, but actually able to improve engine reliability which do affect engine performance as they're now able to run on higher power for longer.
Jenson Button didn't have a start to the weekend he'd have liked, as he was the first car on track and immediately ran into a problem that put him in the garage for most of the session. He reported over team radio that he was stuck in second gear only two minutes into the session, 45 minutes later the 2009 World Champion was back out on track after the gear issue was caused by a software issue. Button went on to complete 25 laps and set the fifteenth fastest lap time.
Daniel Ricciardo also had his own problems in FP1, with the Red Bull team working on rebuilding the Australians brakes on his car after reporting an issue with them.
The Canadian circuit is a very power focused circuit, which is reflected in the time sheets as six out of the top ten drivers were using Mercedes power. Also lap times may also not be truly representative of drivers true performance right now as the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a semi permanent circuit and so the track was very dirty at the beginning of the session and so times can only be expected to tumble in FP2.
- Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 16.212s 34 laps
- Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 16.627s 38 laps
- Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes 1m 17.721s 35 laps
- Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 17.871s 34 laps
- Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 17.905s 25 laps
- Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 17.985s 28 laps
- Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 18.021s 30 laps
- Pastor Maldonado VEN Lotus-Mercedes 1m 18.026s 41 laps
- Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 18.128s 34 laps
- Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 18.257s 24 laps
- Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 18.325s 40 laps
- Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 18.439s 26 laps
- Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 18.503s 28 laps
- Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 18.775s 24 laps
- Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 18.786s 25 laps
- Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari 1m 18.948s 30 laps
- Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 19.065s 23 laps
- Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 19.165s 32 laps
- Roberto Merhi ESP Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 20.616s 33 laps
- Will Stevens GBR Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 20.624s 27 laps
