Lewis Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in CHAOTIC double red-flagged free practice 2

Canadian Grand Prix

Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in CHAOTIC double red-flagged free practice 2

The afternoon session was stopped twice and ended in incredibly wet conditions

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 17 June 2023 00:08 Updated: 01:15

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Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 in what may well be the weekend's only meaningful practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix, with more rain expected to hit Montreal in the morning.

The surprise performer of the session was Valtteri Bottas, following up his flukey FP1 'first' place with an impressive seventh – splitting the two Red Bulls.

The session was red flagged after half an hour when Nico Hulkenberg's Haas started spewing smoke on the main straight, stealing yet more crucial running time from teams after less than 10 minutes of track time in FP1. However, the track was cleared relatively quickly and cars were back out just over five minutes later.

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The session came to a second halt a handful of minutes later when Esteban Ocon's Alpine stopped halfway round the track, the team's second technical issue of the day after Pierre Gasly's issues in FP1.

Wet Wet Wet

The final 10 minutes of the session were further disrupted by some late rain, sending teams scurrying into the pits to fit some intermediate tyres as the rain poured down to leave some large puddles on the track.

The Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso both looked to be struggling somewhat with their pace, appearing at times to have trouble getting heat into their tyres.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez only recorded the sixth and eighth best times of the day, but appeared to be holding some pace back ahead of the rest of the weekend.