» Canadian GP: Rosberg fastest in FP1, Vettel crashes out

Nico Rosberg has taken his Mercedes GP W02 quickest around the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. With team-mate Michael Schumacher third-fastest and the two Ferraris completing the top-four-fastest positions in the session, this has already set tongues wagging that we could be in for an unusual weekend.

The big talking point of the session was Sebastian Vettel, who became the latest champion to clobber the infamous ‘Wall of Champions’ at the final chicane. The German had completed just eighth laps of the circuit before his smash, and he had to sit out the remainder of the session.

With rain forecast to hit the circuit over the weekend, conditions were better as the running got underway at 10:00AM local time.

As a portent of things to come in what would be an action-packed and incident-filled ninety-minute session, Jarno Trulli was almost immediately returning his Lotus to the pits with a damaged front wing, courtesy of collecting a bird on the back straight.

With grip being next to non-existent on this semi street circuit, a number of drivers found themselves making off-track excursions as they explored the limits of adhesion. Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguersuari both had slides over the Turn 8 grass, while Nick Heidfeld enjoyed a quick spin at Turn 2 after getting on the power too quickly.

With Alonso, Schumacher, Hamilton and Massa all enjoying turns at the top of the timesheets before the red flags came out to clean up the mess after Vettel’s accident, Alonso lowered the benchmark in the final half-hour before Nico Rosberg turned up the wick and posted the session’s fastest time with seven minutes to run in the session.

Finishing fifth- and sixth-fastest were the two McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton – Hamilton having his steering column replaced during the session after his LED display on his steering wheel packed it in. Button had his rear wing changed after experiencing problems with his DRS.

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2011 Canadian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	1:15.591	32
2.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 0.548	27
3.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	+ 0.958	30
4.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 1.067	26
5.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 1.085	20
6.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 1.251	19
7.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 1.399	28
8.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 1.703	26
9.	Nick Heidfeld	Renault R31	+ 1.854	28
10.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 1.958	20
11.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 2.071	27
12.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 2.229	30
13.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 2.867	31
14.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault R31	+ 2.915	15
15.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 3.057	35
16.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 3.261	8
17.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 3.341	20
18.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Renault T128	+ 3.683	29
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Renault T128	+ 3.831	30
20.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 3.986	26
21.	Jérôme d’Ambrosio	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 4.247	31
22.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 4.369	23
23.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 4.929	21
24.	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 5.248	27